Maverick's Elephant Treffen Ride Report - February 2004

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Prince Albert
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BMW R100GS / Kalahari
Right of course if you South-Africa you do things normally in the sunshine and lekker weather. Though I would amuse you guys with this trip we did in 2004 in the winter. Listen to my the logic behind this trip, if you go camping in the freezing snow how bad can the rest of your camping trips be in the year :lol: Needless to say Mavlick not vely cleva bloke :D

Here we go and hope you guys enjoy something different....

Elephant Treffen 2004 - Nurburgring Germany

Entering 2004 bored and in need of desperate excitement I stumbled across the Primus Treffen thread which is held February/March in Norway. Now being South-African cold weather not even thinking about snow/ice conditions do not feature on my list of things to do.
This rally is presumably one of the coldest of the lot as you camp in the snow with no amenities.
After several attempts trying to find info, I was pointed to the Elephant rally in Germany by a fellow GS rider in Holland - Zwerver.
So decided this will be my first camping trip of the year and it can?t possibly get worse than this weather wise so let?s do it. Now to find sidekicks. Geoff (Mr Tickle) and Stefan (Rusty) strangely also from South Africa were not hesitant to join this mad ride.
A few emails and Zwerver kindly offered us a �½ way stop to Nurburgring at his place in Old Valkenburg.

This would mean a 210-mile trip at night to Zwerver?s place and not my favourite time to travel on a bike.
ETA 01:00 AM on Friday morning.

Now the planning of this trip did not go so well regarding my bike as there was several aspects that needed looking at and repairs that needed doing.
As this is a section on it?s own covering some crazy and very negative points I decided to not talk about it any further and go on with the fun part of motorcycling.

So here goes......

Thursday - 26/02/2004 - 7:00 AM
It is freezing to my standards, about 0 degrees and frost on all the cars to start off with. If it is this cold in London
things can only get interesting on main land Europe tonight
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Euro tunnel booked for the grand sum of �£43 from Folkestone to Coquelles for Thursday 26-Feb-2004 at 20:00.
I manage to leave work at 15:00 and rush home to get the last thing's packed and reset my TPS again as it still ain't what it is suppose to.
Myself and Michelle hastly pack the bike with me constantly reminding her we need to leave by 17:00 latest to avoid rush hour London,
we set off at 17:15.

Arrive round 19:00 for a quick bite and meet up with Geoff and Stefan. First time on the Eurotunnel and snap a few piccies quick before paying notice to the "no photography" signs.
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Gringo ready to rock & roll(I hope and pray)
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We set off in icy conditions in Calais to Old Valkenburg around 21:50 and ride eventless during the cold hours through France, Belguim and eventually into the Netherlands
arriving at about 01:30 at Zwerver's house......

Friday - 28/02/2004 - Zwerver's Place(Old Valkenburg, The Netherlands)<p>

After chattting untill about 02:00 am drinking nice warm tea, coffee and lovely whiskey I manage to get out of bed by 08:00.
Outside everthing is white and looks pretty chilly but no fresh snow. Set down to the kitchen were I am met by a big Belguim man called Roy and we manage
to make conversation in english and some afrikaans/dutch put together. Strangely bike talk is like beer talk, very universal and every man understands it.
Outside when most of the house woke up and having their morning coffee and smoke's...Left to Right

Rose(F650GS PD), Geert(Zwerver, 1150 Adventurer), Roy(1150 Adventurer) and Stefan(Rusty - 1150)
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Now this is the entrance to the old farm house and unfortunately the previous night
were more worried staying upright on the snow and ice than looking at the scenery..Little did we know that this road would be covered in snow in less than an hour
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Stunning old Castle next to the farm house with the occupants own lake around complete with rowing boat.
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Myself and Michelle wondering silently if this was a good idea....?
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11:30 - On our way to Nurburgring
We decide to take the road to Germany only to find that by the time we get to the top of the road we get snowed under.

It takes about 10 minutes for the 8 bikes to cover the first 400 meters?!?
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Rusty with his trusty steed wiped out already as the road was more ice than snow.
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Michell�© with our 1100GS fully laden and very scary to ride to start with on normal roads never mind in these conditions..
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Ohh boy wish I changed those Tourances for TKC 80's...
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After carefull examination of the road surface and condition's Geert propose we rather wait for things to clear up than kill ourselves on the way..

Back in the warm comfort after walking most of the bike's back down the road in Zwerver's Barn.
The good the bad and the ugly? (Michell�©, Geoff and Stefan)
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Killing time in Oud Valkenburg
After getting all the bikes into storage again we were taken for a long walk around the hills of Old Valkenburg
Even this sheep looked cold and deserted in the fresh morning snow (Nice one hey Welshie)

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Who needs GPS with all this directions..

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Not like we would take anything with wheels out anyway this morning Stefan

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The weather seemed to clear up a bit and we might make another attempt for Germany...

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Zwerver's humble home in the distance next to the castle

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Maverick was here....

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Nurburgring - Elephant Treffen 2004

At long last the anticipation is met with hundreds of bike's, sidecars, people talking all languages we arrive at Nurburgring
The entrance was swarming with activity the whole weekend people arriving and leaving

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Me and Michelle at the Nurburgring camping entrance, two months ago this was just a crazy idea, now reality!

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Tent setup and ready to settle with some food and drinks on a very cold Friday night

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Geoff and Stefan already sheltered in his tent. Think I was still suffering frostbite the reason for the brilliant picture quality

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The continous thundering of motorcycles around us did not stop all weekend until the early hours of the morning

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Some boys just stayed exactly on one spot the whole weekend and did not bother to move, beer coats was the order of the day

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Who ever said the Germans can't have fun?? The loud cries of links, links, links was a clear sign that everything was still done in a very organised militant way as the teams went head to head while the crowd drank and shouted

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Nurburgring - Saturday Morning

Now for a South-African to sleep in -5 degrees outside in a tent is not normal to start with, for someone who has never camped it's just totally wrong! At this point Stefan decided it is time to hit the road as this madness is not for him.

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-5 Degrees 9AM, thanks but no thanks!

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Maybe we should of seeked shelter in this tent with probably enough heating for all the newbies to snow camping, hello we are not from here mind if we stay the night?!?

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Meanwhile we started walking around to warm up and saw this....

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And then this.....

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The new meaning to 1150 Adventurer

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Nurburgring - Sunday Morning

Good morning happy campers it is Sunday morning 9AM, welcome to -10 degrees! Instead of snow we had ice and frost everywhere as it was clear skies during the night. Our tent, clothing, food, bikes etc was icy to touch and the only way I could warm up was a warmish shower

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It was time for us to pack up and together with Geoff hit the road to make the Eurotunnel at 18:00.
Only 300 miles to cover in this icy conditions, ain't biking a whole lot of fun! We made several new friends and many thanks to them for showing us a different side to biking.

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Could not find these boys anywhere so not sure what they got up too

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Next time we will invest in heated tents

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In January 1953 the driver of a Zuendapp KS601 invited some mark colleagues out of curiosity,
into his garden (three came!), he did not know that this "meeting" would take place for space
reasons in 1956 at the Solitude close to Stuttgart. There the meeting got its name as the KS601 was called affectionately the "Green elephant"

Here I am standing next to the "Green Elephant" parked at the entrance.

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The meet started in 1961 at the Nurburgring. 1977 turn into the black year of the meeting. With 30.000 participants the meeting was hardly managebale.
And despite the organization of the BVDM(Motorcycle body) there was a person killed among other things. The decision was made and the meeting was moved to Austria until it returned to Nurburgring in 1990 after several attempts to keep it in Austria. We hope many people will in time to come attend this rally as it is a very good expierence irregardless of the weather. It was great and glad it is over but think mysteriously would find myself in years to come wandering back to Germany

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Until next time

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Back Home

We left at 11:00 and arrived 17:00 in Calais just in time to get some duty free and food. The morning ride wasa bit scary as the roads had a very ominous shining to them. You never knew whether it was ice or water so we took it slow until we got on the motorway. Stunning views and Germany is definitely on my list of places to see. The amount of salt on the roads was pretty serious as you can see from my bike..

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Fully laden and realised it is time for some new suspension

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Geoff was pleasantly surprised that I managed to fill up with 5 liters less than him in Folkestone again

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So if you ever this side of the world January/February pack your longjongs and go to this meet, it's awesome and alot of fun :D
 
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