Celtic Brothers - Brittany
By the man himself - Ray at 10/07/2007 11:00:18 PM
HDC CELTIC BROTHERS RALLY 2007
We arranged to meet at the garage we use as our starting point. Unfortunately it had been closed due to it being redeveloped, so we had to meet just outside the building site. At 7.30pm on the Thursday night eight bikes with thirteen people on board set off. We rode around the M25 and joined the A3, thundered past Guildford and Petersfield and into Portsmouth, taking the wrong exit off the motorway so ending up going the long way through Portsmouth. We even saw the Portsmouth FC ground. At the terminal we met up with Catweasle and Heather. Once on board and the bikes were secured we retired to the bar. After a few relaxing pints I found a bench seat and even though the bar was still full I managed to go to sleep. I woke up to an empty bar, where had everyone gone? I discovered a few people had also crashed out on various seats around the bar; the rest seemed to have gone to the reclining seats. We went down to a full English breakfast and were then called back to the bikes. Once off the ferry we followed the signs for the motorway and headed west towards Caen. We went over the Pont de Normandie, which was free to bikes, well done to whoever sorted that out. I was leading and was concentrating on the road signs and forgot that Catweasle needed petrol. After doing about 40 miles and not seeing any signs for petrol stations we stopped as Catweasle was on reserve. I siphoned three small coke bottles of petrol out of my tank so we could get going again and managed to get to the next service station. We stopped in Pontorson, near Mont St. Michel, for more petrol, and as luck would have it the station was right across the road from a restaurant so we all trooped in there and had a sit down meal. This was real continental living. Back on the road, as we approached St Brieuc, Nick came past and took the turn off he thought we needed. But as I have said before, when amateurs take over it invariably goes wrong. We had come off at the wrong exit. I took over the lead again and using all my old despatching skills I found the way to the site, which was a horseracing track just outside a place called Yiffeniac. After paying the entrance fee we went and put up our tents. We camped next to Paul who had come over from Plymouth. Once the tents were up we headed to the bar to have a look around. There were a lot of Brits here. We found Paul and Anna in the bar where they were sampling the delights of French wine and were already very drunk. Tony turned up too, coming from a week visiting friends in Normandy. The bands did their sound checks, other people arrived and we carried on drinking. The first band came on eventually and were great, they played some good music and certainly got the crowd……….well, me…. on my feet. I would say their music was Irish influenced, at least I hope it was as that was how I was dancing. Imagine the female dancers in Riverdance…… then imagine me trying to dance like them for some reason…….. you get the picture anyway. Suffice to say, I was very drunk emotional and very tired and finally had to go to bed sometime in the early hours.
Saturday morning I was not well. Even a couple of cups of coffee couldn’t help. We decided to go on a ride out, so, after checking the map we headed towards the coast. Back through Yiffeniac, where we stopped for petrol and for some people to get money, then on out to Pleneuf where we visited the beach, which turned out to be a nature reserve and was very picturesque. From here we carried on up the coast through Le Val Andre, where we had a meal next to the harbour, Sables d’Or and on to Cap Frehel. The road up here is superb and the scenery is fantastic. We wandered around Cape Frehel for a short while and then rode down to Fort de la Latte. We decided to go back the way we had come as the road was so good and we stopped in Sables d’Or at a supermarket so some people could get supplies. We headed back to the rally site and I was asked to put my bike in the show, at last a club that recognises class. I put my bike in the show then went back to the tent and relaxed for a while before we all headed over to the arena. There were a lot of people here now; a lot of French had turned up after finishing work. The first band from last night opened proceedings again, but the spirit of last night wasn’t with me tonight and I settled for some feet tapping this time. The next band was just one guy playing guitar, harmonica and two drums all by himself, really good. The bike show results were next and unfortunately I didn’t win, maybe they don’t recognise class as much as I thought. The Best Custom was well worth the win, apart from being British it was the best bike there for me. The Best Chop and Best In Show were both from the Custom Bike Shop stand and were on display the previous night on the stand, so no-one else really had a chance. They had both had lots of money thrown at them, lots of chrome, billet ally and metalflake paint. I took my bike back to the tents and by the time I returned to the arena the female stripper was on. She went down very well, in a manner of speaking. Next on stage was a male stripper for all the women and he went down even better then the female stripper, again in a manner of speaking. More drinking followed and then another band came on, who were pretty good. Some guy started dancing who was worse than me last night. I know that is hard to believe but I have to say he had to be one of the worst dancers I have ever seen. Nothing he did was in time to the music we could hear; God knows what music he was hearing. By now it was really cold and I had had enough so I wandered off to bed.
In the morning we packed up, had a cup of tea and set off at 9.30am. We eventually got on to the N176, we were all wearing our waterproofs as it was really damp, and headed towards Dinan and Pontorson. The weather got better so when we stopped for petrol a few of us took the waterproofs off. We rode up the A84 and round the Caen Peripherique and turned onto the A13. We then took the Troarn turn off onto the N175 and went through Dozule and into Pont l’Eveque. We followed the signs for Honfleur and stopped in the centre of town at the harbour where we had a meal. We said goodbye to Nick & Helen and Tony & Sandra as they were staying over for a few days, then the rest of us set off to the ferry. Over the Pont de Normandie, not paying again, and into Le Havre, where it started raining just as we were about a mile from the terminal. None of us had waterproofs on so we got wet but carried on. At the terminal, while waiting to get on the ferry, the sun came out and we soon dried off. Once on board we met up in the bar and relaxed. I dozed for a while and we all heard about the bombs in London and Glasgow from the TV. We leave the country for a few days and it all falls to bits!!! Back in England and we all headed off home. I rode back with Grasscutter and Little Ray up the A3 and round the M25. Ray turned off onto the M4 while we carried on and turned onto the M40. Cutter turned off and I carried on round the North Circular Road and got home about 11.30pm. I put the bike in the garage, went into the house, unpacking could wait, and went to bed. A round trip of 640 miles for me.
Thanks go to the Celtic Brothers for a great weekend
Geordie Ray West London Harley Riders
