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An Even Longer Ride Homewards
Ride Date - Mid July 2024
By Bogger
Day 9 Friday
Oh Lordy. It’s even more miles today. Can’t wait. We know we’ve got to get up early and get going as soon as we can. So we’re up at 6.00am and packing away. It’s another lovely day, but because it’s early it’s relatively cool. We all give the bikes a once over, happily everything is ok. The onsite reception was selling drinks and simple breakfast type food. So we soon downed a ham and cheese croissant and cup of coffee.
Today will mostly be on the motorways. We have the campsite in Ypres, Belgium booked. We all set off at 8.45am heading for Ypres, over 300 miles away. We’re not hanging about but not going daft either, just a steady highish pace. We are soon on the A45 heading for our first major town of the day, Siegen. The air temperature is steadily rising. It’s hot.
At Siegen we all peel off onto the A4 Autobahn. We’re fifty miles into our journey heading towards Cologne. The traffic is building, it’s a Friday and it’s busy. The one good thing about this is that it keeps you alert. You have to constantly read the traffic both in front and behind. Try and gauge when you can safely overtake or need to brake.
Unscathed we make it to Cologne and we need to refuel. Two Euros thirty a litre. Ouch again.
A few miles down the road the traffic has come to a standstill. Road works and the carriageway had been narrowed by the use of large concrete blocks. We could peer around the side of the trucks in front, but filtering was just impossible. The traffic jam went on for as far as the eye could see and probably then some more. We just sat there absolutely baking. We occasionally crawled along then stopped. Then waited and waited until we set off again for another 100 metre ride. Oh it’s only 32 degrees.
We all bunched up together, had a chat and decided that as soon as we could we would turn off the Autobahn. Nige consulted his sat nav. Whether the sat nav would actually guide us anywhere in remotely the right direction, who knows? It hadn’t on many previous occasions.
After what seemed like three lifetimes in a boiling cauldron we reach our intended exit. We’d lost well over an hour in the traffic jam for the cost of barely a mile and a half travelled. The sat nav plays ball and we closely follow each other through the centre of Cologne and out of the other side and back onto the Autobahn again. It’s still very busy but moving at a decent pace.
There’s still a lot of riding to do. Onwards, dear fools. We carry on and pass through the south of the Netherlands, just to the north of Maastricht. All the signs are now for Brussels. Just inside Belgium we have another quick break for fuel. We all decide that although we will now have enough fuel to get us to Ypres, we will have one more stop at the halfway point. Oh it’s still red hot.
The closer we get to Brussels the busier it gets. I fact it gets so busy the motorway is once again at a standstill. We start to filter. Pete is leading, I’m following then Nige, Jason, HTP and Ash. Invariably we start to get split up, as the standing traffic again goes on seemingly forever. All I’m trying to do is keep Pete in sight, hoping that the others were trying to keep up with whoever was in front of them. There were a few hairy moments as cars darted from one lane to another to gain that all important extra five metres.
The opposite carriageway was also at a standstill. We finally come to the cause of the holdup. On the opposite carriageway there is a car on its roof with various other damaged vehicle scattered about. Well, that’s someone's weekend ruined.
Pete pulls off and into a motorway services, I’m right behind him. Ten minutes later Nige and brother Jason also pull in. We ask if they know where HTP and Ash are. Nope, they lost sight of them whilst filtering.
It’s only fifty miles to Ypres now, but time is getting on. It’s 3.45pm. We wait a good fifteen minutes in the hope that HTP and Ash also appear. We make the decision to carry on. HTP and Ash know the name of the campsite and where the campsite is, they’ve both been there before. Ash also has a sat nav. Happy days, they’ll find it no problem!
We despatch the last leg fairly easily. There were a couple of diversions on the outskirts of Ypres, but we arrived at the campsite at 5.15 having covered 304miles. Hard miles at that.
We do the usual of setting up camp and having a shower and waited for HTP and Ash to turn up. 6.00pm and no sign of them? Six thirty comes and goes, as does seven o’clock. WTF are they? We’d even been shopping, come back, and eaten and they still weren’t there.
I think they turned up around eight fifteen at night.
I’ll explain what happened. They too had a stop on the motorway and decided to turn on Ash’s sat nav. Ash punched in the details of the campsite and off they went. Unfortunately he’d entered the details of the first campsite we’d stopped at in Chimay, not the one in Ypres. Chimay is a mere 105 miles South of Ypres. OMG. Their mileage for the day was just shy of 500 miles.
They looked knackered and weren’t in the best of moods. We all really, really, really wanted to take the p***. But with the look on their faces we decided better of it. It’s definitely funny now though.
After a few beers it was time to turn in for the night.
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Let The Chaos Commence
After the where's and why's it's time for a long ride from The Midlands to Belgium. It doesn't all go according to plan but relative to this lot's usual mayhem - it's a good start.
Not Too Much Chaos
It's all going far too well - I mean losing half your crew is an everyday occurrence ain't it? Well it is for this lot. There's little mention of beer.
Old Men Crossing Rivers
I'm getting rather concerned for Bogger. Not much beer, early to bed, no-one lost, and no mechanical tomfoolery. There's a catch, surely there's a catch
Chaos Towards Colditz
More mayhem from a bunch of blokes old enough to know better. Brits used to try and get out of Colditz, these lads are struggling to get in. Fear not - there is beer.
Escape From Colditz To Poland
The lads take a brief look around Colditz before making a dash for Poland. There's a handful of shenanigans and guess what - beer.
Poland To Czech With Nitwits
After a night in Poland the British Buffoons head into The Czech Republic. They're tired and reading between the lines getting a little grumpy, but there's booze and food so they'll be fine.
Making A Simple Day Out Complicated
There's only a short ride into town today for the lads, nice and easy. Even so Bogger manages to get himself stranded through sheer stupidity. At least the food and beer is cheap.
A Long Ride Homewards
After another big breakfast there's a long ride ahead for Bogger and pals as they get their teeth into the journey home. Of course there's a disaster, admittedly it's only a minor inconvenience.
An Even Longer Ride Homewards
There's more big miles today, and not to anyone's surprise - more chaos. Traffic jams and sheer foolishness means some folks are having a REALLY bad day.
Reader's Comments
nab301 said :-
500 miles on a scoot or something small , now that is hard!
Nigel
10/09/2025 15:32:40 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Yeah, 300 miles makes me wince on a 500, 500 on a 125 would put me in a VERY BAD MOOD. Bogger's a lot bigger than me but I'd still have kicked him in the shins if he's started extracting the urine after 500 miles.
Ooooh my rear is aching just thinking about that ride.
10/09/2025 20:14:42 UTC
Bogger said :-
Man up the pair of you.
Bogger
11/09/2025 08:46:15 UTC
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