North Meets South – a Blatastic Day Out
Well where to start – at the beginning?
Actually we’ll reach back a tad farther. SKCC does indeed have some more Northerly members, actually scratch that – PALS. It was about time that a few Southerners reciprocated, the likes of Paul/Linda/Chris have all been down this way before, so why not venture ‘up country’. A win/win, see old pals, meet folks who’ve we’ve only ‘seen’ on the forum or on dodgy videos – and take in some new roads….Puuuuurfeck.
Yep, til we worked out the timing. ‘Bloody Hell Rodney’ – that’s early…..yep, the first meet was timed to LEAVE Lakeside at 05.50, but we figured we’d better have a coffee and a McThingy, so we were a tad earlier than that. Hats off to Duncan for his super early start from Eastbourne – although i did put a black mark in the book for ‘use of shower cap’ – sorry DJ, shower caos are for the fairer sex in the bathroom….
Duncan showing off his new ‘Cap’
So Richard, Tony B, DJ and myself knocked off 40 motorway miles to meet the rest of the Southern/Mid Posse….now i’ll admit that the instructions about where to meet were a little vague -‘ just as you exit the village, find somewhere and pull up’….so we did, only to find 15 mins later that so had the others – just not quite ‘as you leave the village’ – more like a couple of miles down the road…..so we had a slightly belated ‘real’ start.
Now we’d had a couple of showers between Lakeside and that first met, but the skies although threatening started to gradually give way to clearer, brighter patches…and the roads in many places were pretty dry, which was handy, because according to my Sat Nav the whole days planning/timing was looking – well IFFY. A look at the Sat Nav told me we’d be there at 10-45, only an hour and a quarter after the allotted slot…..
A pair of Tigers at Rutland….Paul being on the 2 wheeled version!
Now here’s where weird gets weirder….we have a pretty clear run and on B Roads with NSL we were at that point constantly – and yet the minutes refused to tick down….to the point where i was going into corners doing mental maths ( as well aas steering)….’How the Frig can it still be an hour and a half when we only have 50 miles to do’ ….repated at regular 5 mile intervals. I’m going to use that as my excuse for missing a few turns, but you know what, missed turns, dodgy waypoints – they’re part and parcel of having a laugh…which is what we’re all about.
For a change i’m not going to wax lyrical about the roads – but stand on me Guvnor they were brilliant, someone had turned them up to 11 ! Nope, today i’ll talk about the scenery, the villages were simply stunning, as were a number of the views….i could quite happily spend a wee while exploring that neck of the woods ( don’ ask me which neck of the woods – i’m about to try and find those pretty villages on google in a mo )….anyway where was i?
The Road Runner may be out of action – but Wiley B Coyote was ready for a pursuit.
Ah yes, finally as we neared Rutland Water the ETA versus Miles finally corrected itself, telling us that we’d be there about – spot on, but meanwhile Tony needed go go juice, thing was that i suspect that no sports car owners will be welcome back at that Garage after they realise who left them bereft of Air Freshener – it comes to something when the smel of petrol is preferable to what was left in their once spotless toilets…..
One kind of poop merged with another – a blooming Triathlon, heading for…..Rutland Water, what’s the chances eh? Worsened by the School Boy error of doing an ITN to the wrong Cafe – the one we stopped at last year was sooooo much better. Anyhoooo. We rocked up in teh car park with the others and the handshakes and welcomes flowed, a prelude to proper Banter. The Baps held so much promise but were a let down – and they struggled to comprehend the difference between black and white, either that or someone was on a wind up with the milk in my coffee!
Gratuitous ‘En-Masse’ shot
Now at this stage we’d been fed and watered and the group moved en-masse back to the cars to ‘do’ Lindas route that she’d kindly stitched together….except actually we weren’t en-masse:Richard and Mango were missing, so with engines fired up we waited a while wondering where they were and whether they’d join us ( they had mentioned just having Brekkie with us)….guys, apologies, we did hang around for a while, but clearly not long enough!
If the earlier mornings efforts in terms of wrong turns was my fault, i can only say – it wasn’t me. Nope, Tony/John ( midzero ) and someone else – cant think who all made little faux-pas, which made the running order – interesting. It was a neat little 70 miler to a Marina that Linda had found – nice one L, but on getting there we found that Tony who’d got lost within the first 3 miles was there, along with Paul, Lawrence ….no idea how that happened.
Richard Rocked up Late and took the easiest parking spot
Banter Round 2.
No idea what the topics were. but the hour or so that we were there went in the blink of an eye….and suddenly reality set in – mm we’d better get cracking. The group peeled off at various times and Tony and I made our way together toward Cambridge and then down the M11 – a nice uneventful run back.
No idea how many miles, to be frank, wouldnt matter if it was 300 or 500…..because irrespective it was a fantastic day. Great company, superb roads, nice weather – and what i’d call – an Adventure, something different to the normal Sunday Runs. In that vein i’d suggest that if you can you have a look at doing Grahams Cheddar Gorge Run – another adventure looming!