DarylB, his daughter Nicola and I set off from Shrewsbury at 09:30.  A straight run down the A53 takes us practically all the way there. Of course things are never that simple. The A53 was pleasant enough until we got to Newcastle under Lyme and that seemed to merge into Stoke, a 30-40mph hell of roundabouts and traffic cameras. There was a moment of concern for me at one of the islands, I could hear a siren coming, but thought it was behind me, such is the effect of earplugs. The dippy driver in front stopped for no apparent reason in front of me, so I blasted past on her right, then I realised why she stopped, an ambulance was heading straight for us. It wasn't a problem, as I just gassed it away and even had time to wave an apology at the ambulance driver. Why didn't I stop behind the dippy driver, well because she was driving me up the wall, she was always in the wrong lane, she spent more time gassing to her mate, I just decided enough was enough and acted on impulse. How many times has impulse got you into trouble.

We managed to get through that lot and then took a wrong turn on the outskirts of Stoke and ended up heading away from Buxton instead. We stopped at a pub, got a drink and then set off in the opposite direction. Things were going nicely until we got to Leek. It was a complete gridlock. Half the town was being dug up. I managed to filter through the traffic (17 years of commuting in London has it's benefits), but lost Daryl in the process.  I waited outside Leek for a good 5 minutes and I assumed that Daryl had gone another way. I decided to push onto Buxton and wait there for him.

The minute I turned onto the A537 at Buxton, I knew it was going to be interesting. I immediately thought of the mountain circuit on the IOM. The road surface was awful but the bends were tight. Definitely a road that you should take easy on your first encounter.

As I turned into the Cat n Fiddle, the sight of dozens of SV's greeted me. At this stage I'm fairly incognito, so I just pulled up and started to disrobe.  A chap came across and introduced himself as Mark (amarko5) and said "you must be John". How the hell did he know that. It seems that I'm the only person in the UK to have a forkbrace and Mark spotted that. I think a new forum name of Hawkeye would be appropriate.

I soon heard about the incident with Mr Fuds father-in-law. I hope he makes a full recovery, sounded damn scary. Get Well soon.

Of course it's not long before people start to ask me "when are we off then". I managed to find Dave Crabtree and we discussed our plan, which was basically follow the proposed route but stop at Chapel-le-Firth for fuel.  At 13:00 engines started and people were starting to leave the car park and stop in the curb opposite. I was dithering a bit and soon realised that a road block was starting to occur. I'd seen Dave leave earlier and I wondered if he was waiting for me to come past as the go-ahead. So I wriggled my way onto the road, trickled up to the front of the queue looking for Dave and before I knew it everyone started to pull away too.  I didn't see Dave but a few bikes were in front of me and a few more came past.

By the time we got to Macclesfield there were a good bunch in front of me and another big group behind. I hoped the delay at the traffic lights would bring others along.  I don't know why we didn't stop at the petrol station in Chapel. There is a kind of sheep mentality (I include myself in that statement) when riding in a group, if the guy in front carries on, you tend to assume he knows what he is doing and follow suit. I can only guess that Dave wasn't at the front when we got there. The ride carried on through some wonderful scenery and we stopped just short of Chatsworth, or so I thought. I managed to get a quick word with Dave. I assumed he stopped the group to bunch us up before going into Chatsworth. I assumed wrong, I think we were just letting people catch up. I mentioned to Dave that it would be nice to go into Chatsworth for a photo call, a last minute change I know, but at that time I thought the whole group was still with us - Wrong again.

We turned into Chatsworth, what an impressive sight. We found the car parks roped off and we didn't plan to stay long, so paying to park was out of the question. We turned around headed back out over a narrow bridge and then stopped on the grass with the house in the background. Perfect for a snap. We spent about 10-15 minutes there before a land rover turned up and we were asked to leave or park in the designated area. I apologized to the bloke and we set off for Matlock. I also realised at this point that a few were missing. Daryl and Nicola were very much absent.

Part of the plan was to meet up at a large bike shop just outside Matlock. When we arrived the others were waiting for us. Daryl reckoned that they did come into Chatsworth, but they didn't see us and we didn't see them. The final part of the rideout was to ride en-mass into Matlock-Bath. It was a warm day and people seemed to be flagging, so I asked for opinions on whether we should carry on or call it a day. We called it a day. It would have been packed in M-B and we would have ended up parking all over the place and therefore separated. So we carried on talking and sunbathing and gradually people said goodbye and started for home.

Now such was my forward planning that I had plenty of maps for getting to the rideout, but hadn't considered getting back from M-B. So we headed down the A6 into M-B and then onto Derby, along more 30-40-50's.  A quick blast along the A38 cooled us down and then a detour through Cannock Chase to pick up the A5. A few miles down the M54 and then back onto the A5 to Shrewsbury by 18:30.  

So in summary, a great day out, great people and great scenery. I'm sorry that we got split up, but that always seems to happen and that's why I always state a final destination, so we can meet up at the end, at least.

Here are some photos. Enjoy. I've included comments on some if you hover over the thumbails.

John

Pictures