Swiggin in the Riggin rally

Last Rally of the year and probably the best one too, due mainly to the blinding run down to Devon on the Thursday night with so little traffic to get in the way.

With 8 bikes ready & assembled on the A303 and the sun setting against a fiery sky we were off on our 800+ mile round trip. After an overnight pit stop in Newton Abbot Devon at Saz’s parents we were off again, on to the A30 & in to Cornwall, again with surprisingly few cars to stop our fairly rapid progress.

And so we arrive at Camborne find Scouse who had kindly carried our tents down & add our small housing development to an already sprawling tent city.

[There were 400 people at the rally I was told, it certainly looked packed ! ]

Friday afternoon see’s us wonder into town for provisions & as day turns into night it’s the usual excellent VSOC party atmosphere. Drinking & dancing the night away as is normal on the first night of 3 days of boozy excess.

John (who was subjected to the full force of Sarah & Leigh’s wit, - welcome to hell mate) picked up a few new nicknames over the weekend including “Shep” (I’m sure he will explain if you ask him) and “Cat”, I wont say any more but lets just say that Cat’s always land on their feet after falling… there’s a lesson to be leant there, as there is in having a chilli eating competition after a few pints…

Saturday saw 10 of us take a ride with Paul leading (sporting his reflective vest) us to pick up his god daughter, as we near the cottage the roads start to narrow & twist like you wouldn’t believe, single track becomes cart track but eventually we arrive at the picturesque Cornish cottage set in around 70 acres.

There was one bend, which scared us all! It was a very tight left hander, up hill & on an angle, I looked up at it & just wanted to get off the bike, it was one wicked turn but we all made it up & round, just !

We ended up on the coast & some of us braver souls had a swim & checked out the huge blowhole that is there while the others had lunch or a Cornish cream tea.

Ian then had a reaction to something he ate and said he was developing comedy lips, we thought no more of it until he awoke after a short map looking like someone had put 80 psi of air in his head, all of this while surrounded by 9 budding comedians, he coped rather well under the circumstances.  Meanwhile John, Scouse, Caroline, Nick Lappage, Vrod Phil & others had gone off to the Eden project & had a terrific time, thoroughly recommended was the opinion.

Apparently Scouse & Nick had a burn up down the A30 on full throttle with John’s VMax in hot pursuit, I can’t imagine the noise from both the customised Wildstar’s  loud pipes at full throttle but John could still hear afterwards, just.

That evening Steve had booked two tables at a local hotel, so we dined out & had a lovely meal, although it took a while to arrive. Then someone who has a knack for chatting up blonde waitresse’s had a quiet word to give Steve our table’s £200.00 bill & then after a short wait refuse his credit card.

Everyone thought this was very amusing & the place fell about laughing.

 [I personally thought this was a stupid & childish prank & wanted no part of it.]

We had a cracking time and laughed almost non-stop for 4 days (and nights). The Camborne rugby club were really impressed with the behaviour & friendliness of everyone & even taped a promotional video to send to other bike clubs, but I doubt they will party as hard as the VSOC did over that weekend.

We also launched our Rocket (last seen at Ely) but on its 3^rd flight over Camborne it self destructed & was lost forever in the thicket, we searched for ½ an hour and then gave up, so our Ariel rally site pictures were lost, buggar.

We left Camborne at 10:30am, at 10:34 a Police car with lights blazing races up the outside of the 9 bikes and pulls us over, thoughts of victimisation, small number plates, loud exhausts and black visors come to mind. The copper leaps out comes over and says “Nice bikes…, but I don’t want you, you can go”… phew, so we get on our way, again.

With so many miles to cover and riding in strict staggered formation the whole experience become a bit spiritual, on the way home, this time sitting at the back of the pack & looking down the line of bikes each with a good friend on board you really do get a bond that you can’t explain to non bikers, almost telepathic communication develops as we move as one body of bikes each looking out for the next & the lead bike for the rear marker, brilliant stuff. At the end of the day you join a bike club to ride your bike and we certainly did that this time and after 800 miles with no major incidents at all we had a feeling of fantastic achievement & felt our individual & group riding had improved even further.

So I guess this wins my ride of the year award 2002.

Thanks to everyone in the Pirates for a really cracking weekend of rallying.