- Week ABR Festival 2023

[Amos Malone]

[UWSL]I'm not one of those that think that if there aren't few hundred posed shots of myself with a bike the trip was a failure. But unusually for me I took few pictures along the way this time.[/UWSL]
Since I took few photos I decided to add a trip here. This is after all a forum aimed at people travelling on ADV bikes.

In preparation for the trip I put a taller windshield on the bike. Awesome.

I then removed the itsy bitsy teeny weeny top box, and added my luggage for a long weekend trip. Tent, sleeping bag, large air mattress (because while low weight is important, comfort is importanter). Photos of loaded bike later. I'm not very good at this, am I?

After all that was ready. I proceeded to ride the 60 or so kilometers to Hoek of Holland. Where I waited in line for the StenaLine ferry to UK. Chatted with other motorists (one coming from riding the TET in Sweden) and then rode on board. No photos.
Ferry crossing was 7 hours of boredom. There is only so much you can do during a whole day on a glorified sea-bus. Although it has stores with duty free alcohol (not before riding), cosmetics (not my style, although at the end I was thinking about seeing what I was missing) and sweets (doesn't fit my diet restrictions). There is also a restaurant where you can purchase a mcdonald's equivalent of of a hamburger (with no ham, but bacon is an option), for 10 times the price, and a coffee shop, where I transfered few of the preciouses from my bank account, in exchange for a paper cone, with a flat bottom, filled with mud. Finally I found refuge in semi-comfortable chair, in front of a large wall mounted TV, where they were showing some people hitting yellow balls with a net on a stick. The aim seemed to be to hit the ball to each other, over another net, as fast as they could. Weird what people do for fun.

The sea-bus-ride was finally over and after riding ashore, showing my identifications to a bored guard, I was finally on UK soil.
Weird. They drive on the wrong side of the road on this island. After half an hour I found the pre-booked campsite. They had been smart and omitted telling me that the road to the campsite was closed. But I made it in the end. For some reason, probably related to the road closure, my tent had plenty of space around it.

Would you believe it? I had never used the orange ropes on this tent. It stands nicely with just few pins in the ground.

 

[Amos Malone]

Early next morning I packed up and asked the Map department of uncle Google's Megacorp "What we don't know about you is not worth knowing" for route guidance. It told me that I couldn't be where I was, so it couldn't route me away from there. You'd think it would know how to handle road closures more gracefully. Anyway, once I reached what it deemed to be an acceptable road, guidance was available and I started on my way to the ABR festival 2023. Like usual it completely ignored my settings to avoid highways and put me on the shortest route.
ABR, in this case, stands for Adventure Bike Rider. They lured me to attend this festival by the promise of early bird discount, large selection of alcohol, large selection of street foods, live music, numerous test rides on the newest adventure bikes, cheap swag for sale, dirt trail for biking on, many talks by some famous Utube persons, exhibition riding, free camping (as long as you paid for a ticket to the festival) and certainly not the least important, clean loos and free warm showers.

After checking in, next thing on the agenda was to find a place to camp.

And I found a place to camp. My tent is slightly to the right of the centre, in the distance where you can see all the little white spots. This photo is taken from the dirt trail, which at this spot is a misnomer.

Alas, in other places the naming was quite accurate. Thankfully I managed to finally locate the promised Muc-Off tent, and wash away most of the evidence of the bike having ever been offroad. I will also deny it having fallen and trapping my leg underneath, so needing help in getting it upright again (stop sniggering in the back, and no comments about little blue pills, or Mr. Flibble will be very cross). At least the dirt was soft and nothing broke.

At this point I had ridden about 420 km since filling the tanks (that cameltank is a nice range extender) and the fuel gauge indicated about 1/3 of a tank full. From experience that means there is at least 150 km of range left. To quote Mr. Millyard. "I was very pleased with that".
I do need to fix the bloody fork stiction. The combination of thick fork pipes and "light" bike makes it susceptible to that sort of misbehaviour. This has gotten beyond ridiculous.

 

[Amos Malone]

The only thing I want to add about the festival is that I did meet this lady. She seems just as nice as in the Utube videos.

After packing up early on Sunday I started on the route back home. Loaded bike during drink break. This was the point where I gave up and switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps.

It was a relief to be guided from the highway to the backroads, slower traffic, great weather, near identical positioning of bike.

Reached the camping site way too early so I camped, got rid of the luggage, and went on a ride through the neighbourhood. Managed to really scare some locals, and nearly kill myself, by riding for a short distance on the right side of the road. Day ended with a nice meal and drinks in nearby pub. The eagle eyed among you will notice that the orange lines are in use. That is because it was very windy. Photos are not good at conveying the wind situation.

Up early next morning to catch the Ferry to the mainland. Before boarding I stocked up on the most essential UK food staples, here conveniently kept right next to each other. I also got me some thickly sliced bacon.

This time I booked a cabin, took a long hot shower, watched videos and napped for most of the crossing. Home in time for dinner.