Hever
Castle run-out
Hever
castle is in Edenbridge, Kent and was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn,
it is set deep in some very lovely English countryside.
This
trip was planned in 2001 but due to torrential rain on the day it was
postponed for a year, but today dawned warm & sunny, almost, dare I
say it, a perfect summers day...
Sarah
& I had stayed at Anne & Nicks the night before and Sunday
morning seemed to dawn two hours too early after a late night spent
tormenting Rufus their dog but a quick blat over to Box Hill and a can
of Red Bull soon sorted us out.
After
collecting the gathered members of C14 off we went the scenic route with
chrome gleaming and leathers shining in the sunshine. The 2nd
man system worked brilliantly and we kept as one group all the way to
Kent. We did have to make one U turn (had to mention it Anne, sorry) but
all was soon forgotten as we raced towards the castle gates, although
this did involve a 65 to 3 mph in 2 seconds for Anne & I as a horse
& rider appeared around a bend, good those disc brakes! Once parked
up the girls all stripped off, (I love Sunday run outs) and changed into
shorts, OK, so did the blokes but not nearly as interesting.
Off
into the grounds and there is Hever Castle, a bit like a lottery winners
house but with a moat which was alive with huge fish and their smaller
offspring.
Then
it was to the maze and after losing everybody Paul, Saz & I had a
sit down outside, shortly after Nick & the rest emerged from the
depths, triumphant having found the core. Then Anne went & found
about 12 (ish) members of Centre 15 who had arrived independently.
After
a spot of lunch, very nice but pricey we made our way to the jousting
arena.
On
arrival of Henry the VIII it commenced, in a lively, theatrical kind of
way.
It
was all very well done, with the audience of several hundred being
divided into red and blue teams. With most of the assembled VSOC on the
blue team and loads of yelling and baying for blood the blue knight was
eventually victorious. The general opinion was there was not enough
blood & guts for most of our tastes, but some severed Volvo driver
head spearing at the end saved the day & we felt the £5.60 entry
fee was well worth it.
Paul
then felt he wanted a ball & chain to smash BMW windows with, but
generally we felt this was not essential to rear marking on the M4 &
talked him out of it, but only just…
After
a particularly nice ice cream and changing back into leathers we made
our way back to Anne & Nicks the scenic route with Nick leading,
Anne & I seemed to be losing concentration between yawns and I kept
taking the wrong lines while Sarah seemed to be on great form &
started to pull away from me! Every time we stopped & I pulled level
she smiled widely & I yawned back, Anne & Nick did the same...
The
second half of the journey back I seemed to wake up and it was a
contender for ride of the year second only to our lightening speed trip
to the Independence party a few months ago.
All
in all another great laid back day out with good company and lovely well
paced steady riding.
As
I write this we are all busy packing and preparing for the final VSOC
rally this year down in Cornwall this coming Bank holiday weekend.
Dave
Kenway
