South West Peninsula Spring Rally; Spring 2019
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Where's St Michael's? Wrong Blackford
Not through any fault of it but the South West Peninsula Spring Rally (SWPSR) has not always gone well for me. The last time I did it in 2016 I had a very slow speed fall on my current FI Varadero when a car forced me onto a very muddy verge of a single track Devon lane. The bike slid over on its right side but thanks to its crash bars and panniers, the damage to the bike was light cosmetic only. Not so lucky was my right foot which ended up under the bike and was very sore afterwards. I managed to carry on OK but I later dropped the bike on its left side outside at the Dorchester manned control as I was getting on it. So crash bars and panniers on both sides marked up and, a sore foot!
In 2013, after finishing the rally I was on the way home when I had the misfortune to encounter some country folk out spraying the Dorset fields with liquid manure at around 11 pm on a Saturday night. My theory is that they drove between adjacent fields on the A road I was to fatefully take that night without turning off the tap to the liquid manure tank being towed by their tractor. Consequently the A road was covered in liquid manure when I came along. It was dark, I didn't see the manure, it was as slippery as ice and down I went on my old carb'd Varadero. Result, the Varadero bashed up down the right hand side, one sore left hand and me covered in liquid manure. Tough old bike got me home OK though. The wife wouldn't let me in until I took off my bike gear.
Anyway, I fancied an early season ride so I decided to enter the 2019 SWPSR held on the 13th April. On previous rallies, to be sociable, I had booked the Yeovil Podimore Travelodge the Friday night before to be near the start on Saturday morning. For 2019, I wasn't meeting anyone so I thought I would just get up a bit earlier and ride the 55 miles from my home to the start on Saturday morning. Problem was, at 7 am on Staurday 13th April 2019 it was a frosty 1C at Wimborne. I was going to take my old CB1000F Big One but it ended up being the Varadero with its windshield and hand guards. My hands were frozen by the time I got to the start at Long Sutton. But Long Sutton was a very good venue, lots of space with chairs and tables and, most of all, free coffee and tea. Boy did my fingers sting as I sat there sipping my coffee! While I was there, I transferred all the questions for the unmanned controls on my planned route to my laminated sheet which I stuck to my tank bag with gaffer tape. I find this works well (in dry weather) as at many unmanned controls I don't need to get off the bike to scribe down the answer (with my permanent marker). Saves quite a bit of time.
The route I had planned was for a gold award and a tad over 270 miles. It was basically an anticlockwise route which started with an east to west leg through the Somerest Levels and Exmoor, then dipped south towards Dartmoor, followed by a west to east leg across the top of Dartmoor and the Jurassic Coast and finally, ended by going north through Dorset to the finish. The manned controls I visited were at Ilfracombe, Okehampton and Dorchester. Up until my last unmanned control it had been a lovely ride. There had been bit of dual carriageway on the A30 and the M5 but it was mostly nice west country A and B roads. The weather was unseasonably cold but it had stayed dry with some sun throughout. It had warmed up to a balmy 9C during the day. My hands didn't get cold again and my gear (I did wear thermals) had kept me comfortable enough. I did make a slight mistake at Simonsbath which cost me 10 minutes when I took the road west instead of the road south west as I left the village. I had left the word south out when I had copied the questions onto my laminated sheet.
I got to Blackford, my last unmanned control, around 5:30 pm and as directed by the control's question, I started searching for the Holy Trinity church. There was a St Michael's church but no sign of the Holy Trinity Churh. Two ladies confirmed that was the only church in town. Then it dawned, I wasn't where I thought I was. Turns out that there are two Blackford villages in Somerset and I was at the wrong one. So after consulting my satnav I made an unplanned visit to unmanned control #31 at Motcombe which then became my last unmanned control. It cost me an extra 30 miles and 45 minutes but I did eventually finish my gold route at around 6:55 pm, a bit later than planned.
My thanks to Somerset Advanced Motorcyclists who did a great job. The rally was well organised and I particularly liked the start and finish control at Long Sutton. It was a great place to warm up and organise in the morning and it was nice to have a decent meal there at the end. Coming from Devon and living in Dorset, the rally covers familiar ground but the roads were great and I really enjoyed my ride. However, I must be getting sloppy in my old age as I really messed up with the Blackford control.