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Email to the editor: 
The Little Newsletter for
Citroën-Friends
Vol. 28, 2008 - founded 1981
Zuletzt aktualisiert: 19. März 2008
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3rd Mini-Raid Vehu
Feb 1st-4th, 2008
We long for Finland because we want to experience real winter, with snow, cold temperatures, sauna, 2CVs. In southwestern Germany, the first snow of this winter came just in time at February 1st around 1 p.m. on the runway of Hahn Airport. We sit in a Ryanair plane to Finland. The captain informes us that due to ADC regulations we will start ten minutes late. What are "ADC regulations"? What about "Austrian Drinking Club Regulations"?
Anyways, they run out of time, the de-icer is freezing again on the wings, the snowstorm is increasing, and so we spend our leisure time in the cozyness of a beautiful grounded discount airplane. A few hours later, we succeed in leaving Germany. The landing at Tampere remids me of the spectacular pictures of the near-crash landing a pilote produced in March in a fierce crosswind situation. Against all odds, we finally leave the plane alive and enter the Promised Land of snow, sauna, liquorice and 2CVs. Aided by Günther's GPS we find the old Vehu School House in the middle of nowhere between Helsinki and North Cape.
The
welcome in Vehu is all the more heartfelt. You can rely on Finnish tradition:
In the foirst night, the organisers mix an extraordinarily horrible Enough
Drink. Tradition requires that each time the international mix drink from
ingredients all participants bring from home develops a different taste.
This time, it was really different: Imagine a mixture of sage tea, water
color brush rinsing water, chili con carne and liquorice, gernished with a
sufficient percentage of alcohol.
As a reconciliation the sauna oven is burning, the bathtub is steaming, and the buffet is loaded with delicious dishes. Particularly on Saturday: Degustation is the menu. According to the ancient Asterix tradition, each participant brought some delicacy from his country. We had stuff from Sweden, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Germany - tasting Europe without borders!
Music as well is part of the Finnish tradition. On 2CV raids and even on world meetings, for several years the "Frozen Duck Band" has appeared, in constantly changing cast. This time, we are particularly pleased that two new young talents were on stage: Pasi, Jukka's son and his friend Jaakko who as well comes from a 2CV family.
2CVs
and their derivatives of course are most welcome at Vehu. In 2008, compared
to the previous year, the number of A type Citroëns increased by 25% to 5
(five). Another 2CV we discovered on a neighboring farm. It was not quite in
running order. The trip there is shown on this videoclip.
Nevertheless, Mini Raid Vehu is not a 2CV raid in the true sense. So the daily activities even more focused on winter sports without 2CV. Almost without 2CV: The picture to the left shows the qualities of a duck with boot extension as a SUV (Sports Utility Van): It is perfectly suited as a ski bus. It can handle nine sets of skis, no problem, even more would have been possible.
The
raid Olympics this time consisted of a push-sled race, a hit-beer-cans-with
snowballs-competition, and cardboard cup-throwing. For us the motto was:
Participating is all. We did not win the Vehu cup because of our weakness
throwing beer cans. The German-Austrian team KAHA EAGLES with Karin &
Harald made it, congratulations.
No news from the north? Far from it: each time, the Fins top themselves with crazy ideas. This time, we visited the turf sauna at Ähtäri. A small company here produces some kind of healing earth from the naturally in abundance occurring peat. In the sauna, we applied the provided peat to our hot skin which rejuvenated the participants to a total chill factor of 384 years. For understandable reasons, the editor has censored the photos a little bit. The complete pictures are available on request. From the faces you can read the childish fun we had with this extraordinary spa treatment.
The
increasing populartity of the Mini Raid Vehu is reflected by the number of
participants. Compared to the previous year there is a 90% gain. An
extrapolation into the future reveals the number of participants to be
88,533 in 2020 and 54,279,922 in 2030.
Last but not least, we do not want to leave another curiosity unmentioned: Nalle's Triple-Chevron Acadiane. Her beautiful license plate "EOF 259" is his end of file contribution to this text.
More photos, statistics and results of the competitions can be found on Jukka's Raid homepage.
Text
and pictures by Karsten Auto Kivi
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except the panoramic view on top which is by Alain, Tine, Nille and Sam
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