Travel pages

Working on Camping Moto in Bonlieu

Sunday, July 24, 1977
On Sundaymorning I left Camping Moto early in the morning to go to the Dutch church service in Geneva. It was about an hour and a half riding, on nice mountain roads, from Bonlieu to Geneva so I had a good start of the day.

I was right in time for the start of the service and I could park the bike in front of the church. It was a nice church service in a very beautiful old building. The Auditoire de Calvin is a small Gothic chapel built over a 5th-century church in the 13th-century. At the Swiss Reformation it became a Protestant lecture hall, where Knox preached and Calvin taught missionaries his doctrines.

The Auditoire de Calvin

The Auditoire is now used by the Dutch Reformed Community, the Waldensian Church of Italy and the Church of Scotland.
Source: http://www.sacred-destinations.com

After the service I chatted with some people and then I got on my bike again. I started the bike and then I heard a big bang and the top of my carburetor came off.
On my way from home to Bonlieu, I already noticed it was not mounted right but I was afraid to touch it because the bike was running fine.
After I screwed it back on, I started the bike again but now it ran at 13500 rpm, much to high so I switched off the engine.

With some help of two Dutch guys who were also attending the church service, I found that the throttle cable was stuck at full throttle. After I re-alligned the cable, the bike started and ran fine.

I had a nice ride back to Bonlieu and in I spend the evening with Fred, André and Nico in front of my tent, chatting and drinking.
André was a Dutchman from Wormerveer on a Honda CB350/4 and Nico was also a Dutchman. he was riding his BMW R90/6 from Wormer.

Monday, July 25, 1977,
The weather is awful. It is raining all day. Fred decided leave Bonlieu tomorrow, to ride to Italy because the weather is better there.

This Monday I met two guys from Denmark. Carsten and Michael are two brothers who came to France on a Honda CB350/4.
They have had some bad luck. On their way to Bonlieu they had three flat tires and on the dirtroad to Camping Moto, they crashed in the mud. Fortunately with no damage to man or machine.

Tuesday, July 26, 1977
This Tuesday, we made a nice trip to Lons. During this trip, we switched bikes a few times and I tried Nico his BMW R90/6 and André his CB350/4.

In Lons I wanted to buy longer cables for my little Honda but at the bikeshop they had no cables in stock.

We had a nice ride but unfortunately it is raining again.

Wednesday, july 27, 1977
It was a rainy day again. There was not much to do except sitting in the bar.
In the bar I chatted with Chris, from Australia, who was "doing Europe" on his Harley Chopper with Amen frame. he was with his friend Pete who was riding a Norton 850.
They gave me the address of a chopper shop in England, Kustom Korner on 38a Alpha Road, Westgreen, Crowley, Sussex in England.
Note: Later, when touring in England, I visited this shop

Thursday, July 28, 1977
Simon and two French girls on a Yamaha DT125 who were camping next to me, left the campsite today. It was raining all day and some parts of the campsite looked like a swamp.

In the evening, I was bartender at the camping bar until three o'clock in the morning (A nice job that I like to do).

Friday, July 29, 1977,
Ben and joyce and Thieu and Regine, some people I hang out with the last few days, left Camping Moto today on their Kawasaki 1000 and Ducati 860.

Because of the rain, there are only twenty tents left on the camping. Fortunately, a few new guests arrived. Two Brits, both on Triumphs.

Saturday, July 30, 1977
This evening we got twentyfive unexpected guests and the kitchen turned into a madhouse when twentyfive hungry bikers needed a meal.....
Officialy it was not my turn to work in the kitchen but because it was very busy in the kitchen I helped to prepare the meals.

Unfortunately, because of the work in the kitchen, I forgot to light the oil-lamps in the toilets and bathrooms. When Gerben, the camping owner found out that the lights were not burning, he was very mad at me and started calling me names. I told him that I would not work for him that way and that I would leave. That made him calm down and later we could talk about it.

Sunday, July 31, 1977
This morning I went to church in Geneva again. Because of the bad weather, I used the freeway to the Col de la Faucille. It was raining all the way until I arrived in Geneva.

When I arrived back at the campsite, after the church service in Geneva, Gerben his Landcruiser was stuck in the mud in the middle of the campsite. We tried all afternoon to get the car out of the mud but nothing worked. The bumper winch on the Landcruiser had a broken safety pin and when we replaced it, the pole we tried to used to pull the car out of the mud came loose. Finaly, Gerben asked a farmer who lived nearby to pull the car free with his tractor and that worked.

In the afternoon, a Scottish professor and his wife arrived on their BMW R90s. He was an interesting character. He was the first who crossed the Sahara desert on a motorcycle, had been a sidecar racer and his house is always open for fellow motorcyclists. His name was Aanon Aanonsen. He could speak all European languages, including Dutch !

Monday, August 1, 1977
Finaly we had a little sunshine today (just a little). the campsite is a swamp. Fortunately, my tent is on dry ground but the tents next to mine were standing in a pool of water.
Because of the mud, I leave my bike at the camping building on the concrete pavement.

Tuesday, August 2, 1977
Today was a warm and sunny day !
Kees and I went to Clairvaux on his Triumph Trident. It is a very nice bike with good roadholding and a nice sound. In the evening, Chris went to Clairvaux on Kees his Triumph and this time I went there on my own little Honda.
Because of the winding road. I had no problem keeping up with Chris on the much bigger Triumph. In Clairvaux, we had a beer and then we went back to the campsite.

Camping Moto

Then we saw a policecar coming in the distance. We all jumped on our bikes. I had left my bike on the campsite so I got on the back of Kees his Triumph and we went to Clairvaux. It was a fun day.