My TomTom says "End destination is Stopham, do you want to go there now ?" - Usually it takes me via the blat route to the start point. This time I followed it blindly , half asleep to the blat end-point. (d'oh !, D'oh !...D'OH !!!!)
However, on arrival, I can say I found the Stopham war memorial and church before anyone else !!!
So, missed the start of the blat (Thanks for waiting everyone) , but what I did get was a solo blat of usual 'MarkG Quality' - some great rolling roads, some interesting 'Green-Laning' (I did find out that Mark once had a Land Rover !), and some very picturesque scenery. Although one little village did have a very disturbing signpost ! (It may actually have been Royston Vasey !)
After some great 'roadage', I decided to cut the first part of the blat short and head directly to the mid-way meeting point...the Chalet Cafe (a good biker Cafe site HERE) , a great little place right on the road, so you can watch everyone arriving....Bikes, muscle cars, Smart Cars, Mini's accompanied by the sort of breakfast cuisine only the British have perfected !
After a suitable healthy meal, and a lot of tea, what must have been 10 cars mounted up and headed off on the second half of the blat to Stopham War Memorial (Been there, done that !). Now, you would have thought I would have learnt from my SatNav earlier exploits, but I didn't turn on the TomTom till I was on the road.....MISTAKE No. 2 of the day , I happily hammered off down the road , and half a mile from the cafe, promptly lost everyone ! - After following my SatNav in circles for a while I decided to just head to the memorial to meet everyone in time for the 11 o'clock service.We arrived and parked quite a while before the ceremony, along what was earlier an empty leafy lane, and proceeded towards the memorial. I have never been to one of these things before, and it's always difficult to know where to stand, and how not to 'intrude'. We needn't have worried, as we were asked about the cars by quite a few of the congregation who all thanked us for coming, which made us feel very welcome.
We then slipped quietly away as the villagers went in to the church.
A 2-Ship Sunrise blat back to Guildford with SteveC broke up the monotony of the post-blat home, where we engaged in a little en-route Porsche-baiting ! (shortly before he 'ate our dust', along with some 'cyclist avoidance' - Just exactly who do these red-light jumping disaster monkeys think they are ?
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| SteveC deploys some anti-cyclist flares before finishing him off whith his twin 303 Brownings !!!! |