LA-OR

4th International Atlas Rallye
25-27/09/2015, Vielsalm, Belgium

Right before the weekend the bad weather covering Europe switched to cloudy but dry and relatively warm conditions. Friday evening five Atlas riders vom Switzerland, Germany and UK met at the well known motorrijders herberg "Baton Rouge" owned by the Laverda fanatics Ben and Hetty.

After a perfectly prepared belgian "Carbonnade" and some glasses of wine and belgian beer, we joined the dormitory - together with another two dozends of dutch and danish motorcycle riders - what a great sound background of snores and nightmare-cries (at 5 o'clock in the morning I took my covers and installed myself in the garage between the motorcycles to get at least two hours of sleep).

Saturday morning we got on the road to Han-Sur-Lesse, following the picturesque river Ourthe, just to arrive at Han covered by a grey and colorless mist. After a coffee break we got on the small train that brought us to the entry of the caves. What began as some "nice couloirs" turned into aahs and wows the deeper we went into the mountain, reaching its climax with a "son et lumière" show in the "chamber of arms". When we left the mountain the sun had blown away the mist and Roberto and I did pick up the occaision to get a packet of frites - a must when you are in Belgium. With a litte delay we went on the route back. It was pure irony that while avoiding the few "offroad" sections originally included in route we unvoluntary took a "road" that turned into gravel, later mixed with rocks and ending in a big hole of mudd, where one of our riders slided away, costing him one indicator and a slighly luxated shoulder that later showed to be less painfull than we first estimated.

With those delays, we had to shorten the route a little bit to arrive just in time for the delicous barbecue that Hetty had prepared for her guests. After a funny evening the motorriders went to the dormitory - I and regained my snorking-free sleeping place in the garage between the exhaust cans.

The route (ok, the return was quite different...)