It’s Back!
Yep, the Midsummer Madness trip to France is back in the EKAM calendar after a 3 year hiatus.
“Brilliant” I thought, “I really need something like that to blow away the cobwebs of the last few months”, so I pinged and email to Sarah as soon as I could.
You don’t know what MSM is, if you have joined EKAM in the last few years, you will have seen a few UK based trips with this label, but the true MSM was always a one day trip to France riding your bike in and around the Pas De Calais, with 20+ EKAM compatriots. Stating at Dover docks at an ungodly hour on the Saturday closest to Midsummer as we could get, and returning on a late ferry. The trips have always been popular in the past, but Covid and the loss of special rates with P&O put paid to the trip over the past few years.
Undaunted, Sarah Farbrace, Mark Mascall and Stuart Faulkener, persisted with the idea, until Sarah managed to persuade P&O to come up with a great one day return rate of just £25 per bike. Awesome.
So where was I, oh yes I’d ping Sarah email as soon as I found out the trip was back on, but it was not to be the provisional 25 slots had booked up as soon as the announcement had been made. “Booo” ... Then I got another message from Sarah, she had secured a few more places and I was in... “Yay!”, for this I had to promise to be a ride marshal and lead a leg. She drives a hard bargain, but hey a day in France is worth it.
So there we were 6am on Dover docks waiting for the Ferry, 29 bikes and 30 odd riders and pillions, all catching up in the glorious Dover sunshine. We were sat behind a group of cyclists, one of which had a bike with impossibly long front forks (see facebook for the images). When asked why it had been done, the simple answer was “because I can”, yep, I can relate to that.
Mark M was already in France and had texted to warn us that the weather was not quite so good over the water, so be prepared.
The ride onto the ferry was an eye opener, gone was the slippery deck and ramp, knotted and rotted straps and rusted hooks that made strapping the bike down such fun in the past. The ship was spanking new, new ratchet straps and tie down hoops made the job much easier. The ship’s interior was pristine, just a shame that breakfast was a choice of cardboard and coffee (cold sarnies or pastries and hot drinks is your lot unless you pay the extra £20 for access to the upper lounge. Hey ho.
An hour later we pulled into Calais docks, after a quick briefing. Turns out the old meeting point was gone, the port had a completely new layout, so first ones off were asked to find a good place for us all to regroup, which turned out to be a much better car park area by the French customs offices.
Once we all gathered, Sarah did a headcount and Stuart lead us off on the first leg to Montreuil.
Within minutes of leaving the port, the heavens opened up. The gods were pouring bucket or water at us, and all I could think was, “hey ho I’m gonna get wet but who cares” as I trundled past the first few roundabouts leaving Calais. As soon as it started the rain stopped, and despite a few odd showers we managed to dodge the rain for the rest of the day.
It was great to be back on the French roads, with little traffic, reasonable surfaces (for the most part) , and quaint northern French villages. Starting off along the great coast road through Sangatte to Wissent, we went passed village after village each one bringing back memories of other rides; Rinxent, Arlinthun, Longfosse, Samer; the list went on. The ride was flowing and reasonably paced, which was fine by me being on the Harley, I happily let the progressive rider past, and then rattled and thumped my way along taking in the scenery.
The drop off system was working a treat as I pasted marker after marker showing the way to go. Until on passing Mark M (who had now joined the group) I followed the road around at one of the odd “priorité à droite” junctions with no marker. Quick aside, anyone who knows me knows I have been in the club a fair while, most of that I have been the club social ride coordinator, ride leader and part of the MSM team in the past. Some of you have probably heard the comment from my lips. “If there is no marker, then keep on the main road or straight ahead”, so what did old numb nuts do, I followed the road to the right! After a while of not seeing anyone behind and a few dodgy turns I would have expected to see a marker at I realise I had lost the group..Doh! Oh well we weren’t far from Montreuil so I phone Sarah quickly to say not to worry I’d meet everyone there. Plugged in sat nav and headed off along a few lovely little roads until pulling into the main square at Montreuil, I spotted Mark and Stuart heading off for fuel, so I joined them.
Having filled up, we parked up with the rest of the group, and I decided to forgo the numerous restaurants in the town (where have all the traditional cafes gone!) and grabbed a wrap from the local Carafor, dodging the rain as I ate it and chatted with a few other like minded from the group.
Caught up with Sarah, after lunch who asked me to spread the word that anyone wanting fuel needed to get it and get back here as the group had to leave to keep to the tight schedule. Have you ever tried to get 30 bikers to organise into a single trip to a fuel station and back.. It was a bit like trying to catch water in a fishing net. Eventually the message got around and the group came together to set off on a the next leg for a coffee at Desvres.
After another, shorter but dry ride we stopped for coffee, but being a bit short for time many chose not to drink at this point, endured another sprinkling of rain whilst taking part in motorcyclist’s second favourite topic, gassing (about bikes!). As I was leading the next leg I took the opportunity to set up the sat nav and check the route loaded OK, before we all mounted and were off again.
Things didn’t go quite so well, as my sat nav struggled with the direction out of the car park. Well I thought it was one way, the sat nav said the other. Trusting technology, I set off... in the wrong direction, totally 180 degrees off. Fortunately the FSN as I came to call it (last two letters mean Sat Nav, use your imagination for the first!) adjusted just in time for Stuart to pass me pointing the other way. Good start!
Simple matter to loop around and go back, but this was to be a theme on the journey back to Calais, the FSN just seems to be ‘off’, which resulted in 2 missed turnings, and twice the ride passing itself on both carriageways of the road. I was getting a little stressed, and to top it off the rain started and the roads seemed to become super slippery, I only seemed to look at the front brake and the ABS was kicking in, I must have looked like a complete donkey to anyone following. I got to the point that as FSN showed a change in direction I was slowing down to make sure I was going right (or left come to that!) and we eventually made it to the big round-a-bout by the Port. I knew exactly where I was, so when the FSN told me to turn off the round-a-bout to early, I though “oh no you don’t”, and proceeded on to the correct exit... which actually isn’t anymore (the port has been restructured remember). So, round the round-a-about I and a few others go, to get to the correct exit (I swore the FSN said “I told you so” as we turn off).
The customs and ticketing area was busy, and we were a tad late. Many of the group got through to the correct ferry, but I got stuck behind a van and trailer with a car on the back, that seems to be causing issues, fortunately in the lane beside me Tony, waved me in. We’d both been given tickets with the printed loading lane overwritten by another number as we were told this was the correct land for our ferry back. Once through customs Tony and I headed for the given lane, but the area was deserted, not even the bikes we had seen recently were there. I had that sinking feeling something was not right, so whilst Tony went off to see if there was a coffee machine or anything around (we had a 4 hour wait now as we realised, we had missed our ferry), I called Sarah to let her know. Turned out we were not the only ones about 9 others had arrived at the same spot, only to be redirected to a different lane, which happened to be the original stamped on the ticket. So off we toddled back tracking to the new lane, which was the other side of the docks. Fortunately, as we arrived there were the other bikes, and a lovely shopping area and cafe/lounge.
After a few more hours of nattering, we were on the ferry and headed home.
Despite the hiccoughs on the last leg, it had been a great day out and I look forward to next year’s dose of MSM.
Just want to apologise to those that got back late, if it hadn’t been for the odd detour, we probably would have been on the same ferry at the end of the day.
So, for some good news. For those who wanted to go, but missed out, Sarah has organised an MSM rerun in September. Priority will be given to those who did not blag a ticket this time around so get your name to her if you are interested.