Peak Rally

Second page of the Peak Rallies Les Hobbs attended 1970 - 1977, Stockport and District MCC, held in Edale, Peak District.

1971

Well I just about got it sorted this year. BMW R69, igloo tent, primus stove, camp bed and a slightly longer thicker sleeping bag plus survival blankets. We took the same route as last year, up the M6 turn off for Stoke-on-Trent through the town passing all the terraced houses, onto the Leek road. In Leek there was, and still is, a cafe we used to stop off at for a coffee and a sandwich. There was a piece of waste ground at the side where we hid our un-taxed bikes. The juke box had the same record selection in it all the years that I used it. After a short break we took the road to Buxton past the old army camp/firing range near the Roaches, past Flash (the highest village), past "The Travellers Rest" (another of our old haunts for camping weekends) and onto Chapel-en-le-Frith. Then onto Edale.

This year we had a couple more in our group and it was a larger turn out all round, plus we knew a lot of other ralliest now. This may have been the year that Dave Wood and another mate turned up on the train, their bike being off the road and the station was walking distance to the rally site.

1972

I missed the 1972 event being off the road for 10 months with a broken leg,

1973

This year I had with me a young lad, John Wall, who I met in Copes's motorcyles in Wolverhampton. He had a 350 Velocette MAC and was asking about spares. They had nothing to fit a Velo and were trying to give him directions to Perks Motors, Myatt Avenue, Parkfields, on the outskirts of town, the local Velocette and Suzuki dealership. As I would be passing that way on my way home I offered to show him the way, and besides which Brian Wall, the owner of Perks Motors, was a friend of mine. It finished up that I gave John the remains or my MAC Velo and he started to hang around with our group and came to a few rallies with us. The lads in my local pub soon nick named him "The Shadow" because he stuck to me like glue and anything I did, he did.

Well I did the peak and so did John. It was as good as ever and John tried to keep up with me pint for pint and he did. Eventually it was time for bed so we crawled into our sleeping bags and nodded off.

I awoke around 2.00am to find John sitting in the doorway of the tent, quite ill, having been sick. I told him to drink some water from the tap 20 feet away to get the bile off his vocal chords, but he said that it would make him sick again, so I left him there and went back to sleep. I woke again around 8.30am ready for breakfast to find the poor lad off his food and hardly able to speak but I did manage to get a coffee down him.

- Les Hobbs

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