36th edition of the LTV Nachtrit

Yesterday evening (Saturday the 25th of October) the already 36th edition of our annual night ride took place. And as in previous years I did a last minute check on the day before the event with a friend. Usually this is a rather relaxed affair. But this year we were seriously plagued by constant new roadworks starting along the 262 kilometre long route. Which meant constant route changes in the last two weeks before the event.

As the weather forecast for the Saturday had been rather bleak, ‘t Kreng was left at home and my LaRo again was the car of choice. Turned out be a wise choice. The rain kept us company all day long, as a result of which the roads were rather slippery in places. The wet leaves on the road didn’t help here. The permanent four wheel drive of my LaRo certainly was an advantage. And due to the bad weather plus the time pressure I didn’t stop for some pictures. Though the autumn colours were rather splendid despite the heavy rain.

As for the route; the last version was uploaded to my GPS-device around 11:30 PM on the Friday evening! Roger also had developed three alternative diversions because we were not sure whether the road sections concerned were open for traffic or not. One section which should have been open turned out to be still closed for traffic. But another one that should have been closed was open again. Could be worse. Till we hit the last part of the route. At around 200 kilometres into the route we encountered a road closure in the small village of Solwaster. Sadly it was the only through road through the wooded area between Sart-les-Spa and Jalhay. As the roadbook so far had been pretty accurate we decided to message Roger about the situation and head directly to the start. This way we might be able to assist with these last minute changes.

Luckily when we arrived at Rolduc Abbey, which was again the start and finish location for the event, Roger already had an alternative ready and on a flip-over for the navigators to copy. And at 5:01 PM the first car was flagged of, traditionally this was the Triumph Stag of Léon.

There was nothing more we could do but watch the 37 teams, with 4 different nationalities and a nice mix of oldtimers and youngtimers, heading into the night. And take a few pictures of course:

After which the long wait for the first teams to return could start. Turned out that most teams managed to finish without to many problems. And it was good to hear that most entrants had enjoyed themselves.