It does come hard though when you have to finally leave the relative comfort of a sleeping bag - even one getting damper by the hour and still smelling of petrol, and face the sodden reality of your clothing and footwear. I've done a lot of camping over the years, often preferring to camp rather than stay in a hotel, so be reduced to this situation after less than 24hrs is a mark of how much I'd misjudged the conditions. I'd come prepared for snow covered frozen ground and much colder temperatures and most of my equipment would have worked well under those conditions. I might even have been able to get the bike inside and near the tent but of course this time it was about a quarter of a mile away and still containing a lot of stuff like my stove and food staples like coffee etc. To get to it meant trudging through the mud each way so it was easier to go and buy a cup of coffee from the bratwurst van. By the time this was done and some "housekeeping" in the woods adjacent to the next field undertaken it was mid morning. I didn't really have a plan for the day beyond having a better look round the site and seeing what other people were getting up to. There was a published agenda in the booklet everyone got on buying the ticket but it didn't exactly fill the day with must do activities. For example, there was a breakdown service available all day, but as I didn't have any problems I had no need of it. Looking at the state of some of the other machinery though, that may not have been the case for everyone! Other things on the agenda included a prize for the oldest and youngest participants coming together and a prize for the furthest traveled - won this year by someone coming from Dakar in Senegal - via Russia, and covering 14,000km. All I can say is that, having been to Dakar, the German climate may have come as a bit of a shock! The main event and the centerpiece of the rally in the past has been the torchlight parade on Saturday evening but more about that a little later.
For the time being my main task for the day was to buy one of the metal Elefantentreffen badges that I'd been told were on sale at the organisers kiosk down in the arena. This was the same kiosk that someone had come close to burning down the previous night when someone set off some sort of military style flare under the wooden steps next to the cabin and for a few minutes it looked like it might all be reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes, but some frantic work by about half a dozen people managed to put the flames out before any serious damage was done so it was open as usual the next day. I wanted the badge because I already had similar badges from the two previous venues where the rally had been held in the past - the Nurburgring in northern Germany where it had been from the start in 1956 until 1977 and the Salzburgring in Austria where it went to between 1978 and 1988. The rally then found the current site and 2013 was the 25th anniversary of the move. It moved from the Nurburgring because, according to Google translate's version of the german explanation in the booklet, "meet the elephants attracts more and more curious with cars and buses in from nearby rough of towns. A dispute of about 40 participants with the police is the Nurburgring from the". There's definitely something missing from the translation but you probably get the idea even though it doesn't mention someone getting shot!
Paul and Rob, two of our quartet from the Regensburg hotel were leaving on the Saturday so we gave them a hand hauling stuff up to their bikes. It wasn't the conditions or anything that was driving them away, they'd only planned to stay one night. That done and the badge bought Dave and I went for a wander around the site.
It was very quickly apparent that many people were taking this very seriously and had come prepared for the conditions - whatever they might be. Straw bales and something to burn the copious amounts of wood for sale by the entrance were the "menu de jour" and treating it, as we had done, as a weekend's winter camping, was just a route to misery.
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Mind you, some people were even further towards the minimalist end of the spectrum than we were -
Saturday afternoon saw an influx of daytrippers. You could easily spot them as they were normally clean rather than the usual Wehrmacht preparing for the next invasion of Russia look that anyone who'd been there a day or two was sporting. Late Saturday afternoon saw the pinnacle of that - a German TV crew covering the rally. I'm not quite sure where you go to buy designer clothing suitable for wandering around sewers but wherever it is the glamorous female presenter had found it and was suitably attired. Dave insisted on a photograph with her -
Shortly after than picture was taken they went off to cover one of the organised events, the tug-of-war. This was held in the middle of a sea of mud so the end result may have been determined more by boot choice than technique. I've no idea who was taking part let alone who won but the TV presenter lady and the cameraman were in the midst of it all filming and interviewing. Occasional cheers went up when one side or another won a point but by far the loudest cheer was heard when she fell over in the mud -
Some people do get all the best jobs!
The usual reason for falling over in the mud was an excess of alcohol and that was certainly the case with Martin -
Martin was a German farmer and was there with a bunch of about 15 friends. They'd come prepared and their lean-to style tent (visible next to the yellow bike in the picture above) was laid out inside with numerous straw bales and a DIY stove made from a washing machine drum. Dave and I got invited back to their abode and spent the evening talking complete nonsense about the linguistic similarity between the phrases "Isle of Man" and, well work it out for yourself, but you need to say it in a German accent to get the effect. A few beers would probably help as well as you need the look in the picture on the right below for it to make sense.
At some point in the course of the evening I managed to lose my hat. I'd been trying to dry it out and having put it on my knee rather to get it closer to the fire I'd been watching steam drift upwards as the fire warmed it up. Later on I began to wonder whether it was smoke rather than steam as it did feel quite hot and I must have put it down somewhere. Then I realised I didn't have it at all. It hadn't fallen in the fire so it must be around but even a search with a torch turned up nothing. It wasn't so much the hat that was the problem but the three Elefantentreffen badges that were on it. I could buy another 2013 badge the next day but the two earlier badges were irreplaceable. Later on when Dave and I went back to our tents he found some other later night German revelers to continue partying with but I just went to bed as I was really niggled by the loss of the hat. It had to be somewhere but if it had been trampled into a pool of mud it would never be found.
At one point when we were sitting around Martin's washing machine stove the torchlight parade came down the track towards us. This is the centrepiece of the rally and it's to "honour the departed", to quote from the brochure. On previous occasions this has been a huge procession snaking for miles around the Nurburgring in particular and I've taken part in it holding a large flaming torch on the pillion of a friend's bike. This year I saw two torches. If I hadn't known what it was I'd have just thought it was a couple of people trying to see where they were going by setting fire to a few branches. Maybe I missed it and the long procession was over the other side or something but if that was it it really needs an upgrade. Guys, you can do better than that.
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