Skip to main content

Weekend on The Somme - Day 1

An early start on Saturday. I had old friend Ken Fulton staying over. My plan was to be up about 5.30am, leave at 6am to arrive Dover at 6.30am. Except Ken was up earlier and we left and arrived  at Dover way before 6am.

I messaged Cal to say we were going through immigration and check-in.

We were first in the line. It took so long at Costa to get a coffee that the others had arrived and we were almost ready to load. Bugger.

The crossing was pretty straightforward and after breakfast we were disgorged into dull weather Calais.

The plan was to head down the A26 to Arras and then cut across to the first stop at the Accrington Pals Memorial. 

First delay was that the autoroute ticket machine played up and some of us got tickets and others had to wait to get one.

At the pay station near Arras, the lucky ones from the ticket collection found their tickets were not recognised!!! More holdups. Then we got split up twice! The eight bikes became four and then two.

Luckily, of the eight bikes five had satnav!

Ken and I waited for a while by the massive Poste sorting office for Department 62,  and when no one showed up we set off to the first stop.  The route was the same as last year! 

We aborted the Pals as the track off the road was terrible. Certainly not for the R3 or Ken's SV1000.

We went into the next stop at "Ocean Villas".   (http://www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/museum-ocean-villas-auchonvillers.htm)

In the traditional Tommy anglicisation of French place names, Auchonvillers became Ocean Villas.

It was so warm we had both had two iced teas before the rest arrived, having also aborted the Pals visit. My texts had also arrived.

Most of the group decided to have lunch before we headed off to the main visit of the day to the Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont-Hamel. (http://www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-newfoundland-park.htm)



From here we headed to the Ulster Memorial Tower, and then the Tank Corps Memorial at Pozières.







Across the road is the "Windmill". The site of the most costly Australian action in WW1, surpassing Gallipoli. (http://www.greatwar.co.uk/somme/memorial-pozieres-mill.htm)

It was finally captured on August 4th 1916. Just 60 yards up the road is a sign showing how far the allies had got by September 1st 1916.  


27 days to advance 60 bloody yards.

From here we headed to the hotel in Amiens via a petrol stop in Albert. The hotel was the Central Anzac.

After check-in we went to our rooms. After a shower I was feeling a bit tired and had a sleep. By the time I woke up my friends had gone to the Irish pub. I got Cal's SMS on Sunday morning.


We had a walk around before finding the river and a restaurant that would seat all eight of us.


(The Marshal Leclerc monument)



(Amiens Cathedral)



To get a full group photo David called over a young attractive blonde passer-by. And a good job she did.


After dinner we headed back to the Irish pub. 

The lightweights (me included) went to bed and others went to the pub.

Day One ends.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Battery?

The weekend showed how weak the battery has become.  Having had to use the dbPower unit on four separate occasions during the day in Belgium was the giveaway. We are in the second winter of this problem where the battery isn't strong enough to start the bike. In the summer it charges and holds that charge and although I keep the dbPower unit to hand I rarely have to use it.  But in winter it barely has the power to turn the engine over. It's simply "clunk". The lights come on though and that probably doesn't help. So what to do? Being a fair weather biker nowadays I won't be using the bike that often until the new year. Do I get a new battery sooner rather than later? It might end up freezing away in the garage. I have a garage in a block away from the house with no power, so a trickle charger is no use either. I have been looking at a replacement though.  A  Motobatt  with a high cranking power should be around £75. So unlikel...

Czech Invader Rally 2022?

Looking to next year for what maybe a jolly-boys trip to the Czech Invader Rally or what might end up a Billy No-Mates trip. I have been to five previous Czech Invaders but only once when I rode there completely alone. I did that in 1992 on my DR800SL. It's not something I would do again. Not in one hit. When I arrived I could hardly get off the bike I was so stiff for sitting in one place for hour upon hour. Those were all held at the same "rally-inn" in  Chudčice  near Brno. The last one I did was way back in 2004 with Claire as pillion. The BMW GS wasn't well received - not being a Suzuki! BMW at Rally. There is no way I'll be on the Kettle. At 37mpg it will cost a kidney to ride the 1700 mile round trip. So Pepé will need to be the bike of choice. If only I had cruise control as well to help with the saving of fuel. If I am to go over as a solo traveller I will stay in Youth Hostels. After all I will be an old age pensioner by then. We did that way back in 199...