On the Road Again!

It's hard to think about safe travel across international borders again, at least in the near future. I have been looking into 2022 for both family and bike club trips. At the moment in 2021 I have a week booked in Norfolk with Claire and Reggie the Dog.  Hopefully covid can't f*ck that up. We have been looking at "abroad" and we have a weekday trip booked to the Netherlands to look at tulips. It's quite a short trip with just a midweek at the beginning of May 2022. So. Wipers Times.  A Meldrews run to the Ypres Salient and a visit to the Last Post being played at the Menen Gate.   I have looked for a hotel in the centre and with over a year to the "go date" there are a few to choose from at reasonable prices. Dates so far? 24th June for a weekend. All it needs is a chance to travel again.

Not a theme park, although it sounds like it may be, but actually a recently rediscovered (in the 1970's) formation of trenches from WW1. These are around Messines Ridge to the south of Ypres. The trenches point northwards as this area was part of the bulge to the south the city. Entry is supposed to cost €1.50 per person but when we got there the gate had been wedged open and there were some other people already inside. The GPS location for the site is N50.80135 E2.87708. More reading http://bujold.co.uk/html/bayernwald.html

Today I spent a little time to check the route and waypoints that I used to create the GDB file for the Garmins and an ITN file for the Tom-Tom users. In the end I have removed the Guynemer Memorial and one of the Passendale stops. This is to allow us more time to get into the trenches at Essex Farm and the Yorkshire Trench and spend some time in the Passendale Museum in Zonnebeke. Plus I've factored in Hooge Crater for anyone that wants to go into it. Some of us have been there before. It's a shame that the Bremen Redoubt has been closed as it was a chance to go down into the mud and water in a former German bunker discovered in the brick works at Zonnebeke. On the 'Net I checked for other places and found another Trench system called the Bayernwald . I have to see about a trip there one day. Maybe that can be included in Wipers 10 !

The group to go to Ypres on Sunday has grown to around a dozen spread over 8 or 9 bikes. The problem will be in keeping them all together!! We are supposed to use the drop-off system for ride-outs, but generally there aren't many of us and we can mostly see the front bike. We need this to go well!! Of course, that's if we get there. There is a strike of French fishermen and thwy have blockaded the French ports, so at the moment no ferries across to France. It was supposed to be 24 hours, then it became 48 hours.... I've started a POI log for the run and will keep it up to date as best I can as we go round - http://www.poi66.com/maps/show_album?album=wipersmay2009

The trip is confirmed for 19th April and has been advertised on the SOC Discussion Boards as well as to the Centre. We have 8 or 9 bikes going across on the 0800 Seafrance sailing to Calais, returning at 2245. This gives us plenty of time to get to Ypres via the Trench of Death at Diksmuide, then a second stop at Canada Farm (where one of the guys on the trip has a relative to visit) and then on into Ypres to have lunch and look at the sights in town. (Click on map to see full size) After lunch we begin the afternoon trip round the Salient. (Click on map to see full size). The circuit goes clockwise calling in at few sites and a few Museums. This should take us up to about 6pm or so. After dinner or a snack we can then go across to the Menin Gate for the 8pm Last Post Ceremony. After the ceremony it is a more leisurely ride back to the ferry port to get home than our usual mad dash! As long as we take less than two hours we will be in plenty of time!

Menin Gate @ Ieper , originally uploaded by Devaldo . In the planning for the Kent Centre is a trip across to have a better look at the Ypres Salient. Currently looking at the third weekend in April.

After a week of almost perfect biking weather it was a surprise to wake up and find that we had fog. To make sure we arrived at the Shuttle on time (if not early!) we got up early and were ready for the off. The day before I had filled to bike to make sure we had loads of petrol as the estimated mileage for today was about 160 miles. By the time we had climbed out of Hythe on Blackhorse Hill w e had also climbed out of the fog and the sky was blue and it was sunny. We met the rest of the group there over a coffee and then motored around for the 0920 train. The train group totalled 15 and one, Ian, was on Sea France and planning to meet us at Ardres . The crossing was smooth (!) as expected and we ventured out with me at the head. We had a few GPS's with us and all should have been following the route I had sent out earlier in the week. The Tom-Tom's using a slightly different system but intrinsically should have been the same as my Garmin . Once united with Ian we cut ac...

Add-on to Part 3. A suggested meeting place in Ardres for those going by ferry to meet the Shuttleers. Click on the map to see it full-size.

Short update - 22nd February Nigel and I have removed the run from the IMTC and so we are running it totally as a Kent Centre Run. I've also plugged it again on the BMW Club Forum to see if there are any takers. Travel on the Day Ian Gardner asked about travel across as the return Shuttle is apparently full. If anyone want to use the ferries instead that is perfectly okay. We can always arrange to meet anyone that wants to use the ferry en-route. To save any backtracking for either party, Shuttle or Boat, we can meet easily enough at Ardres. We have done this before when meeting the Sussex Centre for a run to St Omer and La Coupole. GPS Route I have planned a route (as per Part 2 see link below) and have it mapped into Mapsource and I can create a .gdb file for anyone that uses a Garmin GPS. If anyone wants a copy I can send it, just email me . As for those with Tom-Tit or Navman (or whatever!) I have no idea how to get the map into your units! But there must be a way. Link to Wi...

Update. We now have 12 people booked on the 0920 Shuttle out and a route has been designed to give us lunch (very important) and then a tour around the sights on the southern part of the Salient. Lunch. We will arrive in France and clear the terminal around 11am the plan us to ride across country to one of our favourite watering holes in Cassel for lunch. A post-prandial meander around the town will show us the places where General, later Marshal, Foch had his command HQ. The scenic ride will take in Mont de Cats and Mont Noir then Kemmel, Ploegsteert and then northwards to Messines and the Irish Peace Park. Messines/Mesen is where the British Army detonated 22 large mines in what is considered the largest single action success of the entire war for the Allies. Then looping up to take in the mine crater at St Eloi and then to Santuary Wood and the Hill 62 Museum and preserved trenches before arriving in Ypres for coffee/tea/snack or simply for a waffle! See update to this page.

Wipers for the Day Planning has started for a day trip on Easter Sunday to Belgium to take in a few WW1 Ypres Salient sites and then the "Last Post" ceremony at the Menin Gate before returning home. The run is open to SOC and IMTC members. Currently, the plan is to cross on an early Shuttle, 0920, and return on one about 2220 at night. The "Last Post" takes place at 2000 local time and we need to be able to get back to the bikes and then ride to the Shuttle terminal, so 2220 seems about right. Of course, lunch will be factored in. Depending on what everyone wants to do, I can plan a short trip around some sights after lunch arriving back in Ypres in time for tea and then a walk to the Gate for 8pm. More info on the ceremony etc from: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/meningate/lastpost.htm See update to this page.

There were six of us on the Flanders Day trip. We went across country to Poperinge (twinned with Hythe where I live) and then Ypres. Nigel and Jane Jones, John Bentall and his wife Anne, and Claire and me. This was the trip that got us intereste din days and then weekends away on the bike as a small group, derawn from the IMTC and SOC locally. THe pics are from Talbot House in Poperinge and of the Menin Gate in Ypres