I woke up on Sunday morning and the sun was shining. This was my first ride out after the aborted ride back in February. The weather was cold, but the wind had dropped for what seems to be the first time since the summer.
So on with the gear and off to the filling station to fill up - the Bandit 1200 took 12litres to fill. Enough for about 160 miles. First stop is to the Oakdene Cafe to see if anyone else is coming from our area
A very nice GSXR1000 was there but alas, no other SOC members. So at 9.45 I departed for the south coast and breakfast at Hythe. The difficulty with riding at this time of year is that the sun is still low in the sky and I had to ride 46 miles straight into it.
45 minutes later I arrived in Hythe at the Light Railway Restaurant (at the beginning of the railway ) . Soon after I arrived everyone else turned up. There were 8 bikes and 10 people.
Everyone was ready for breakfast, so we got down to it
Ready for off
Paul took us up over the North Downs and down past the shop where I get my chroming done and then across ( Romney Marsh ). The roads here are bumpy and ridged but fun to go across at about 40-50mph. Unfortunately the road still had patches of damp, and so caution was wise. Not many lambs about - a legacy from the foot and mouth disease last year where the rams were not able to be moved around.
We turn up at Dungeness Powerstation only to find that the visitor centre is closed.
No problem - we go onto the Railway Cafe which is the end of the line of the railway that started at our Breakfast stop. As we were having our coffee the steam train arrived making only marginally more smoke than Paul Devall's GT750 :))
Having finished our coffee we dutifully signed the ride register and departed home.
And then back home. I managed to get onto my favourite route home for a 60-70mph blast through the lanes around Tenterden, Hawhusrst, Paddock Wood before arriving home after covering a total of 130 miles for the day. Ready for lunch too:)) What a wonderful ride to start the year. Thank you Paul for arranging it.