A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

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heinkeljb
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A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

Post by heinkeljb »

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)
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
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Re: A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

Post by AustHaflinger »

Thanks John - remember the plated 47mph is top speed not cruising speed so 39mph is pretty good and the miles soon add up when you just rumble along enjoying the countryside.

It is great that Lurch went well and it seems you have been working through all the little issues.

Garry
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mechanical horse
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Re: A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

Post by mechanical horse »

Hey John,
An interesting trip into Europe with the Haffie. I would love to drive a Haffie along an autobarn in Germany at a decent speed of about 75 KPH with vehicles getting past at over 200 KPH. The cave with the paintings that you visited, was it the one in Southern France with a lot of horses done mainly in charcoal, I used to be fascinated with that cave when I was a kid reading about it in books. Thinking about it now those horses may have been really early Haflingers as they were a native horse of Europe weren't they.

The corner that you mentioned that is the corner of 3 countries, could be any one of a dozen or more couldn't it, as there are lots of countries all bumping into each other. I will have to speak to Mr Google and consult a decent map and work out how many countries do that.

Here in Australia we have 4 corners that are a point that 3 states join. One corner joins Victoria---South Australia---New South Wales is in the middle of the Murray River and doesn't have a name, another corner that joins South Australia---New South Wales---Queensland is called Cameron's Corner, and is visited by a number of people, another corner that joins South Australia---Queensland---Northern Territory is called Poeppel's Corner, and the last one joins Northern Territory---South Australia---West Australia is called Surveyor General's corner and is the most remote one. I got within about 10 KLM of it once with the Army but just couldn't do it. Close but no cigar.
Regards Rick.
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Julian B
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Re: A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

Post by Julian B »

The font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, states ... "Vehicles which cannot sustain speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph) on the flat are not allowed on the Autobahn" which rules out my early Series I Haflinger (placarded as max 36mph) :oops: :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_lim ... imum_speed
Julian B
W Sussex, UK

| '62 Early Series I SWB | '72 Series II LWB |
| '56 Citroën Traction Avant |
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heinkeljb
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Re: A belated article on the Dutch Treffen 2016

Post by heinkeljb »

Julian,

All you have to do it buy a set of high speed gears like Gary and change it's speed that way!

Rick,

We went the the Netherlands for the treffen and on the road run we visited the point where Holland, Germany and Belgium meet.
I'll find some pictures later, need to get organised to go to work now.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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