It was handstands at the last ride, a two bike pyramid on this one, who knows what next... Any ideas, even half sensible ones, will now be considered for the next ride.
The weather was good despite the Fat Controller doing his rain dance the night before. So we set off at a brisk pace down to Morestead Road with Captain Sensible on the sunny yellow GS at the front and Baldrick with the grey 1200RT as the back marker. In addition to the usual suspects we had a number of "social ride" first timers, amongst them Paul on the 900TDM, Karen on the pink 650SV and Mark on the R1. We welcome them all over to the dark side, we do have cookies there!
After the fabulous Morestead Road and a brief stop on the A32 to re-group, we turned off at East Meon towards Langrish and then Petersfield and South Harting for the B2146 and B2141 and back to South Harting for a break. What great bits of road they were too, just what the doctor's recommended.
On the way there we were also joined by a stranger called Kevin on a blue 11550R. Having suitably recovered, we moved swiftly on through some more unmarked roads through Elsted to join the A272 for a short burst and then more of the same through Woolbeding to Liphook for lunch where we were join by Phyl on Ruby, that is the red Triumph ST.
The food was seriously tasty and very good value given the outrageous portions. I would even go as far as to say that the "wicked breakfast" in Dorchester has now been comprehensively topped!
After Karen and Neil finished their ice-cream, I believe it came in a bucket, we rode through Liss and Selborne to Alton to join the famous A339 to Basingstoke and the the B3346 through the Candovers and Alresford to Cheriton. Our leader for the second leg was Paul - Baldrick to his friends - on the grey RT with the Crazy Frog as number two Neil on the yellow TLR. Phyl will no doubt remember this ride for quite some time on account of a close encounter with a certain gentleman on a sunny yellow GS. So we stopped and hugged and laughed it off before setting off for another burst of Morestead Road, oh what joy, to finish at the newly refurbished West Meon Hut.
By all accounts, stringing together most of our southern training routes into a ride turned out to be very popular and a repeat perscription in the future will get the thumbs up from the doctor, I'm sure. A big thank you to all the participants and these rides will be no fun without them.
Until the next one - Panos aka Captain Sensible