Last weekend (22-25th June) was the Darkside Scooter Rally in Belgium. Slightly bigger turnout to last year about 70 odd scooters this time (I think). Weather wasn't as hot as last year, but it didn't matter just as good (maybe better) a time was had! Same as last year we stayed at the Groenedijk motorcycle Loft in Oudenburg, which is a great place for bikers to stay due to secure indoor parking, bbq, self serve kitchen and most importantly, a bar and DJ Stand/Stage for live music.


Bit Rainy on the Friday night, so we just sat inside had microwave meals instead of the BBQ and had several beers.
Saturday was much nicer, at lunchtime most of us ventured out to Oostende on the bus (so we could have a few drinks!) and we spent the day in the beer garden of a nice Irish Bar we went to last year (there are loads of Irish Bars in Oostende, this was the nicest).


Got some food in the pub and after several pints we headed back to where we were staying for the evenings entertainment which was the local band Speedball Jr.

As well as a few of the other rally goers having a blast on the decks! Top night of Music and much Hoegarden was consumed!

Sunday morning (well more like early afternoon) a few of us went out on the scooters to Ieper to see the Menin Gate and see the Last Post. We also got some food in one of the many restaurants round the square and went round the WW1 Museum.



Menin Gate got really busy all of a sudden before the last post so I didn't get any decent pics (except for the back of peoples heads!).
After this we headed back to Oudenburg for a few beers and an early ish (3am) night before our trip back to the UK in the morning.

Left Oudenburg at about 08.30 in the morning, thrashed back along the E40 to the Euro Tunnel and we were back in the UK by 11am. Though my bike was not doing to well. It has been burning a lot of oil all weekend and seemed to be getting slower and losing power at the top end, probably due to low compression due to a knackered piston ring? To top this off the exhaust bracket fell off as I got on the train, though I was able to walk back down the train to pick this up and fit it back on! I took this as a sign of impending disaster as the bike was only doing 60mph driving along the M20 flat out (normally pulls to about 80mph) and rather than thrash it back the last 250 miles from Maidstone to York and risk it blow up I pulled in at the Maidstone services and called the RAC at 11.45am, after explaining that I though it was loosing compression/burning lots of oil and I didn't want a man to come out and tell me what I already knew and I told them to send a recovery truck, they said that it would be there within the hour. 2 hours later the truck arrives, though he only drives me as far as Dartford as he has been working all day and can't take me all the way back. We meet another Recovery truck there who was going to take me back to York. We get through all the traffic on the M25 and the M11 only to hit bad traffic that started on the A14 and continued onto the A1 to the point where we not even moving. This was due to the A1 being closed and there being a diversion. This also coincided with hitting the torrential rain and high winds as we were just getting into Lincolnshire. After spending a few hours in the traffic, we turned off at the next exit and tried to find our way across to the M1. This took ages due to the weather and there being loads of huge puddles/flooding and closed minor roads. Me made the Trowell Services on the M1 for about 8pm, however the truck driver had to stop for a break as he had been driving for too long and the tacho on the truck was beeping at him. Another Recovery truck was arranged and the truck that got me there left back for London leaving me waiting for the next truck to arrive. Apparently there was a slight delay, but it shouldn't have been too long. At about 9pm I called to ask roughly how long it would be as I had to get to work for about 10.30pm and we were about 2 hours away so I would have been a bit late. Due to all the heavy local flooding/gales and roads being closed they said they didn't think they would be able to pick me up until tomorrow and said the RAC would pay for me to stay at the Travelodge at the Services. Understandably I was not impressed and in any case the Travelodge was full! After a lot of pratting around trying to get info from the RAC (took ages on hold each time before I could speak to anyone) and calling the recovery company it became clear that no one could get me and the bike home. Recovery guy said all there trucks were either busy or stuck due to the flooding, he said there were bits of the M1 and the A1 closed. The RAC man suggested calling me a taxi and leaving my bike at the services (without the steering lock or disc lock on so they could load it up easily in the morning), understandably I wasn't that keen on that idea! Managed to get the Travelodge to look after my keys so I could leave it locked up and then got the RAC to call me a taxi (more time on hold before I could speak to them). Get home bikeless at 1.30am this morning. Had the bike not have been playing up, I would still have had trouble driving in the torrential rain and high winds so I would have had to stop and stay somewhere anyway! Bloody weather!

After all this I finally got the bike back of Friday Morning, so 4 Days after calling the RAC!

Still despite the saga of getting home, it was still a Brilliant weekend. Roll on next year!

The rest of the pics can be found in my Gallery

Dave