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Elefantentreffen Trip

Discussion in 'Touring' started by Ebbs73, Feb 11, 2019.

  1. It's that time of year when I do something stupid, it's time for the ellefanttreffen.


    This year I'm going on a modified Kawasaki er5 , when I say modified I mean homemade copper pannier racks with pushbike side bins , a massive box from B-Q , amazon muffs and Perspex leg guards tie wrapped to the crash bars , a screen bolted to a screen and of course loads of teddy elephants tied everywhere .

    I left at Peterborough at 12pm to catch my 4-40 Chunnel crossing, it’s about a 2-30 hour ride but the traffic is always rubbish so I leave plenty of time.

    All was ok , a bit cold but once I survived the a14 and the m11 the m25 start to test me , 2 crashes and the rain came as I left the queen Victoria crossing . It was that bad I had to stop for coffee at a Tesco on junction 10 on the m20 , I remember this place as I crashed there once coming back from Le man 24 hour moto , I'd come off on the roundabout and needed to duct tape , a lot of duct tape to put the bike back together .

    After my stop I sat in the rain and headed for the Chunnel, once there I picked an earlier crossing, it warms me to know I'm ahead of schedule.

    I had a quick pee in the terminal and it was time to head off to the train, I was waved passed passport control and didn't even touch the ground and headed straight for the train.

    Once down at the train I was stopped , the bikes are always held back but it was me , just me , no other bike at all , just stupid old me .

    The same old story on the train, park up gets undressed as we move off and then dress and go once stopped.

    I'd checked the bike over while on the tram and I

    See I had a bolt missing , a bolt that held the top box and side panniers on , I'll sort it , I always do , tie wraps until I find a replacement .

    Easy, I love it.

    I was heading for Ypres, ipres, Leper, whatever the hell it’s called, google map it, as you zoom in the name changes!

    I settled down on the a16, got comfy on the bike, rain, sleet and very cold, time for the heated jacket, pulled over and selected medium heat, Yum

    My hotel was right in the centre and was amazing, for €51 with breakfast, a bargain.

    I emptied the bike , got changed and headed to out for the last post , wow , I've been here many times but each time it's so special , if you're passing give it a go .

    I had half a pizza, a beer and headed back to the hotel for bed.

    Tomorrow is going to be long and cold.
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  2. I've woke to snow , snow snow , I was hoping to make it at least half way before snow , I don't mind the ride but it just puts the danger levels up , I've got to get out of Ypres Ipres Leper cobbled streets first , breakfast then back on the road hoping to pass some bike shops for a bolt .

    I had a google search during breakfast and found a bike shop on the way ish , 40 miles so not too bad , I managed to get out of Ypres/Ipres/Leper on the cobbles without falling off and on to the motor way , dirty spray , snow , sleet and around 1c , this will be fun .

    I hit my turning and headed to the bike shop, the roads got smaller and less used and the snow got thicker, I did feel uneasy but I needed this fixing.

    Got to the shop and it's closed, google said it was open, never mind.

    Did a u turn and headed back up the road, I sat in the tracks made by the cars so it was easy enough, a car came towards me so I needed to move over across the snow.

    As I changed lanes across the snow BANG, down on my right side, the bike landed on top of me with revving it's nuts off, I pushed it off with my right leg and reached across and turned it off, the car driver and passers-by help me up, my indicator lens has gone, leg protection gone and my boltless bracket is worse now.

    I was a bit shaky at first and couldn't settle but once back on the motorway I settled down to head to Alex's my Belgium friend I met at the rally last year.

    180 miles later I pull up to a bike shop around the corner from Alex's and they found and fitted the bolt for €1 that included some Micky take and a coffee.

    I was wet, cold and fed up, Alex was ready so he just saddled up and away we went.

    This is the only time I remember being pissed off on a bike ride, snow, spray, sleet and cold, oh so cold. We had 200 miles in this!

    As we got to our hotel the it was really snowing , we pulled up the slope to the carpark and sat , I thought I'd park on the road as I'd never get out if this snow continues , u turn and down the ramp , with the bike off and in gear I used the clutch to slow me down , brake , clutch , brake , clutch , brake , slip bang , over again but on my left side , who needs indicators anyway ?

    We settled in and headed out in the snow for Chinese, the Chinese man spoke German with a Chinese accent, blew my mind.
     
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  3. Once the morning came it was chaos , the snow was deep , we had breakfast and loaded the bikes , we had stayed in a beautiful valley , the tree lined mountains were stunning but getting out was an issue , roads were closed , slippy and hard work .

    We spent 1.1/2 hours to get 20 miles, this put us behind but once on the autobahns we reached the dizzy heights of 50 mph, the sleet and spray was ridiculous, everything was wet.

    We had 320 miles to the rally, 2 fuel stops and we're there, after a while we knew we'd be late.

    We stopped Solla and went shopping, 12 bottles of beer each and errr that's it, hmmm how to get this on the bike??

    We arrived at the rally, paid our money and searched for a spot, we walked around for 40 odd mins, and the snow was deep, very deep.

    We claimed a spot and dumped some bits; we walked back and forth to our bikes that were parked at the entrance, no way am I taking my bike in there.

    Alex did, but he's Belgium so stupid, he made it about 100 mtrs and got stuck; it took 3 of us to push him back up to a parking spot 10 mtrs away.

    We spent two hours digging out a spot for the tents in the pitch black, once flat ish, we bought wood and hay, hay for insulation to put the tents on and wood to build a manly fire.

    In all took around 4 hours to set up, as we finished the next group started shouting SOUP, you want soup.

    We had soup and joined Michael, Alex and errrrrrrrrr never did catch his name all weekend.

    We were cold , wet and tired , the Austrians fed us soup and pork , it felt like they saved us , once they started to shout Brexit , open cans of beer and threw them like Grenades whilst shouting ' f##k the Germans ' I knew this could be funny .

    And it was, doughnut the Irish turned up, I called him Donnal as that was his name but Alex ( Belgium ) and the Austrians struggled to say his name so we called him doughnut.

    Alex wanted him to get drunk and fight as that's what Irish do.

    We drank a lot, beer; Jägermeister and warm fruity stuff that made me go blind all curtesy of the Austrians.

    Oh we got drunk, doughnut was so bad he collapsed and we had to carry him up the hill for 300 mtrs, in the snow to the first aid tent.

    He was so bad an ambulance was called and we sat with him in the first aid area ( barn with straw bales ) until he was gone to the local hospital.

    That's was hard work so we toasted with more beer.

    Sleeping in minus 10, drunk and needing a pee is hard work, you don't want to move but you have no choice. Oh joy .

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  4. Alex and I had a hangover; the Austrians were jumping about like nothing had happened

    Most of the day passed keeping warm when a big smiling bearded appeared, doughnut returned from hospital, €150 and a taxi of €25 lighter. It seems the Ehic card wasn't welcome and they made him pay .

    He was safe , we laughed about it and drank beer .

    Alex and I waited for Christian to appear , we all met last year here at the elephant on Honda c90's when we rode from Dover , rally and back .

    This 6ft 8 German , 24 and funny , yes a funny German turned up late , we'd dung his hole , carried his stuff down and helped him set up . Young people don't know they`re born .

    Tent up , beer , food , beer ,laugh a lot and sleep .

    Saturday comes and we walk the site looking at the bikes , the creations and the shear stupidity of people is why we come .As of last year the site begins to empty Saturday afternoon so we go scavenging , all the people we've helped out offer you wood , chairs , food and all the alcohol they don't want to take home .

    Alex the Belgium disappears so Christian and I head to the top of the hill , at 8pm on the Saturday evening every year there's a torch light visual and a reading of all the bikers that's lost their lives that year who would have attended the rally , its very moving and sadly a fair few names .

    Again , food , beer , fire and laughs , bed .

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  5. Alex the Belguim and I , Christian the German and Donnal the drunken Irsh

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  6. Around 6 on the Sunday we were up , yes it snowed , on top of the 4 ft they had before we got here we'd had another foot , my tent was loaded down , my sleeping bag soaking wet from the inner touching the outer .

    Belgium boy was up and somehow got the fire going so at least we had some heat and the coffee was brewing .

    We had coffee and packed away , my tent was damaged , sleeping bag soaked and chair snapped , hmmmm , there'll be left behind . It still took 2 hours to pack away , get the bikes up the hill and onto the road .
    That was hard work but the trouble started once we left , the roads were full of sludge , it took us 1 hour to get 12 miles to the autobahn.

    Christian falling off on a snow slugdey slip road , I fell off trying to get into a garage on a 1 inch curb , Alex taking my bike and sliding it across the garage forecourt , all good fun .

    When you have to filter passed snow ploughs the brain says I shouldn't be riding .

    Nobody was hurt , we all laughed and started again .

    At one Point christians back brake locked up and it caught fire , we put it out with snow good job there was plenty about , we free'd it off but it's really damaged the disc , no back brake for him .

    We stopped for dinner after 7 hours of horrendous riding and decided to find a hotel , we'd done 170 miles , we needed 350 odd to keep on track. We just couldn't do it , we found a hotel and headed there , all 3 of us stayed there , Christian was due to go home to knoblenz but just wouldn't make it so we shared a room , we got changed , checked the bikes over , laughed , had some beers and bed , the room stinks of wet smokey clothes and a German snoring , I may kill him but worse , it's still snowing .



    I look forward to tomorrow .

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  7. Great write up, i enjoyed reading that
     
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  8. Wow , it’s gone , the snows gone but wow is it cold .

    We checked the bikes over and adjusted the chains , they're taking some stick .

    We’re were up at 7am as agreed but as always I’m ready but they’re not .

    I’m the one sat on the bike cursing in my head about how slow they are . Don’t be a me , it makes you grumpy .

    Easy day really ,no snowfall , but it was cold , very cold . We had to do 450 miles to catch up , so we did , fuel - ride - fuel - ride - fuel food - ride .

    We left Christian at his exit in Germany ,another 180 miles we got to Alex’s In Belguim , he made me a coffee while I adjusted my chain again!

    I left him and headed towards home , the heavens opened and again I was wet everywhere , the traffic around Brussels was mental , I filtered for 40 miles odd , that amount takes it out of you concentration wise .

    I wanted to hit Calais but I just couldn’t , I went to a hotel I’ve used loads of time in Ypres / leper / Ipres , it’s been done up so of course it’s now twice the price !

    Emptied the bike , shower and head to the bar . Perfect .


    Strange day today , I left Ipres / Leper / Ypres and headed for the tunnel , roads were clear , simple ride , got to the tunnel and was boarded early , again I didn't put a foot down from passport control until I got off on the train .

    Left the train , filled up at the Chunnel station and had a simple ride all the way home to Peterborough , m20 , m25 , m11 , a14 , a1 all clear , something's wrong surly .

    Nothing , pulled up at home , went in and smiled , home .

    My fridge had been filled with beer , milk and some food .

    Coffee and empty the bike .

    Start planning next years elefantentrffen then .

    Christians brake disc after the fire , may have been a tad warm !
    Alex enjoying the snow
    chunnel then home

    I do hope all this makes sense , my first write up , not worked out how to insert the pics and title them yet , I`ll learn

    Chris
    Trip in numbers
    8 days
    4 hotels
    3 tent nights
    1891 miles
    £210 fuel
    £171 hotels
    £71 Chunnel

    £150 food/drink etc.

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  9. Epic.

    Don't know what else to say :astonished:

    TB
     
  10. Wicked write up/trip dude . You are mad..
    I'd like to say I'd like to do something similar, but I don t think I'd enjoy it at all...
    Glad you did though and thanks for sharing.
    Legend!
     
  11. Brilliant !
     
  12. I love write ups like this. It gives us all a trip.

    I have to say well done, I wouldn’t do it! I wouldn’t, I’d be too cold and therefore miserable. I’d spend the whole time asking myself why I was doing it but...never give up!

    And as for adventure bikes, now that...is an adventure bike.

    You’re definitely ‘mad in the heed’ :D
     
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  13. That rear disc looks impressive:eek:

    I loved the write up, thanks. I was going to go there too but I had to wash my hair.
     
  14. Cool :cold_sweat:
    Ever thought of a summer trip though :thinkingface::sun:
     
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  15. Proper hard core, well done on your first write up!
     
  16. Give that man a biscuit!

    Excellent!

    Great pics. The memories will be with you for life.
     
  17. Great write up, thanks for sharing. Not for me I'm afraid, too cold and wet plus camping, worst nightmare. Kudos though if you enjoy that and the challenge it brings. Comaradere sounds excellent :upyeah:
     
  18. I’d have gone but I get hay fever, you know when a fella is leaning on the bar bragging about riding in all weathers....yeh right
     
  19. Yep definitely mad. Made me shiver just looking at pictures.
     
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