New Brekkie Venue as we criss cross Kent & Sussex
Captains Report.
Those that had their names down duly arrived at the Meet Point despite of an ‘iffy’ forecast, so well done chaps. It amazes me how we all set store by the weather reports when we ALL know that the only sure fire way of knowing what the weather’s really doing is to stick your head out of the window…..so many blatting days must be lost to those few words ‘ possible showers’.
Anyhow….off we set and we learnt our lesson of the day – sorry folks but Saturdays are now an official ‘no go’ after 8am. Immediately we encountered 2 dawdlers and finally having got some clear roads we then picked up a 20 ton lorry down a fav section of road….bloody typical. The skies were threatening at this stage but it was still dry, the roads mainly dry with the odd bit of greasiness.
On we cracked the route taking us across Kent and into Sussex, the miles chewed up and spat out as we finally found some clear stretches of ‘black stuff’…..a stop for a ciggie at Northiam saw the rear gunners rejoin us and the owner of the local Cafe / Toy Museum popped out to say that he’d be happy to open a bit earlier if we give him fair warning – can’t say fairer than that.
There as was a smidge of dampness in the air now and the briefest of showers, the roads were now more wet than dry but we were still able to make good progress. In fact as has been said before, driving these cars in varying conditions for me at least makes it interesting – using the engine more for braking, reading the road ahead that bit further, gently easing on the juice, short shifting…..knowing that there’s a time and a place to deploy the loud pedal. Bloody brilliant.
Tony and I swapped cars for a mile or two as i was wondering about a noise or two that had appeared at the beginning of the run – i suspect that the exhaust needs repacking, its making a real rattly sound but the fixings are pretty secure so thats on the list for investigation. But i digress…….we finished the run as we started, held up by a great hulking bit of machinery…..but the showers that had been threatened hadn’t materialised and we rolled in ‘dry’ to the Cafe. The Eaterie this week being the lovely little Cafe at Marks Cross – yep warm enough to sit outside and as before they ‘looked after us’ with their interpretation of the ‘fixed price’ meal – mmm extras anyone
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By the time we headed for home there was a bit of wet stuff coming from above, not much and i managed to get the other side of tunbridge wells before the proper stuff started – wasn’t that bad really, still able to do the legal limit without a crash hat, bit of stinging but not enough to warrant the skid lid.
Interesting route, interesting roads and as usual decent banter. Great to see Duncan join us for his first(?) early blat. Where were the rest of you then??????