20 riders and 2 pillion passengers turned up at Sainsburys Barnstaple for the Autumn run organised and lead by Chris, now it seems that he has recently returned from a holiday in France and because he enjoyed such good weather, he decided we should have a bit of the same, because although it was quite cool to start, the whole days run turned out to be dry and sunny wow!. The bikes were lined up in front of the supermarket and a pretty tasty line up it was with 4 Vincent / HRD's and Tony's new Norton, also Ian who turned up on his trusty Norton which carried him recently on his 4 corners of the UK charity run, all these attracted a very interested crowd, many only to keen to explain their motorcycling experiences at length. Mike and John agreed to do rear Marshal duties so Chris gathered us around for a briefing during which he warned of the turn off the Bideford old bridge and the acute turn down to Weare Giffard. The run set off on time and we followed the old road into Bideford and on to the Torrington road prior to turning off to Weare Giffard, this was a new road for me and it seems for many of the riders. The run then passed through Torrington and on to the road to Exeter as far as Beaford where we turned off. We soon picked up the A386 passing through Merton and Meeth before turning up at Northlew for lunch. Whilst at the lunch stop, it became apparent that we had lost sight of Dermot somewhere on route, careful questioning and reasoning lead us to realise that he went adrift at the Weare turning, hoping he was OK and realising that backtracking that far was not feasible, I volunteered to ring to check he was ok as soon as I got home. The afternoon run saw us dive off towards Sheepwash, Peters Marland and Taddiport before arriving at Torrington Common for some ice creams. Many thanks to Chris for this run and for laying on the good weather, to Mike and John for rear Marshal duties. Now to put your minds at ease, I can tell you that I did ring Dermot as soon as I arrived home to find that he was safely home, it appears that it was the turning to Weare that lead to his downfall and the telling of how that happened will raise a chuckle when he tells you!, don't forget the last run of the season which is the Guy Fawkes run on the 6th November, now there is a small problem with this runs start, when I rang up today to make sure all was well with us to begin the run as usual from their restaurant, there was no reply and when I looked into it, it looks as if they are out of business so I am currently looking for a new start venue in Bampton so watch this space.
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| some of the line up |
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| time to sign on |
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| now who's looking guilty? |
