Peter Twyman would normally write an account of international events but unfortunately Peter was unable to attend the Danish Summer Camp so, during the week, it emerged that this honour had fallen to me! What a fantastic week! The Danish BSA Club had invited members of all nationalities to their Summer Camp in the knowledge that many of us were unable to attend the Australian International Rally earlier this year. Even though the Danish Summer Camp was not an official 'International Rally' they had gone to extraordinary efforts to match the quality and enjoyment of recent Internationals. My wife Eileen and our two children, Emma and Matthew, set sail from Hull to Europort on the overnight Friday - Saturday crossing. We are amongst the trailer brigade. I make no apologies for that. Attending International Rallies has become an important part of our family life and using a trailer is the most convenient way for us to travel. However, I admire those who ride their BSA's to events and enjoy a unique sense of achievement on arrival. This year's Summer Camp in Denmark reminded us why we enjoy the Internationals so much. It was good to confirm old friendships and to make new friends. Each year we feel that our circle of friends within the BSA club gets bigger. One of the strengths of our club is that it accommodates people from all walks of life who have different attitudes towards classic motorcycling. We had originally tried to book with DFDS for their Harwich-Esbjerg crossing but trailer space on the car deck is so limited that booking before Christmas is essential. Thanks to Ray Jackson for all his help negotiating discounts with ferry companies. We arrived in Europort at about 8.00 a.m. on Saturday and drove the 480 miles through Holland and Germany to Jels. Eileen's map reading skills are improving and the children managed to suspend hostilities for the journey so we arrived in Jels at about 5.00 p.m. quite stress-free. I have a 1955 Shooting Star which has been my companion on the last three Internationals but this year, having just finished building the Rocket Gold Star copy, I decided to leave the Shooting Star at home and take the new steed. I was a bit worried about reliability because I had only put 100 miles on the clock, however the 15 yards from the trailer to the parking place (without engine running) proved no problem to my new pride and joy! Many others had already arrived. The group who arrived at Esbjerg had been escorted to the site by members of the Danish Club; another example of their fine organisation and hospitality. Robert Oldfield's A10 sounded very one-sided but the problem was soon identified - lost tappet nut down pushrod tunnel - no significant damage - lucky! John Ashton, who rode the long way round via Eurotunnel, had dynamo failure on his A10 (who needs lights anyway?!). Most other arrivals seemed fairly problem free. I should point out that John Ashton covered over 1500 miles during the week - It can be done! The site for the rally was Danhostel, Jels, an international youth hostel with basic indoor accommodation and camping facilities. There was a cafeteria and a very large sports hall where most of the serious socialising and recounting of the day's experiences was done. By early evening on Saturday the band was playing, thirsts were being quenched, old acquaintances renewed and the rally slipped effortlessly into gear. On Sunday there was a short official opening ceremony followed by a talk and demonstration of Viking heritage given by some chap from Cambridge (strangely!). In the afternoon there was a 'Puzzle Photo Run' which proved to be a sixty mile (should have been fifty miles but we got lost on a straight road!) round trip punctuated by challenges like 'doing a jig saw in one minute', 'dangling a piece of string in a canal' and 'fastening as many nuts to bolts as possible in a minute'. I was accompanied by Ronnie Cotton on his Gold Star and John Ashton of 'worn out A10 fame' for this event. It was great fun as we blatted through the Danish country lanes. I've not had a bike with clip-ons before and I soon learned that going slow is not an option! The roads in Denmark are long and straight with occasional tight bends, unlike the meandering roads we have in many parts of England. In Denmark you can get lulled into a false sense of security as a long, straight road suddenly becomes a tight, narrow bend. Ronnie was quite entertaining on one such bend. I don't know who won the 'Puzzle Run'; no doubt somebody out there can fill in the details. Monday saw the run out to Legoland which was about thirty miles from the site. We set off in groups escorted by Danish riders. The bikes were parked in a taped off area of the car park and guarded for the day. The area of Denmark where we stayed, Jutland, is not densely populated and it felt safe and crime-free. I'm sure the bikes would have been safe with or without guards. Legoland was fascinating. On Tuesday we set off, escorted by a Police motorcyclist, for the line-up at Kolding castle. As ever, the run to the line up was slow (average 25 mph?) but this is essential to maintain safety and to keep the group together - painful with clip-ons though. Kolding is a fishing port on the east coast of Jutland about thirty miles from our site. The Mayor of Kolding gave a very welcoming speech, telling us about the history of the castle and of Denmark's prowess as a fighting nation - apparently, prior to 1914, Denmark had been involved in four wars and lost all of them! Excellent food and drinks were laid on for us. I would guess there were about 130 BSA's in the line-up. (Apologies for not having this information but at the time I wasn't aware that I would be writing this report). Wednesday's main event was a long run out to Vadehav which is a land reclamation scheme on the west coast of Jutland. We could see lots of very interesting mud. A local guide instructed us to take off our socks and boots so that we could feel the warm mud squelch between our toes. Some of us left our boots on and got muddy, some entered fully into the spirit of the event and others like myself who have already had one satisfactory childhood, found the aroma of sausage and chips from the café quite irresistible. The mud squelching party was followed by a demonstration of dyke-vaulting by a local Danish expert with a long wooden pole. Jutland is a beautiful, unspoilt part of Denmark, clean and tidy with neat, well-tended gardens and little to attract typical tourists. We then rode on to Ribe, an historic town further up the coast. Ribe was very picturesque with narrow cobbled streets, pavement cafés and bars. We returned to Jels, had our evening meal and prepared for the Lucas 'Get Lost' night run. The early starters had an advantage because it was still daylight at 10.00 p.m.! I set off 21st at about 10.40 p.m. My standard 6v system proved adequate for reading the map at each junction but quite useless for seeing where I was going. According to the map, or my reading of it, some of the route took us through forest tracks. I remembered my moto-cross days as the stones clattered around the inside of my new mudguards and the back end stepped out on the corners! To my astonishment the first check-in arrived mid way down a forest track so I was following the correct route after all. All the check-ins were accompanied by a mathematical brain teaser. It was a spooky feeling riding around unfamiliar Danish countryside relying on Joseph Lucas for illumination. Occasionally I would come across other riders and arrival at the next check-in was always a relief. The final straight, main road, through the forest to the hostel was so welcome I gave the RGS a good blast, anticipating my return at the end of the run. It was good to be back amongst friends and family who enjoyed 'winding me up' and raising my expectations of victory. Thursday was a day of great expectations - Olympic Silly Games. The children fared well and competed with good spirit and mixed success. The teams were not organised according to nationality so national pride was never under threat. Sadly our adult team from England couldn't match last year's second place in Holland. We were full of anticipation. Trained by John (no surnames to protect the guilty now, it's too embarrassing), historically recorded by Ray, the team was soundly beaten into sixth (I think that's how many teams there were) place. On reflection we misjudged the nature of the competition. Eating pizzas, drinking the local falling down water and rehearsing the theme to the Dam Busters proved inappropriate training for the tests of athleticism which followed. We had only two short moments of glory, our captain was victorious over a German competitor in a test of strength in the sand pit and Tony lay perfectly still on the stretcher in the stretcher race. Tony found this quite easy as he had been crushed by Stuart in a previous event. So the team, Andrew, Stuart, Robert and Tony were led off to lick their wounds in the bar. On Thursday evening we watched a local tractor pulling competition which was quite amazing. This was just like Eurosport tractor pulling, but with smaller tractors with motorcycle engines. Thursday night's prize giving was likely to be a humiliating event as we applauded the finely honed and athletic Dutch team receiving their awards as Olympic Silly Games Champions; a good job there was no wooden spoon. This was followed by the prize giving ceremony for the 'Lucas Get Lost Night Run'. Our spirits were lifted as we heard Yours Truly had won the event and we all took turns in wearing the spoils of victory, a very smart 'First in the Lucas Get Lost Run' cap. Friday's competition was rowing on Jels Lake. Robert and I teamed up with Matthew as ballast. We were beaten into second place in our heat but put in a creditable performance. Later in the day, at the sumptuous barbecue, the prizes for the rowing were awarded to the Dutch victors. They received very nice medals but the days are gone when you would wear these at the disco. There were some other daft events like egg-throwing (without breaking the egg) and holding a beer bottle at a funny angle between your thumbs - we won both of these events. The finale of the week was a balancing game where the participant had to sit on two beer crates whilst balancing on a pole and knock two caps off a chair without falling over. Our own Ronnie Cotton, showing suitable British determination, won the event and collected the official Danish Summer Camp banner as his prize. What a week!! We had a brilliant time. The weather was fantastic. If ever you get the chance to go to an International, be there. The spirit of fun and comradeship is tangible and you will be made very welcome. I feel privileged to have attended the rally and privileged to have been asked to write this account. I'm sorry if I've missed out some details which would normally form part of a report like this. My final comment must be to the Danish BSA Club. Your organisation and hospitality were magnificent. The rally was as enjoyable as any International I have attended. Thank you.

Andrew Guttmann
(should any members wish to view other photographs of the rally they are available at http://community.webshots.com/user/andrewbsa)