31st Edition of “De Nachtrit”

Yesterday evening (Saturday the 26^th of October) saw the already 31^st edition of our Nachtrit. An annual night time navigational rally over a challenging and varied collection of mostly dark country lanes in the Dutch, Belgian and German border area. But it also meant that it was an early start for me and my navigator Jos, as we had the task of carrying out the final check of the route.

But in the end that task proved rather entertaining, as the weather was rather fine and the problems with the road book or route itself were limited. So I was able to enjoy driving the car over some very fine roads in the Euregio (and some a little less, as in being typical Belgian quality 😜).

View of Chateau Beusdael with the valley of the river Geul in the background,

on the Belgian/Dutch border (B)

Land consolidation road south of the village of Vlijtingen (B)

The village of Eysden (NL) and the valley of the river Maas,

seen from the plateau above Lanaye (B)

Rural landscape north of Charneux (B)

And despite a few photo stops and a leisurely lunch break in the restaurant at the halfway point, we covered the ± 245 kilometre route fairly quickly. As a result of which we were back at Rolduc Abbey, well before the start of the event at 5:00 pm. It was a very nice drive indeed.

Plenty of time left for some well-deserved koffie & vlaai and to have a closer look at the various cars that were entered this year. To start with the wedges that were entered this year. Good to see their number had risen from 3 to 4 since last year!

And some of the other entrants. To start with this lovely ’38 Simca:

But it was also good to welcome an English entry from Club Triumph again in the person of Michael and navigator Andy with their TR6. Here flanked by two Reliant Scimitars;

And it didn’t take long before it was time for the first cars to set off at a one minute interval:

With all cars gone the organising committee’s only task left was wait for the teams to return in about six hours. All very, very annoying (not!), with a table booked in the abbey’s restaurant and the bar in the cellar open to visit after he meal.

And with the exception of one car, that had to retire because the lights stopped working, all teams returned safely back at Rolduc. With the first car finishing around 22:45 o’clock (and actually being the last to leave). See you all next year for the 32nd edition!