Thursday 30 May

I opted to have an extra day in the Netherlands by going over on the Thursday. So it was up bright and early to Dartford to meet up with the Lineham posse (Gary, Jacky and Matthew) plus Charlie and Harry. We were off by about eight, joining the rush-hour traffic through the tunnel, finding it slow going until the A12. We got to the ferry port at Harwich in plenty of time to meet up with Jim and Pauline (henceforth Paul!) from the Birmingham and Wolves TOMCC. Much of the smooth four hour crossing was whiled away taking full advantage of the "all you can eat" buffet, except Harry, Jim and Paul who took it easy in the lounge.
We disembarked into bright sunshine but once on the road to Rotterdam (where the traffic was rush-hour heavy) this rather changed and somewhere along the A20 we were treated to a brief spell of rain. No sooner had we pulled over to don our waterproofs (or not in my case - I simply trusted to luck and put the cover on my tank bag) than it stopped and we travelled the rest of the way onto the A12 and along to junction 22 in fine conditions.
Gary, Jacky, Charlie and Harry (who had pulled over sooner) caught the rest of us up at a petrol station just outside Woudenberg and then it was a simple matter or following the photocopied map and looking out for "Triumph" signs. The rally site was a farm run by a friend of Ohno the organiser of this year's rally so as they were still setting up on the Thursday evening the facilities lacked a few things - like toilets. However we pressed on and got the tents up while it remained dry.
With the tents up and some of us not having had much to eat since breakfast, a meal of some sort was then on the cards so we mounted up and headed back to the nearest built up area, Scherpenzeel, which had the appearance of a small semi-pedestrianised high street. Spotting a pizza restaurant and choosing not to worry that it boasted an Egyptian theme to it rather than an Italian one, we parked up around the back, checking with the proprietor that it was OK to do so. Possibly the lack of any other diners swayed his decision because he then ushered us in the back door and through the kitchen to a table inside. One reasonably-priced meal with coffee later we thanked him, paid up and went back to the site before the failing light revealed that we had none of us bothered to get left-to-right headlamp beam converters.
Back at the farm site at least the bar was operational and we early arrivals also received our badge, mug and T-shirt - after handing over the 30 Euro ticket price of course. A huge stack of beer, lager and cider awaited our attention but we took it fairly easily (remember no toilets?) so that despite not having exactly an early night, no-one was feeling too rough next morning.

Friday 31 May

By prior agreement, once we were up we all headed into Scherpenzeel in the hope of finding a café that could provide some breakfast and some plumbed-in facilities, both of which were still lacking at the rally site. The cafés were closed but at the bakery we struck lucky. Once back at the bikes, the promised fine weather was looking doubtful so we went back to the site for waterproofs before deciding where to go next.
The decision was partly made for us by Carlo, one of the organising team, who requested some help with loading the band PA into the van where it was being collected from. The hardy types volunteered and we decided all to go along so that once it was done we could ride on, possibly down to the Rhine. The trip to the first destination near Woudenberg took us through a variety of areas but ultimately lead to a industrial estate with the faint air of Dartford about it. The surprise was that through the other side we came to a river bank, and up a narrow bank-side track were moored a line of houseboats. From the last one (which in fact was two side by side) the PA equipment was being unloaded into a van - in fact by the time we got there the job was pretty much done. Jacky and Paul had a quick guided tour of the boats and declared the interiors to be amazingly well fitted out including a small recording studio for the band!
With little further loading to do, Carlo offered to lead us back to Austerlitz where there is a Napoleonic-era look out tower with a distinctive pyramid base. We paused along the way to see a large memorial to the thousands of Belgian refugees who fled to the Netherlands during the first world war. At the Austerlitz pyramid we found parties of hikers and cyclists and equally importantly a café which provided some lunch. After a quick look at the pyramid/tower ensemble (which is in dire need of restoration and will hopefully be got to work on soon according to Carlo) it was time for Carlo to get back to his organisational duties and leave us to follow a very varied route along winding roads atop a causeway and through little towns until we found ourselves in the queue for a small ferry across a river. Rather than cross we took a few pictures then turned round and headed back North to the site to catch a spot of rest and wait for the Friday contingent to arrive. Luckily the waterproofs had not been needed at any point and fine weather had set in.
First to arrive at the check-in caravan were Ian and Julie, with Malcolm close behind. Theirs was a familiar tale of heavy traffic around Rotterdam and then confusion trying to follow the photocopied map. Ian found himself asking directions from the only non English-speaking Dutch person in the district!
Eventually the others arrived in dribs and drabs until the Bexley Triumph camping area resembled its usual self (with the traditional dusting of Japanese and German engineering). Some owners of the "non-English" complied with the request to park in a separate area, others braved it in the main area. During all this excitement a food wagon had been installed unnoticed round the back of the bar (for bar read storage shed) and this prompted a debate as to what to eat. Charlie. Jim, Paul and myself were sufficiently tempted by the prospect of the Indonesian restaurant in Scherpenzeel to mount up and head off there for what turned out to be a stupendous nosh courtesy of the very reasonably-priced set meal.
We were back before ten p.m. to find the others ensconced at a row of tables in the bar getting the beers in and waiting for the band to start. The chalked-up starting time on the blackboard propped up in front of the stage said "± 22:00" and it turned out to be very much minus... or is that plus? Anyway a considerable time was spent swapping speakers round and finishing off their sound check so that it was more like eleven o'clock before they started in earnest. The material was a cross-section of the seventies, eighties and nineties rock favourites interspersed with what may have been some Dutch belters. We couldn't quite tell because all of the vocalist's announcements were in Dutch and it was often hard to hear the lyrics even of well-known tunes. However they delivered an hour or so and then after a bit of a break came back on and and were still going at it until 2 a.m.! Or so I'm told because by then I had retreated to my tent to warm up and hopefully sleep. Well I managed the latter but found it harder to keep warm with the outside temperature dropping low on account of a cloudless sky. I ended up putting my sweatshirt and leather jacket back on inside my sleeping bag... and still feeling a bit chilly. Outside however a brave (and probably very drunk) person or two was crashing out beside the embers of the bonfire which had been lit earlier and attempting to sleep without the benefit of a tent at all, just some fetching blankets.

Saturday 1 June

Next morning there were no reports of exposure fatalities and as the sky was still clear the temperature rose quickly to a most pleasant level. In contrast to the previous day, breakfast was close at hand and free - consisting of a plate of bacon, beans and scrambled eggs. The electricity was temporarily out, though, so the free tea and coffee were unavailable to go with it.
A debate amongst the now-enlarged Bexley brigade resulted in a majority choice to ride South in a similar direction to the previous day. Charlie would lead the way, see us safely to a café (!) and then take off solo to see a series of castles indicated along a single road on the map. This is what duly happened with a dozen or so bikes wending their way to Wijk bij Doorstede where we found a good café looking over a town square where a stage was being set up for some free lunchtime music!
A light lunch and some refreshments later some of us went for a walk through town and climbed up a preserved windmill while the others pursued the refreshment choice until we got back. By then Charlie had returned from his excursion and we re-grouped to go back to the site via an increasingly-familiar route. Some then chose to snooze off the effects of a late night and possibly their recent lunch, whilst others nosed around a mini-auto jumble that had sprung up or the "official" merchandise stall selling Triumph T-shirts and badges.
It is worth pointing out that by this time some two hundred and forty miles had been covered since leaving Dartford and - whisper it carefully - no-one had experienced any show-stopping mechanical problems. The rally site had also become even busier with people still arriving from time to time and shade was at a premium due to the strong overhead sun and no cloud to speak of. Later, thoughts turned again to food and a few people went back into town in search of dinner.
The Saturday evening entertainment kicked off with a three-piece band who played a mixture of surf tunes and sixties garage-style songs, their visual appeal being based on garish shirts and brightly-coloured nylon wigs. The performance, which was split into two sets, began and ended with Link Wray's classic instrumental "Rumble" and also featured a raucous cover of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61" along the way. Once they had vacated the stage there was much activity relating to the main band of the night - the only one of the weekend with an easily memorable name: the "GrolschBusters". Despite the fact that they had roadies to assist it took a small eternity to get them set up and the patience of the crowd was taxed somewhat by their having a bloke with a set of bagpipes (Dutch name "Doodlesack") tootling away in the meantime. I can safely say that the novelty wore off after about ten minutes but judging by the quantities of beer being bought by the Bexley bunch it didn't affect anybody's thirst.
Finally they started, playing a selection of punk classics and anything else that went at ninety miles an hour. Again it was peppered with some songs in Dutch but I spotted a couple of Ramones covers; these were very popular with Carlo who had a Ramones patch on his jacket and whom I guessed had made the handwritten "Hey Ho, Let's Go" banner behind the bar. (That will mean nothing unless you are familiar with the Ramones!) Less predictable was the second Bob Dylan cover of the evening, "Blowing In the Wind" which I must confess to having heard from the comfort of my sleeping bag.

Sunday 2 June

Fortunately it was not so cold that night so my leathers stayed at the back of the tent and the wake-up temperature was mild, positively encouraging people to tuck in to another cooked breakfast before packing up. Those who were staying on an extra day for the organisers-and-invited-guests barbeque on Sunday evening (Gary, Jacky and Matt, plus Malcolm, Ian, Julie and Keith) had decided to seek out some comfortable accommodation with showers so a search party was sent out.
They had still not returned by 12:30 so for myself, Charlie, Jim, Paul, Harry, Phil, Dave Clarke, Tank and Shelly it was time to head for the port. Four of us stopped in the Hook as we were early for the ferry, having a chance to partake of a coffee while across the square a solo entertainer played easy-listening classics on a home organ type thing. Lovely.
On the ferry it was back to the all-you-can-eat buffet for a while and happily the crossing was as smooth as before. Wierdly we found on disembarking that Dave Clarke's battery was seriously flat - luckily he got a jump-start from some guys in a car, then it was back to the (British) A12 and off home.

Postscript

On meeting up with Gary and Jacky the following Tuesday they said that overnighters stayed at a good motel in Maarsbergen, (near the junction 22 exit from the A12) and really enjoyed the showers!