On our way at the ferry port - the S3 makes a pretty good tourer, especially with a screen fitted. Mine's fitted with rearsets and that makes a difference as I find that the original hangers/footpegs are too far forward. Adam has Le Mans 1 hangers fitted to his S3

A nice Airone that t urned up - sorry, I can't remember what year or who owned it (probably due to my hangover) but it was one of several very nice singles at the event.

A view of our table after the awards ceremony - a bit like the Oscars really. Our "Travelling further than anyone else" award and the fabulous "Best Wreck" award won by our Dutch friend with the great unwashed Cali II.

Me and Adam - lovingly nicknamed the "Adams Family by the Belgians" were lucky enough to win the award for coming the longest distance out of anyone at the rally. I like that idea - give someone an award to come and have a brilliant weekend away. Here Adam can barely contain his joy at receiving the award, especially as he had to hand it over to me as we realised that I had actually travelled 3 miles further than him (from my house to his house!!). The "Verstkomende" trophy now takes pride of place on my mantelpiece cos it's the first thing I've ever won in my life.

A beautiful 750S - it was so clean and polished that it made our S3s look like a couple of old rusty wrecks. The standard of some of the bikes on the continent is incredible.

Some Dutch Guzzi riders - on the left, Mary and Nico from Amsterdam who were on their first rally for many years. I embarrassingly can't remember the name of the bloke on the right (if you know him, let me know) but they were all hearty company on the Saturday night as we drank, ate and talked. The man whose name I forgotten was on a Cali II that he hadn't washed for 9 years and done about 250,000 km on - naturally he won the "Best Wreck" award later that evening (see below). Top people.

The check-in tent at the entrance to the chateau - the organisation was first class and the whole weekend went without a hitch, which is testament to the enthusiasm and commitment of the Belgian Guzzi Club members who put the whole weekend together.

This guy rolled up on Sunday morning while everyone was packing to leave on this V7 chop. Apparently he's late every year. His bike was very individual and nicely done -
great paintwork etc.

A view looking the other way from the chateau.

This is an overhead view of where the weekend took place - absolutely stunning. It's a 17th century chateau belonging to the Count of Ribeaucourt, who actually gave a brief talk about the history of the place - unfortunately it was all in Flemish so we didn't understand but it sounded interesting anyway. To the left is a large lake (not shown) and a house containing several large peacocks - these noisy birds were to play a significant role in people's inability to get a decent night's sleep in the tents. The shot below looks the other way up the path towards the building that housed the bar and shower block.

A shot from the awards ceremony - the elderly chap pictured here is called Franz, in his eighties, and was there with his extended family, all of whom seemed to ride a beautiful Italian motorcycle of one make or another. I think he won the award for best single, a Falcone, and I chatted to him for a bit - he had some amazing tales to tell about bikes he had owned over the years.

Note Jochem's megaphone, lovingly hand crafted from a Belgian traffic cone. Did the job though.

Self-portrait, Saturday morning, 8.30am, in my tent, after sampling the delights of Belgian beer and hospitality on an empty stomach the night before after riding from London after nearly a whole days work and being woken up by what seemed like every hour by the bloody peacocks that although regal and beautiful don't seem to go to sleep like other normal birds. Still, the weekend got better and better from this moment on...

Some people reckoned that this V7 sidecar combo should have won best wreck, but it was a beautifully evolved rat bike owned by a scary looking Dutchman. I think he won "Most Unlucky Breakdown" because his pulley powering the dynamo snapped but he still made it to the weekend.
Don't know if he made it home though.