- Event Location:
- Northan France
- Event Format:
- Laneing, camping and a site visit
- Organisers:
- FLRC and Bunny
- Winner:
- suppose everyone was :-)
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Winterbivak number three for the Twinaxle Club. Every year the numbers are getting better. What a smooth start we had, all arrived on time and settled down to a quick
coffee at silly o’clock on a nice February morning. But where were our newest members? It was time to board, had they gone ahead or should we wait? No, our newest
members had arrived with our Flander’s friends the night before! So, yet another smooth start to our invasion of France!
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We hit the French motorway with no problems and set off with me (Bunny) in the lead with my trusty TomTom set and running. Last year it took us to the wrong location
and again this year it did the same (make a note not to trust Northing and Easting coordinates in future). Peter took the lead for the last bit and we arrived to the
smiling faces of Stavie and Marijn. The campsite looked good and the site behind looked awesome. Soon Stavie had us all organised and we set off on a roadbook to discover
Northern France. What a big country, what beautiful countryside, how few people and ‘my God’ Marijn drives fast. I soon decided to stay in high box and found myself on
a leg of the Paris Dakar Rally, trying to keep up with the Orange Beast!
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After several little adventures in our different groups and an invasion of a small village café (they really don’t smoke in them!), we headed back to the campsite.
Ahhh, a dog had ripped the side of my mates tent out! The only one that did not belong to us! Tents went up, food started to be cooked and out came the cheese board
Jeff had made, shaped like a Land Rover (orders can be placed on www.jeffcheesemeoff.com ? ). The fire was great the FLRC steaks were in a different league to our
English meat and Stavie got the shots out! One, two, three, four, five shots and one Englishman/boy hit the dust, close behind his breakfast, lunch and dinner.
No problem, he was out of the tent by midday the following day. I went to bed with male singing ringing in my ears (I’m sure it was Stavie… He always sings… But no,
it was Dave a Brit… And what a nice voice)!
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Sunday morning dawned and Axle was giving us a briefing. Of course it is France, so you can’t do this and that and you must be off the site for two hours for lunch!
Never mind it will still be great. People quickly started heading off into the hills and mud began to fly in all directions. People were soon stuck, yet everyone
helped everyone. My son, James, drove past a Frenchman in a very expensive Jap truck that was stuck! Oh, I wish I had a camera to get the look on his face as the
ten year old in the 21 year old Landie pottered passed over the humps and bumps his £30,000 vehicle could not drive? Then there was an Orange Rangie on it’s side,
a Disco stuck in water and a new Defender refusing to play. Oh, the fun! Oh, the mud! Oh, it is lunch time! Two hours past and I decided to watch and clean my vehicle
rather that go out again (it is always that last session when something breaks). Faces covered in smiling mud raced passed me to get back up the hills. Fun was being
had by all!
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I managed to get the jet wash and spent a good half hour cleaning my Kelly (no one was waiting), making sure the radiator was clean (Jeff take note ?). Vehicles
started to trundle back in, the good news was all the TA vehicles were still rolling! Soon it was time to head off, we lined our vehicles up and said our goodbyes
and drifted into the sunset. We did find some petrol, we did find the motorway and we did find out that some peoples’ vehicles might not make it home! Vehicles
began to overheat, English convoys sat on the hard shoulder of the Autoroutes, vehicles were towed at Eurotunnel and then broke down when back in England (phew,
Alex AA to the rescue). Everyone made it home in one piece(ish), tired smiles of mud written across our faces. What an adventure, what a laugh, what great mates,
what great countryside, what great mud! From all in the Twinaxle, a big thank you goes out to our Flemish friends and remember…
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THE FUN CONTIUES IN MAY… FOR THE FLRC AND TWINAXLE RETURN MATCH… BE THERE OR MISS OUT!
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