A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 7:22 pm
A very belated article of Lurch's trip to the 8th Dutch Treffen held in May 2016. Lurch had a full service before hand in order to pass the annual MOT and to get ready for the trip to the Netherlands. The back was loaded up with all the camping gear and a selection of spares and tools the day / evening before. Early on a Thursday morning my friend Stephen and I drove Lurch to the ferry port.
This year we managed to get on the ferry without worrying about the Dynastart (I had borrowed a spare just in case). In fact my rebuilt Dynastar has worked perfectly since we changed it on the outskirts of Calais port last year when the original failed.
Other than stopping for either petrol or a rest break we headed non-stop for the campsite. No arguments with the Sat-Nav or maps this year. Campsite found without trouble and we booked in. First thing was to put up the tent – yet another different one from last year. That one suffered broken fibreglass poles in the storm and I found another via Freecycle. Having put the tent up we wandered round and found various other Haflingers and owners either just arriving and putting up tents or chilling after their journeys.
It's amazing how bad your memory gets when you get older. I know we did lots of different things, but I can only remember the visit to some man made tunnels / caves which included a stop at a very strange spot in Europe. The point at which three countries meet! So I'll leave it to you to work out which three countries. There were some really amazing charcoal paintings / drawings in there when you consider they were all done with the light of a single candle or two. What I didn't manage to work out was why they made tunnels whilst cutting the sandstone for building blocks, why not make an open cast cutting / quarry?
We had a good road run with all the vehicles, only one which had some problems but they solved pretty quickly allowing us to continue down the green lanes and tracks. The campsite provided the venue for the evening meal and that meant we didn't have far to walk to get back to the tent! I am sure we did more whilst we were there, but after six months I don't remember what they were!
The drive back was uneventful, if long due to the no longer modern road speed of a Haflinger. Lurch has the latest high speed hubs, but coupled with the governor and forty years of use, cruising speed is not the same as the plated 47mph! Average on a long run on main roads is nearer 38 /39mph as measured by GPS. Still you do get more time to look at other things during your journey than just the road and traffic.
I am sure I should have more interesting things that happened during the weekend that I could put down in this writeup, but as I don't remember them, they won't get included!
John, Stephen and Lurch (AP703 MkII)
This year we managed to get on the ferry without worrying about the Dynastart (I had borrowed a spare just in case). In fact my rebuilt Dynastar has worked perfectly since we changed it on the outskirts of Calais port last year when the original failed.
Other than stopping for either petrol or a rest break we headed non-stop for the campsite. No arguments with the Sat-Nav or maps this year. Campsite found without trouble and we booked in. First thing was to put up the tent – yet another different one from last year. That one suffered broken fibreglass poles in the storm and I found another via Freecycle. Having put the tent up we wandered round and found various other Haflingers and owners either just arriving and putting up tents or chilling after their journeys.
It's amazing how bad your memory gets when you get older. I know we did lots of different things, but I can only remember the visit to some man made tunnels / caves which included a stop at a very strange spot in Europe. The point at which three countries meet! So I'll leave it to you to work out which three countries. There were some really amazing charcoal paintings / drawings in there when you consider they were all done with the light of a single candle or two. What I didn't manage to work out was why they made tunnels whilst cutting the sandstone for building blocks, why not make an open cast cutting / quarry?
We had a good road run with all the vehicles, only one which had some problems but they solved pretty quickly allowing us to continue down the green lanes and tracks. The campsite provided the venue for the evening meal and that meant we didn't have far to walk to get back to the tent! I am sure we did more whilst we were there, but after six months I don't remember what they were!
The drive back was uneventful, if long due to the no longer modern road speed of a Haflinger. Lurch has the latest high speed hubs, but coupled with the governor and forty years of use, cruising speed is not the same as the plated 47mph! Average on a long run on main roads is nearer 38 /39mph as measured by GPS. Still you do get more time to look at other things during your journey than just the road and traffic.
I am sure I should have more interesting things that happened during the weekend that I could put down in this writeup, but as I don't remember them, they won't get included!
John, Stephen and Lurch (AP703 MkII)