The Lake District

Between Rallies - June 1989 - ABC

What happens between the Simmer Dim and Ghost rallies.

It took quite a few hours to get from Aberdeen to Ambleside, but then, it always did, so we mainly relaxed for the first evening there.

For the next few days, as we were usually woken up fairly early in the morning by the RAF in their flying machines at around tree-top height, through the valleys.

One of our members had the forethought to bring an inflatable dinghy in his sidecar, which would explain his unusually limited luggage carrying capability. The natives of the area, (ducks), didn't seem worried about us being there and kept coming to have a look at us, but the humans in the campsite didn't approach us for the whole time we were there. We spent a few days there, where we found out that the guy who brought the dinghy with him did so as he couldn't swim!

We had a few ride-outs to look at scenery and one night we discovered a pub that had a folk music session. Our member with the guitar wasn't with us this year, so we could only join in on the vocals, but we still managed to convince them to play the 'Captain Pugwash' theme, as it was a sea-shanty!

The rest of the club was, as usual, heading home at the weekend, while I, also as usual, had another rally to go to. As nobody else wanted the job, it was decided that I should return our non-biking club member to his home in Nottingham, or at least a town a bus ride away, as it was roughly on my way. (A quick glance at a map will show that, if anything, they were much likelier to pass near Nottingham than I was.) The extra space taken on the seat kept pushing my luggage of the back of the bike, but extra bungees stopped it falling off completely.

Phil Drackley - Phil the Spill