13 bikes gathered on a foggy morning in Tesco's car park at Winnall. With the fog swirling around us the pre ride conversation turned to coffee and the merits of the various brands of heated underwear. Whilst the sun attempted to burn off the fog Panos explained the marker system, the planned route for the day and his hopes for rain en-route.
After a brief blat on the A303 and the A272 to Stockbridge we joined the A30 towards Salisbury. Dipping in and out of fog patches we were treated to a commentary on the state of the local housing by Jo riding Pillion on Chris's Tiger 955i. We then turned off onto the B3081 at Ludwell to make our descent onto Zig zag hill with freezing fog to add to the 'grin factor' and then on to Shaftesbury. Joining the A30 and heading towards Sherborne in thick fog and the odd icy patch we followed a local in battered red Peugeot who set a fair pace for us through the mists. Turning off onto the glorious A352 a request for a pit stop came from Paul on the R1200RT. Although he blames a super moto sized bladder for this unusual stop we waited an age for him to finish watering the roadside plants. Resuming our ride along the A352 a few twitchy moments were had by most on the detritus covering the road at various points. Some 9 miles North of Charminster the Fazer 600 ridden by Gemma bit the dust on a gravel strewn uphill corner. As the bike was unrideable Panos and John Barnes opted to wait with her until the AA turned up. The bulk (and I use that word advisedly) of the party then made their way to Dorchester and the wicked breakfast. After lunch a few phone calls for progress reports were made to those waiting for an AA man. Entertainment was provided in the shape of a demonstration of the powered center stand of the K1200LT belonging to Dean. More waiting, tea & cake consumed, admiration of Steve's sparkly white 1150GSA and Julian on the 1200S departed for home. A further phone call to those waiting for the 4th Emergency Service revealed they expected to wait a further 45 minutes and despite their efforts to tidy up the road surface they had a demo of the same incident from a Fireblade. A decision was made to ride back to them and applaud the arrival of the AA. Everybody took a look at the damaged Fazer and mentioned the restorative powers of T-Cut to Gemma. After a further hour and a couple of irate phone calls to the fourth emergency service an AA low loader driven by the mystery 14th member of the rideout turned up. We never found out his name but is fondly remembered either as Mr “Manyana” or Mr “Any-time-this-year-thank-you-very-much”. With Gemma safely on her way home after a four hour wait the rest of us took the A352 to Sherborne , making for the Little Chef at Shaftesbury, a date with John and Panos’s long awaited lunch and the short route back home for most.
Thanks to Panos for leading and John Barnes for tailing.