2013 rally
Now into my second year of this rally, I knew what to expect. With the couple of weeks advanced notice of the rally locations, and the fact that I had managed the Gold Award last year, I thought that I'd go for the Lands End Award this time around. The manned checkpoints are only open between 10:00 and 18:00 so I'd need to make sure that I hit all of those at the right time. On top of that, I had 15 unmanned checkpoints to include as well.
However, there was also an unkown quantity in the mix. My partner, Dawn, had recently begun to ride pillion. We'd been on a few short trips, but she wanted to see what all this rally stuff was about. So with a great big dive into the deep end, the two of us would be travelling down together, doing the rally, and then travelling back up. Quite an ask for someone who was just starting to ride pillion, so a big round of applause for attempting this sort of ride.
To try and ease Dawn in as gently as possible, we had decided to break the journey's down and back into a couple of days. As usual, I planned to pick up some checkpoints from the other rallies on the way down.
The stops were:
A: Home
B: Statue of Edward I - (Round Britain Rally)
C: Jubilee Tower - (Round Britain Rally)
D: Halsall Navvy (Round Britain Rally)
E: Wynbunbury Tower (Round Britain Rally)
F: The Lone Rider (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
G: The Ship Inn
The stops were:
A: Home
B: Statue of Edward I - (Round Britain Rally)
C: Jubilee Tower - (Round Britain Rally)
D: Halsall Navvy (Round Britain Rally)
E: Wynbunbury Tower (Round Britain Rally)
F: The Lone Rider (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
G: The Ship Inn
The second day of the journey down would take in the following locations;
A: Ship Inn
B: Cookley 2000 Clock (Grim Ride - Millenium)
C: National Motorcycle Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
D: Triumph Monument (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends & Round Britain)
E: Coventry Transport Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
F: Kenilworth Castle (Grim Ride - Castles)
G: Spring (Grim Ride - Sculptures)
H: Lord Leycester Hospital (Grim Ride - English Counties)
I: Eastgate (Grim Ride - Letterboxes)
J: The Royal Enfield Pub (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
K: Evesham Light Railway (Round Britain)
L: Rollright (Grim Ride - Standing Stones)
M: Adelstrop Railway Sign (Round Britain)
N: Cotswolds Motoring Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
O: Giants Memorial (Grim Ride - Giants)
P: Glastonbury Premier Inn
A: Ship Inn
B: Cookley 2000 Clock (Grim Ride - Millenium)
C: National Motorcycle Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
D: Triumph Monument (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends & Round Britain)
E: Coventry Transport Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
F: Kenilworth Castle (Grim Ride - Castles)
G: Spring (Grim Ride - Sculptures)
H: Lord Leycester Hospital (Grim Ride - English Counties)
I: Eastgate (Grim Ride - Letterboxes)
J: The Royal Enfield Pub (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
K: Evesham Light Railway (Round Britain)
L: Rollright (Grim Ride - Standing Stones)
M: Adelstrop Railway Sign (Round Britain)
N: Cotswolds Motoring Museum (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Museums)
O: Giants Memorial (Grim Ride - Giants)
P: Glastonbury Premier Inn
The route that we had planned to follow didn't leave a lot of leeway for delays, but we soon found out that we needed to take a few more breaks with two of us on the bike, so in the end we decided to miss out Lands End this time around. The final route is shown below.
We did manage to squeeze in one of the Round Britain locations as well, the Millenium Stone in Stoke Climsland. This stone is made of granite from Kit Hill and was placed here in Stoke Climsland to commemorate the year 2000. It had been a long day and especially so for Dawn. To have managed something like this after only a couple of outings on the bike is very impressive and I'm full of admiration for Dawn for joining in. Thankfully we had decided to split the journey home into two stages as well, stopping off in Manchester.
The stops were:
A: Glastonbury Premier Inn
B: Millenium Marker (Grim Ride - Millenium)
C: Rope Ferry (Round Britain)
D: Hereford Cathedral (Grim Ride - English Counties)
E: Manchester Premier Inn
A: Glastonbury Premier Inn
B: Millenium Marker (Grim Ride - Millenium)
C: Rope Ferry (Round Britain)
D: Hereford Cathedral (Grim Ride - English Counties)
E: Manchester Premier Inn
The second day would include;
A: Manchester Premier Inn
B: DOT Motorcycle Factory (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
C: Toad Lane (Grim Ride - Letterboxes)
D: Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Station (Round Britain)
E: Home
A: Manchester Premier Inn
B: DOT Motorcycle Factory (Grim Ride - Motorcycle Legends)
C: Toad Lane (Grim Ride - Letterboxes)
D: Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Station (Round Britain)
E: Home
All in all, this was another enjoyable rally, and we both achieved a Gold Award. I still haven't managed the Lands End Award, but that just means I've got something to go for next year. It was fun having someone to talk to all the way round, but in hindsight, we decided that this was a bit much for Dawn to take on. We've both entered for the Welsh Rally in a few weeks time, but we've decided that it would be better if Dawn took the car down, and only rode pillion for the rally itself.