Ray's Reports
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Super Rally - HOLLAND 2007
By Ray Douglas at 10/07/2007 10:51:54 PM
SUPERRALLY 2007 BUSSLOO
I set off at 6.00am on Thursday morning around the North Circular Road, turned onto the A13 and blasted out to the M25. At the Dartford River Crossing I got caught in the tailback to pay the toll but when I got to the front of the queue I was waved through. Nice one MAG, well done on that. Once through the barrier I joined the traffic queue to get through the roadworks. I finally worked my way through the roadworks and turned onto the M20 and set off for the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone. I joined the queue to book in along with two other Harleys. It turned out that Wurzel was riding one of them. Once through the barrier we headed off to the terminal where I got some water while Wurzel and his mate went to get a coffee. They gave me a coffee when they returned as they had been called onto the train. We arranged to meet up at the rally site and off they went. I waited for the rest of the club and eventually they turned up. We had missed our train because of the traffic they had hit on the M25 so we were put on the next train.
Once in France we set off on the A16 towards Dunkirk and Ostend, there was a lot of traffic about on the motorway so we sat at 65mph. Down to Gent and then across to Antwerp and around the ring road. We stayed on the motorways passing Breda, Tiberg, s’Hertogenbosch, Oss, Nijmegen and Arnhem before arriving in Apeldoorn so a couple of the club could get some Euros. This was harder than it sounds, as we couldn’t see anything that looked like a bank. We eventually found a garage where they could get some. After that was sorted we headed for the rally site at Bussloo. After paying the €60 entrance fee we went and found campsite 2 where everyone from Britain seemed to be aiming for. We parked up, put the tents up and I met Baza and a few of the other Brits there. After everyone was settled we went and had a wander around to see where everything was. We found the bogs and showers and bought some of the Superrally Tokens so we could eat and drink. We had a meal and made our way to the big marquee and watched the bands. We met up with Jumbo and some of the Slims, so chatted to them for a while and then I woke up in my tent in the morning. Good job we worked out how to get back to the tents, as I couldn’t remember getting back last night.
We went and got breakfast and sat on the beach by the lake to eat it. What a beautiful place this is. Some of the club headed out on a ride somewhere, so I went and had a shower. I came out the shower bollock naked thinking I was in the bloke’s side and there were two women drying their hair, so I said hello and carried on getting dried and dressed. It should be like this everywhere, the world would be a better place. Back at the tents, Martin and I decided to go out for a ride. We left the site and made our way back to Apeldoorn. From there we went via Harderwijk and Lelystad to the coast. We planned on crossing the Markerwaard-dijk. We rode onto the dyke and it was beautiful, the sun was belting down, the sea was shimmering with light and all was right with the world. After 5 minutes of riding at 65mph we were getting cold and we couldn’t see the other side of the dike yet. We stopped at a lay-by and after checking the map we realised how long the dyke was. We worked out where we were and there were still miles and miles to go. To get to the other side was about the same distance we had travelled from the site so we decided to turn back and leave it for another day. Back on land we stopped at what we thought was a burger van, but it turned out to sell fish. Martin tried some raw stuff but I just had a coffee. We got chatting to the guy who ran the van and a Dutch artic driver. It turned out the dike was 25 kilometres long. We were also told that where we were standing had been under the sea 40 years ago, the town we could see hadn’t existed and the dykes in the area had been raised by 3 metres because of global warming. After a couple of coffees we set off back to the site and ended up going through Apeldoorn, which was a lot bigger than I thought on first seeing it yesterday. We stopped at a KFC to use some clean toilets and then headed back to the site. Altogether a nice little trip of just over 100 miles. Back in the tent I tried to have a snooze but someone was fixing their bike nearby, got it going and then let it run for ages. Someone else’s bike’s alarm was going off for a while too so any chance of a sleep was out. Back in the arena we watched the bands again, drinking beer just to have something to do. The AC/DC tribute band was brilliant, the singer even sounded just like Bon Scott. By the time I had finished all my tokens it was about 2.00am so I went to bed.
After breakfast some of the club went on a ride-out again but Nick and me decided to take a look at the bike show. We went into the arena but couldn’t find it. Adz turned up so we had a sociable beer together and chatted. We decided to watch the Girls Wrestling in Oil but we couldn’t find that either. It seems the tank they were using yesterday broke so they weren’t wrestling today. We did manage to see the Alien Voyagers as they wandered around the site though so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. We met up with everyone back at the tents, chatted for a while and then went to see the evening’s entertainment. Some of the bands were good, some weren’t but we all enjoyed ourselves. At one point the stage lighting lit up the crowd and the sight was really impressive, there were thousands in front of the stage.
On Sunday morning the rain hitting the tent woke me up. We wandered down to get breakfast and hung about till it stopped. We decided to visit Arnhem so nine bikes set out. We went to Oosterbech first and visited the Airborne Museum. It really shows how everything went wrong for the Allies on Operation Market Garden in the 2nd World War, well worth the visit. We stopped and had a meal at a restaurant, very nice it was too, and then went into Arnhem. We found the bridge, which was the subject of the film ‘A Bridge Too Far’ and stopped at the monument under it. We then rode over the bridge, turned round and went back over it. It sounded as though the Waffen SS were back in town from the noise we made. From here we headed back to the rally site. Tony was leading the way but when you let amateurs lead they invariably go wrong. Tony headed off the wrong way to Apeldoorn with three others while I took the correct way and went back to the site.
We all took the piss,sorry, we were very sympathetic when they turned up. After a while we all headed back to the arena, deciding to take it easy tonight as we had to be up early and on the road by 9.00am for the long ride back home. That idea lasted all of two beers. I even ended up dancing again. Catweasle and me went for a wander sometime during the early hours and a young lady came up to us. She said that she was special as she had a special armband, which got her in for free. That’s nice we thought. She then gave us a list of prices of things we could do to her, very reasonable we thought. Then some bloke turned up who said he was her husband, we shook his hand then she said she didn’t know him. Then some other guy turned up who said he was her boyfriend, we shook his hand, she didn’t know him either. There were also a couple of guys hanging back who were watching what was happening so we decided that it was time to go. We said goodnight and headed off back to our separate tents, we are just good friends after all.In the morning I packed up and loaded the bike and while waiting for the others Martin, Heather and me went to get breakfast. We came back with two box loads of them so everyone had a breakfast before we set off. Back to the A1 motorway and off we went. Down the A50 to Arnhem, Nijmegen, Oss and s’Hertogenbosch where on the A59, just past s’Hertogenbosch James’ Sportster broke down. We carried on to the next services while a few stopped with him to help. It looked like it might be the ignition module had packed in. Nick rode back on a Helen’s Sportster to change modules but by then Catweasle had arranged with a local farmer to store it on his farm until the following weekend. The rest of us set off again but Sandra’s bike broke down. Luckily it turned out to be a loose battery connection so that was sorted and we set of again. Past Waalwijk on the A59, we turned on to the A27 and thundered past Breda and on to Antwerp. Round the ring road we went, down to Gent, and up to Dunkirk where we stopped for a meal at a services. While all this was going on James and Vicky climbed on the back of other bikes and they met us at the services near Dunkirk. So we were all together again. Off we went and arrived at the train terminal. Once through check-in we got on the train and relaxed. We arrived in England to very heavy rain. We stopped at the garage to fill up and all the waterproofs were put on. Everyone was making their own way home so we said goodbye to everyone and Graham and me set off. Up the M20 the rain was so heavy it was hard to see the road at times, cars with no headlights on didn’t help either. We hit a load of traffic because of what looked like a serious crash; a couple of coaches were parked on the hard shoulder with about four ambulances with them. We finally worked our way past all the traffic and headed off again. I checked my mirrors but Graham had disappeared. I pulled over and waited for 5 minutes getting wetter and wetter but there was no sign of him. I decided to head off and phone him when I got home. It turned out he had lifted his visor as we passed the crash and his glasses had got wet. Now he couldn’t see very well as his glasses and visor were covered in water. He had to pull over to dry everything off. I eventually reached home and unloaded the bike. There were two pools of water in my panniers and even though everything was inside bin liners, my clothes and sleeping bag were drenched. I threw everything in the washing machine and went and had a long hot shower to warm up.
A round trip for me of 894 miles and a great weekend too. I have to say well done to the HDC Nederlands for all their hard work, and for putting on such a good Superrally
Geordie Ray
West London Harley Riders
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