South West Peninsular Rally
Back in Mid January Mark Sealey mentioned the SW Peninsula Spring Rally organised and run by the Somerset IAM. The object is to complete various stages, collecting answers to clues on your travels. These answers and points decide on the award achieved.
Our home for 2 nights - no snoring please!
Entrants must sign in at Start Control between 08.00 and 10.00 hrs and return to sign out between 17.00 and 2300 hrs.
Gold Award – approx 400 miles
- 15 unmanned daytime checkpoints
- 3 manned checkpoints
Silver Award – approx 300 miles
- 12 unmanned daytime checkpoints
- 2 manned checkpoints
Bronze Award – approx 150 miles
- 9 unmanned daytime checkpoints
- 1 manned checkpoint
-
Land’s End Award
This award is supplementary to the other awards. To achieve the Land’s End Award you must do the following:
- Complete the Gold Award
- Visit Lands End. Have your Control Card stamped by the
Land’s End Hotel as confirmation you visited Land’s End (does not count as
a manned checkpoint).
The day before the rally, myself, Bob Fram & Mark Sealey rode down to Long Sutton near Langport to set up camp at Brook Farm. Once the tents were up we rode to Langport to top up fuel and collect some water and snacks. Later we walked to The Devonshire Arms for more route planning accompanied by some most agreeable beers and dinner.
Saturday morning we were up early and after a few moments of terror when one us had mislaid his ignition key we found ourselves at Long Sutton Village Hall, Start/Finish control point and more importantly the breakfast bap !
Breakfast was served at about 0730 and shortly thereafter a long queue formed for signing on. As this is the 12th edition signing on was an efficient process with six organisers giving out the list of checkpoints and clues along with the all important Control Card.
We all knew other rally entrants in the hall so it made for a busy time.
We pulled out of the car park at 0815, earlier than expected, Bob was the first leader, Mark second, I was third and in charge of gathering answers. Our route took us over the Quantock Hills where we caught glimpses of the new Hinckley Point nuclear power station being constructed. At the early unmanned checkpoints it was relatively easy to find the answers as there were a number of motorcyclists/scooterists parked up and studying something. After climbing up the infamous Porlock Hill we encountered the wrath of Storm Kathleen and progress was at times hampered, especially on the exposed parts of Exmoor National Park.
Ilfracombe, our first manned checkpoint was inside a Wetherspoons pub, the organisers were busy but very friendly and encouraging, here we had our first coffee. Next was a 44 mile ride to Whiddon Down for the second manned checkpoint and coffee, also inside a pub. We all moved up one place so Mark was now the leader, I was second and Bob in charge of gathering answers.
The list of clues - we took photograpohs to check our answers later in the dry!
Rain started as we approached Perranporth, inconveniently we had to pay to park at the Green Parrot, well it is Cornwall. So by this time we were wet, tired, hungry and realised a Control Card had been left at Whiddon Down ! The organisers had spotted this and a replacement card was prepared. At this point we abandoned plans for Lands End and would just go for Gold. Now it was my turn to lead on the revised route, the weather was awful and by Lawhitton we all needed fuel and food, which we found at Liskeard. At this point we abandoned the Gold and as we only needed one more unmanned checkpoint for Silver. By the time we reached Buckland St Mary for the last checkpoint and answer, it was pitch black dark. Garmin stated we were left with 30 minutes riding but we were getting slower with fatigue and we finally arrived back at Long Sutton at 2150.
Once inside I didn’t know what to do first -use the loo, get food or sign in! Luckily after the loo we sat down and filled in the missing answers before handing in our cards for the well earned Silver award.
A hearty meal of shepherds pie, broccoli and cauliflower was provided and gratefully received.
People were still arriving when we left the village hall at 1015, despite the wind and the rain sleep came quickly.
The important summary, safely completed with 392 miles ridden on the rally.
The Route we actually took
Sunday morning we were all up early and left site by 0800. We rode to Castle Cary where we managed to show how poor our navigational and observation skills are by riding by the cafe twice before finding it. We all enjoyed a hearty breakfast & excellent coffee at the Burnt Honey Cafe which included seasoned Kale Chips (crisps really).
Many thanks to Mark and Bob for making it a memorable weekend and for all three of us our first Rally.
If this interests you, next year’s event will take place on Saturday 5th April. Lots of people did it on their own, but teams of 3 or 4 probably work best.
Steven Hyde |
