Well, this is exciting! My first time touring to Europe on a motorbike 🤪. Rob invited me along to join him on his trip to watch the Classic Endurance racing at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. I was originally (slightly apprehensively!) planning on taking Gloria but, confident as I was in her capabilities, knew that the likelihood was that there would be some kind of “issue” subjecting a 50 year old bike to several 200 mile days on the trot.
This was actually the start of the chain of events that ended up with me selling Gloria and buying Anna, and I must admit that I am loving the confidence of getting Anna ready for a ride without having the nagging thoughts in the back of my mind that we may have “characterful events” along the way! (Though I’ve got to say that most of that is in my mind, as Gloria was remarkably reliable on our big journeys.)
So, preparing for the big day tomorrow, Ella is cleaned and prepped ready to go. A test loading shows that I have loads of room compared to Gloria and I’m not taking a tank bag this time, which will also enhance the comfort.
The plan is to leave tomorrow morning and ride to Tamworth to pick up Rob. Then head off after lunch down to our overnight campsite in Surrey. On Wednesday we head for Dover, over to Calais and an hour or so’s ride in to France for the next night’s camping. Thursday sees us riding across into Belgium and camping near the Spa circuit, so that we can get there early on Friday morning and secure an on-course camp pitch for the race weekend. Then we’ll repeat the journey in reverse.
Most of the journey will be on quiet roads, as (a) it's more fun that way; (b) I’m still running Ella in at 50mph max, and (c) Rob is on the 125 Grom again!
By the time we get back, I should have finished the full 1200 mile running in period and I’ll have all of those 20 horsepower available to me!!
Day 1 - May 9: Chester - Tamworth - Surrey
Miles today: 208
Total to date: 208
Got to Rob's around lunchtime and had a bite to eat before setting off in the early afternoon. We had a good ride down on fairly quiet roads but soon realised that the rain was going to be a bit more then intermittent, so stopped to don waterproofs. That proved to be a good decision as it got progressively wetter the further south we went.
Rob's mate Jake had been planning on joining us for the last half hour or so of the journey, as we came past his area, but wisely opted to stay warm and dry at home.
Our campsite for the night was the Camping & Caravaning Club site at East Horsley. The wardens were great - they'd had constant rain and the campsite was a bog but they put us on a nice sheltered spot so we didn't suffer too much in the tents.
Everything always takes longer to put up on the first night of a trip as you refamiliarise yourself with equipment, but we soon had a good base for the night and wandered down to a local pub that had a Thai restaurant tucked away in it and had a great thai meal.
Day 2 - May 10: Surrey - Dover - Calais - Renescure
Miles today: 141
Total to date: 349
We had to get to Dover by 2pm to check-in, so didn't hang around packing away in the morning. We were gone by about 9. The roads took us mainly through the commuter belt to the south of the M25, so it was a fairly busy ride down.
As we got closer to Dover, we got directed onto the outside lane of the dual carriageway and passed what must have been a 3 mile queue of trucks heading for the port. I don't know whether it's always like that or is that the "Brexit" effect?
Pulling into the docks, we both got pulled for a security check. The guys were highly apologetic at making us unpack ALL of our kit, but I guess they are only doing their job. We were still in good time for the boat, so all was good.
Day 3 - May 11: Renescure - Lille - Namur - Grand-Halleux
Miles today: 198
Total to date: 547
What a lovely campsite, with the nicest host you could wish for. We'd ordered breads, which were delivered to the tent in the morning with a complimentary flask of coffee!
What a tough day today was though! It didn't start well, as we left early and headed out of the campsite and straight onto the wrong side of the road! (only for a few yards before we realised though 🤯.
The weather was a lot better today. We spent a couple of hours cruising through the French countryside and then hit Lille, which was akin to battling our way through London!
Not a lot further on, we crossed the Belgian border and then had our next city to contend with as we battled through Namur. What a wierd road system - we crossed the river three times in the space of 5 minutes following the main road out of the city!
But before long, we were in open countryside again, arriving at beautiful La Roche and then a great ride through the Ardennes. I need to go back there again as there were so many interesting looking places to explore, if we hadn't been on a tight timetable.
We rolled into the campsite at 10 to 6 and everyone had gone home! So we just pitched, planning to pay on the return visit on the way home. (That never actually happened as we changed our plans a bit!)
With the tents up, we went to a local restaurant for Meatballs and a couple of very nice and welcome Leffes, before collapsing into bed!
Day 4 - May 12: Grand-Halleux - Spa-Francorchamps Circuit
Miles today: 47
Total to date: 594
We were planning on camping at the Spa Circuit and the only information we could find said that it was limited to 100 pitches and it was first come, first served.Hence why we had stayed a short 20 min hop away last night, with a view to an early start to ensure we got a space.
We'd been planning to get up at 7am so that we could pack up and get to the circuit by 8, when the campsite opened. As it happened, common sense kicked in and we decided we really couldn't imagine 100 people queued up to get in, so we had a slightly lazier start, getting to the circuit by about 8.45 to find maybe 15 people already there!!
The camping field was VERY muddy and uneven - we "motocrossed" over to the higher ground, wondering if we'd be able to get off again and getting the bikes caked in mud in the process - Ella's honeymoon period is well and truly over!
We ventured out in the afternoon to stock up on some food and beer and found that the field had really started to dry out so was a lot easier to get on and off.
During the late afternoon and evening we went into the circuit, wandered round the paddock etc and watched various classes practice sessions. There was great access everywhere, including all through the paddock. It was fairly quiet, but we expected it would be busier over the weekend.
I loved this 'bug camping arrangement. I think I was more impressed that he managed to get on and off the muddy field so easily. Maybe it was hiding a 4 wheel drive system?
The atmosphere really changed as it became dusk. We found throughout the weekend that it was almost impossible to convey in a photo or video just how extreme the elevation changes were. This next photo gives an impression but it was MUCH steeper than it looks here!
We finally wandered back over to the tents after the practice sessions stopped at about 10.30 and settled down. I'm sure I slept better, knowing we didn't need to move on for a couple of nights.
Day 5 - 6 - May 13 - 14: Spa-Francorchamps Circuit / Dinant
Miles today: 72
Total to date: 666
We had a leisurely start and then spent the whole day and evening watching the qualifing and racing. It was much busier on the Saturday, with much more atmosphere, but still easy to access everywhere.
I realised that I had indeed cycled up the rise from Eau Rouge/Radillon, when I visited Belgium in the early 70s! (The circuit used to be (partly?) on public roads but is now a closed circuit.) It looked as steep as I remembered it feeling on my legs.
The Frites and Mayo was very good and we partook of a couple of lagers in the sun before heading back to the tents later in the afternoon for an hour's recovery snooze.
It was really good watching the night time racing, but some of the classes were so loud and sitting in the granstands seemed to amplify the volume! I particularly enjoyed watching the 70s touring cars racing, with Capri RS3000s and Escorts pitted against BMW "Batmobiles".
We had a great ride out to Dinant, which turned out to be very beautiful and we turned up at the campsite at about 6.30, before pitching on "La Plage" next to the river. A beautiful place to be on a bike.
We rode back into Dinant to get something to eat but got hit by a sudden massive downpour that came from nowhere - we ended up eating great pizzas, but dripping all over the floor!
Back to the tents for another beer and then to bed.
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| My view for most of the week! |
Day 7 - May 15: Dinant - Renesecure
Miles today: 152
Total to date: 818
Today was much harder than expected - we seemed to be constantly braking into villages and then up to 70kph for 2 miles before braking into the next village.
Our host had put us on a nice sheltered site. We made spaghetti carbonara on the site and sat out drinking our last beers, but it was getting really cold so we turned in early, as we needed to set off early to get to Calais.
Day 8 - May 16: Renesecure - Calais - Dover - Tamworth
Miles today: 256
Total to date: 1074
It was a really cold night and neither of us slept well. I couldn't wait to get into a warm shower in the morning to warm my bones through!
We had a surprisingly enjoyable ride into Calais on the quiet roads and were relieved that this time we didn't get stopped for a search!
There was a big group of French teenage students on the ferry - it was really noticeable how differently they behaved from British teenagers (for the better). They seemed far more comfortable in their skins and less desperate to create an image amongst theire peers.
Today we weren't taking quiet roads, as we just needed to blast back to Tamworth so Rob could be there for work tomorrow. We did keep off the motorways but most of it was on fast A roads. We changed plan to go via the Dartford Tunnel, which was pretty much like being on a motorway, but that took 45 mins off the journey time.
This was another pretty hard slog of a day. Towards the end, Rob picked up his local lanes and gave us a nice journey back through the lanes from Hinckley to Tamworth. It was great to get back to his and have a home cooked stir fry followed by a real bed!
Day 9 - May 16: Tamworth - Chester
Miles today: 99
Total to date: 1173
Rob was back in work today. I didn't want to go back onto fast As for my last day, so programmed a "fun" route. I wasn't very far into it when I hit a Road Closed sign, which sent me on a very long but very nice detour around the beautiful quiet lanes that the Classic thrives on.
However, by the time I got to Audlem, I just wanted to be home so headed for Whitchurch and the familiar A41 home.
What a lovely adventure that was. Great company; great roads for the most part; and I thoroughly bonded with the bike, which got better and better as the miles passed. The overall total for the journey was 1173, so she is now well run in, and very deserving of the good clean and polish she got a few days later!
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