Thursday August 26th. the Carabine Crew set of on another jolly. This time it was to the Indian Rally in Belgium.  Myself and both lads Nick and Andy were on a weekend away for fun, all 3 in one car, the camping gear and no bikes.
The North Sea Ferry trip was calm on the way out, we had a good dinner and then went to sample the booze department. The boys do not require any pressure to participate in such events.

Friday morning saw us almost first off the ferry, the sat nav programmed and we were on the road without a problem.  We arrived at the rally site at lunch time, all the greetings with Claude and Rolly, handed over the English Tea Bags and then set up the tents. Once we had sorted the camping gear we set off to Valkenburg, a small town in the south of Holland. This was to finalise our reservations for hotel bookings next year for a trip after the 2011 International rally. Once that was done we did a survey of the local Hotels and Pubs, drank a lot of beer, ate good food and then finally returned to the rally site in time to join in all the party fun, food and booze.

Saturday morning we all enjoyed a good breakfast cooked by Claude inside the Farmers big shed / museum. Then all the bikes collected together complete with the modern superbike outriders / marshals, the recovery van and trailer plus 2 or 3 other support cars.  After approx 30 miles we all stopped at a small local village pub where the lunch was supplied (a very nice French loaf completely full of salad, cheese and ham) together with coffee. The rain held off even though the dark clouds were above. All fed and watered the posse was rounded up and off down the road again.

The next stop after the forest and steep hill riding was in another small Belgium town. All the bikes parked up in the central square and we all enjoyed one hour or so with beer, coffee, cream cakes and ice cream. It was a very pretty historic town and when the Indians all arrived they where the centre of attraction.

Once again back on the road, up the hills and through the forests passing various historic villages on the very scenic route back to the rally site.  In total we were out for about 5 hours, approx 120km and enjoyed every minute. The route was very well planned, the marshals and out riders did a first class job
holding up the traffic at all junctions, roundabouts and intersections to allow safe passage of all the old Indians. You could tell straight away the marshals not only enjoyed the ride out, they really rode hard and made the superbikes perform to the limit. When talking to one of the marshals over a beer at the night do I commented on his riding skills, he then told me he had been racing bikes on the circuit for the last 20 years.

With everyone safely back from the run out we then prepared for the evenings meal and entertainment.  The mobile B.B.Q. (king size) was set up manned by local chefs and we all enjoyed freshly cooked beef steaks, freshly cooked chips complete with salad.  Everyone’s steak was cooked to order at your request. Then onto the music from the local band and drinking more beer.

The Saturday party went on till the very early hours of the morning as the combination of the Indian owners, friends of the Farmer and local people who like to party joined in.
   
Sunday morning found a motley crew, but we managed to pack all up and set off on the scenic route back to the ferry via the Islands in the south of Holland.   After stopping off for a local fishing town lunch we continued our journey back to the ferry.  This time things where a little different for the return journey, gale force winds, heavy rain complete with the black clouds it was dark by 6-00pm. Then once out into the North Sea things got very rough. You would not believe the ferry being so big would roll around and make such a noise. People where rolling about, glasses were being broken and all the open decks were out of bounds. A very rough crossing, we were pleased to arrive back to the port of Hull on Monday morning.

Once again another adventure over and now we look forward to the next trips.

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Tony Carabine & Crew