Skip to main content

Vimy 2017

Planning has begun on the first run of the year. This trip will be to Vimy in Northern France. 

This year is the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Arras, and in particular the Canadian assault on the enemy held ridge at Vimy to the north-west of the city.

I have been several times before, lastly in 2014 and in 2015 I had a heart operation just days before it took place! I was unable to go last year even though it was a Saturday.



This will be a Johnny No-Mates trip as we had originally planned to have it as a Meldrews event but when we found that Eurotunnel had no day tickets to sell as it is the week before Easter, we dropped it.

The date is as always April 9th and this year it is a Sunday.

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/vimy-ridge/100-anniversary

Report later.



UPDATE 3rd April 2017:

I saw on Facebook that one of the bike groups I joined a while back are having a day trip to France on the 9th to have a hoon around and lunch. So I got on the Eurotunnel site and saw that day trips arr now available. So I booked myself on the 0850 returning at 2020. This should give me time to get here in good time and then get away again after the shuttle buses take us back to the parking and then the 80 miles ride back to the port.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
2 comments
Read more

Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...
1 comment
Read more