“Full of Chips and more riding”
We set off again and as soon as we get going , we are turning off again and heading upwards , the road is full of Grockles with bobbly hats on and walking sticks and a few of them take pictures of the mass of rowdy bikes trying to pick their way up a gravel infested and tight road . This amuses me somewhat as I have an image of peaceful scenery with much tranquility , butterflies flapping their wings lazily on the light breeze , the hill walkers bouncing along with the theme tune for the “Archers” playing in their heads and the mighty Org turns up , brapping and frapping unbaffled exhausts . We stop for a cliff top lunge shot and admire the huge view , the mountains are snow capped still and it`s beautiful .
I sneak off and mark my territory between 2 trees (I just cannot stop pee`ing today) and then we start the bikes up and head down very slowly and turn back onto the road . In the distance I can imagine some Grockles trying to outrun an avalanche caused by the sound of a lot of SV`s starting an exhaust pressure pulse wave down the valley . We get quite separated here and I am one of the last to pull out , gives me a chance to relax a bit and admire the scenery as I heard that the next section would be quite slow anyway . As I get a wind on I spot a sign mentioning Badgers and beam to myself , unaware that the road has a massive abrupt rise in it . I look forward and see the rise disappear right under me , the front end is up , I am on the power and praying for a soft landing on the front end ….. the bike comes down with a slight clonk from the front forks and a squirm of the bars and I decide to pay more attention to the road now as it is gonna get dangerous . We turn off onto a very slim road and go for more altitude and I am behind DizzyBlonde , The poor girl has clutch slip problems and we have a Red Honda HRV 4x4 in front of us and a colossal mobile home RV in front of that (why they brought this here I don`t know) , I sneak past Dizzy and immediately the HRV blocks me , I am trying to get past him slowly so that Dizzy can see it`s safe to pass so she can ride her bike without the clutch having to be slipped . I gesture at this A-hole to move over and get past him and the RV , after cresting the hill the road heads right downwards and Smudge is gesturing to pull into some sort of Mine type place for a photo opportunity . We set up for the Lunge shot , and I am standing on the top of the fence saluting , there are some concerns about the strength of the fence from AndyBrad and I wind him up by jiggling and boinging the fence
J , everyone is ready for the photo and all of a sudden the fence wobbles and I scream like a girl and start windmilling my arms , luckily I managed to regain composure and continued my salute
.
Lunge is done and I scamper away from the fence and it`s rocky descent and glad to be away from it . I spot a sign warning us that it isn`t nice to steal bits of Rock .
They didn`t see me “Borrow” this did they ?
I also spot a big lump of Rock on wheels and decide to see if it can be ridden , it can but the acceleration is a bit slow , I reckon it`s about an inch every Ice-Age ?
We get back on the bikes and head out again , this Valley is the roughest bit of the trip and I am getting battered on the front suspension and my arms start to tire , the road then turns fairly decent again and Berlin blatters past me on his Hornet , I decide not to give chase as my concentration is going and the light is also failing a bit , we go past another lake and it reminds me of the reservoir we pass on some of the recent NW rideouts , We then drop into a forest section and I faff a couple of corners up due to tiredness , a Blue Pointy with pillion Blarps past (SteveGod?) and I decide my time at the front is over and it`s time to drop back a bit and reel the enthusiasm in a bit . Eventually I come across Berlin sitting at a junction with his hands in the air , I point forwards as the junction marking system states that if no one is at a junction then go straight on , it was the right decision as a few minutes later we come across BluePete pointing us in the right direction , the light is failing a bit now and we are probably about 15 miles away from our final destination . I follow a bandit 1250 with the young lad on the back as Pillion (was this Amarco5 ?) . Eventually we are back on a big wide fast A-Road and the Bandit pulls over , he tells us he is leaving us here and to carry on over the next roundabout and head for Ambleside , I take off and arrive at this roundabout a minute or so later and think “Hmmm this might be confusing for some Orgers” as it was a bit offset and people may have been as tired as I was . I decided to mark it and glad I did for one reason ……….. hearing you lot tear past and opening those bikes up onto a nice fast dual carriageway and listening to the pipes wailing for a good mile before the noise abated
. Pmapp turns up and I get on the gas and play catch-up and give the bike some stick , the end is nigh and the last section is under my wheels . I catch up with Yorkie Chris and we give it a bit of welly until I think I spot a Patrol car
, I think I need an eye test because as I got closer , this bike chasing Volvo T5 with full on recording equipment , turned out to be a Volkswagen Beetle with a roof rack on it
. We get to Ambleside and I managed to miss the gate for the backpackers which has Quiff waving enthusiastically outside it …… DOH! . The bike is turned around in a private driveway and shuttled nicely into it`s parking space in the backpackers and turned off for the night . Dave20046 decides to park his bike on a raised bit around the corner and revs the nuts off the bike to get it up the step , this makes us all cringe from the noise .