After starting work early Thursday so I could get on the road before midday, all was going to plan until, you guessed it Birmingham M5 / M6. Is there any day and any time when it isn’t clogged with traffic? To make things worse it was torrential rain as well. But after Stafford it had eased and the speed limit was a heady 40mph. By Warrington it had turned to a drizzle and by Preston the sun was out. Basically, a typical English day. (Just thought can I say English day?).
I didn’t make it for wine o’clock, but my wine did while I was putting up my tent. I found out I was on the naughty boys list along with a few others, our error was we didn’t stop and read the notice in the shop window to ring the bell when the shop was shut. Site warden appeared and suitably chastised us, perfect after you have ridden 310 miles in the last 6hrs. The site, the last 2 years, has been run by wardens on behalf of the owner, who should I say are not as relaxed as the owner who is lovely and welcoming.
Paid and pitched, swallowed what wine that was left and down the pub for a few pints of their beer brewed behind the pub. https://www.strands-brewery.co.uk/brewery I normally try all the beers that they have on, 6 pumps. But by the 5th pint I was falling asleep, something to do with being at work by 4am in the morning. Anyhow I had another couple of days to sample the one I missed.
Friday and the sidecar ramblers head out and find https://www.santonbridgeinn.co.uk/ for our lunch time stop, the food is excellent and the beer is good.
By the Friday evening sidecar rambler Michael had arrived; Friday was alfresco dining on site as the weather was just perfect. Needless to say, we headed down the Strands later in the evening. 2 new beers and the one I missed the previous night was still on. Steve and Sue joined us, while we do a ramble, they do a route march having basically walked around Wast Water.
For Saturday the plan was to walk up to the YHA (Steve told us there is a café there that opens on the Saturday) sounds good. Trouble was when we got there the café was closed for a school trip and I don’t think we could have got away with saying we were mature students. As always plan B comes into operation and café number 2 was the target. We did come across 4 young ladies not exactly dressed for walking but dressed for the beach looking for directions to the Lake. They did appear slightly lost but I gave them directions and said the water is cold. ( I was going to say, I took a pee in the lake and found the water was chilly but I don’t think they would have got the joke). We dined at the café https://www.wasdalesawmill.com/ and can recommend.
Saturday evening back on site the organiser of the Rally had laid on a BBQ. Keith the BMW sidecar resister section does a sterling job, Marquee with free tea, coffee and biscuits, loads of local information sheets, plus various interesting magazines. Great for evening socialising. As always, Keith did a brilliant job as cook and everyone enjoyed the food. We just had to pop down the Strands for a quick one, well 2, as they had 2 more different beers on.
It was an early off for me on the Sunday dreading the M6 / M5 but to my surprise, while there was a lot of traffic everything kept moving, that is a first for me this year.
As for the rally overall, well probably the best weather we have had at this event and the best turn out with a mix of sidecars and solos. Looking forward to next year already and thank you Keith for another superb long weekend event.