South West Peninsula Spring Rally Rally; April 2014
Orange is the new Blue
Once again a very enjoyable South West Spring Peninsula Rally with my mate Rob although the weather wasn't as kind to us this year. Lots of rain and fog especially on Dartmoor. Only conciliation weather wise was that it was warmish. Too wet for photos I'm afraid. The Met Office was once again wide of the mark!
Despite having picked up a new Varadero last month I did the rally on my trusty old Varadero. Rob was on his trusty R1150GS which has now done 100K+ miles and taken him to 6 Brit Butt Rally victories. (Mind you he was up at 5am fixing the clutch on it the day before the SWSPR.) Both bikes went like 'good ones' as we've come to expect. The only thing with my Varadero is that it's now a blue and orange Varadero following last year's slurry slide when I was on the way home after the SWSPR. Our route took in the slurry stretch and I rode it both on the way to the SWSPR start and on my return. Chancing my luck especially as I was entry #13 this year as well. Good job I'm not superstitious!
Apart from about 30 minutes when we were in the vicinity of Ilfracombe the weather was best described as foul especially on Dartmoor and the southern part of our route. Driving rain and fog. The fog was particularly nasty on Dartmoor and the higher roads in Dorset. The Dartmoor cattle grids were especially slippery in the wet. Weren't they Rob? (Change of underwear for Rob please.)
Despite the bad weather we managed to do better than the predicted Autoroute finish time finishing around 17:00. Grim doesn't like to hang about you know.