The activities were endless and the week passed very quickly: Live band and dancing every night, yummy food and tasty drinks, treasure hunt and visits to manor houses, bog walk and swamp water tastings, parade with 200 motorbikes, castle visit and medieval culture, fundraising in aid of women less fortunate, camping and crispy cold nights… and most important of all, meeting old friends and making new ones. This is what I love the most about WIMA rallies.
This year, for the first time, I had to fly in to a European rally. Sadly, my bike had to be stored away in Barcelona and I got on a flight and flew the 3300 kilometres to Tallinn. This might not be common knowledge, but the vacation periods differ vastly in Europe and in Spain the holiday period is August, so when I return home my official holiday begins and I’ll be heading up into the Pyrenees for riding and camping, taking advantage of the lovely mountains we have so close to home. But I’m getting ahead of myself. At the moment, I’m still in Sweden visiting my parents, my sister and her baby, relaxing with friends and savouring the good memories from the WIMA rally. Since I was working until the Saturday before the rally, I had the pleasure of getting home from work every evening checking Facebook, following others’ journeys and reading about good fortunes and motorbike breakdowns. I could see how friends from all over the world slowly made their way towards Estonia. I could see what weather they had and where they were staying for the night. Likewise, now after the rally, I can follow my friends, en route back home, with pleasant detours to make the most of the journey and finding enjoyable roads to ride and places to see while I spend time with my parents, who I haven’t seen in a year.
Everyone makes their own memories, here are some of mine:
This was the Estonian WIMA rally represented in pictures, I wish I had more photos to share with you, as always, the photos don’t do the event justice.
Below, I’ll share some links where WIMA and WIMA members been interviewed by the media:
On the local TV channel TV3: WIMA Rally parade and visit to the Rakvere castle. Contains interviews with Keiko, the national president of WIMA Japan, Elsbeth member of WIMA Switzerland, Liv, member of WIMA Australia and Anneli, national president of WIMA Estonia. It starts with an advert, then scroll forward to minutes 21.20 – 24.54 for the relevant section of the programme.
Photos from the parade in the local online newspaper Virumaa Terataja.
Interview with Sheonagh from WIMA GB in Virumaa Terataja.
Before the parade, a little jig. Kindly posted on YouTube by Veronica Vefur.
Coverage of the parade with some great footage in the local car magazine Accelerista. (Thanks to Gerli, WIMA Estonia, for sending me this link and the following!)
YouTube video by Hannes Arus, showing the entire group when arriving in Rakvere finishing the parade.
And the media attention doesn’t end here, members of WIMA Curacao were interviewed at the Jögevatreff, Estonia’s largest bikemeet which took place the weekend after our WIMA rally.
Lastly, I am proud to announce that I have been elected international president of WIMA. I look forward to working further with female riders worldwide and strengthening our sisterhood. Perhaps less time for the blog, but more time connecting with women motorcyclists.
Next year, our international rally will be held in Finland and I look forward to travelling there and meeting my friends again. But WIMA is more than a one week rally once a year – it is an endless possibility of networking, building international friendship and connecting with female riders all over the world.
Updated with new links to different media coverage, you’re welcome to contact me if you know of anything else I could add and share with our WIMA community.
