After the tests, I found my way to Dunchurch for my starting control. I had over an hour to wait, so I had a look round the village and filled up with petrol, before going to wait at the control.
“Big” Phil Riches, Chief Marshall, came over took some photos of me and some other riders “waiting for the off” to publish on their website. We then signed in, and were counted down to 14:00 before we were allowed to leave the lay-by. The ride started in rather a dreary manner from the Dunchurch control; along urban dual carriageways up to the National Motorcycle Museum, near the NEC Birmingham. From there I needed to get to Cannock, North of Birmingham. The only sensible route for this leg is to take the motorway, so that’s what I did. I don’t much like using motorways, but they serve a purpose at times; and no celebration of English roads would be complete without passing through the iconic “spaghetti Junction” between the M5 and A38M motorways in Birmingham. So that’s exactly what I did. From Cannock I went back to the motorway, just to get me out of the Birmingham suburbs and into the countryside. Now onto some reasonable A roads, I headed north to Meir, on the Stoke-on-Trent to Utoxeter road, but, taking my first wrong turn of the day, I joined it too far east and missed the control. Not too much time was lost, and after signing in at the Stoke-on-Trent control I at last got out onto some of the roads I had really wanted to ride. Some really nice B roads took me up onto Darley Moor, on the edge of the Peak District, and to the Ashbourne control at Darley Moor Race Circuit. Of course as I was now on the really interesting roads, now was the time when it chose to rain. Not too heavily in the end, and it didn’t completely spoil my fun. From Ashbourne I headed north up through the Peaks to Bakewell, through some excellent roads. At one point there was some cow dung in the road, right on the riding line. I went straight through the thickest bit, and felt something splat against my foot. Great – just what I need. The splatter marks on the bike have been admired at every control since.
In Bakewell I stopped to buy some Bakewell puddings from the Original Bakewell Pudding Shop, and then went on to sign in at the control. Now heading for Congleton (where the Macclesfield control was located – I didn’t name it!) took me through Buxton, and then out on the fantastic A53 from Buxton to Congleton. The road goes right over the Pennines and is a joy to ride. I last rode it in the dark two years ago and couldn’t appreciate it. 
This time I had to stop and take some pictures, it was so amazing, and then crack on along the roller-coaster and down into Congleton, where I took a half hour break and ate a Bakewell pudding. There was a very strong wind up on the hills, but at least it had dried the road out.Now came the ride up to Hyde, just East of Manchester, through Macclesfield and following some minor roads to avoid getting caught up in suburban traffic. Here I took a wrong turning and ended up not just in suburban traffic, but heading the wrong way. Eventually back on track, I took another wrong turn; realised my error and attempted to turn round. I was facing down a steep hill, and pulling into a driveway the front wheel dropped into the gutter and caused the bike to lurch sideways. I missed my footing and dropped the machine. Now those weights I estimated earlier in the day – they added up to a total of over 350 kg. Whilst a Pan European can safely be dropped without damaging it, picking it up again is another matter; but as is often the way at times like these, a stranger came to my assistance and helped me get the bike back on its wheels again. With a little more careful map reading, I eventually got myself to Hyde control and signed in. They were a good bunch of lads, and pointed me to the easiest way out of town, warned me about a camouflaged speed camera (honestly - it was exactly as he described it) on the route and gave me a bag of sweeties (or “toffees” as the call them in Manchester).
The road from Manchester eastwards back over the Pennines was another high point, to make up for the pain of getting to Hyde. Following the river it is a twisty A road which climbs up into the hills following a river valley. Again it was windy, but the road was dry and the sun was behind me. I arrived at Pennistone control in good spirits. From here I needed to get north of Leeds and once again called upon the services of a motorway – this time the M1 – to do the necessary. This avoided getting caught up in the urban sprawl around Leeds and Wakefield, though I think I sacrificed some interesting scenery to the south of Leeds.
Getting off the M1, I signed in at the Leeds control and headed north to Harrogate, where the control was manned by the “Beermonsters MCC”. They had a fire going and made me a cup of tea. By now it was all but dark, so I took a half hour rest break with them round the fire before heading east to York. The centre of York was exactly as I had expected – heaving with intoxicated people just having fun. This wasn’t a problem, and I sailed through, finding the right road out of the other side first time. The York control was in a dark, dark lay-by and they had nothing but a battery-powered hurricane lamp to sign us in by. It was their first year, and they said they’d be bringing a generator and flood lights next year.From here on the roads became far less interesting. The eastern side of the country is so much flatter there’s less need for bends and curves to get round the hills, so roads are more practical, but less fun. Heading south now, I was over half way round in terms of distance covered; I found my way down to another control at Thorne. It was threatening to rain, pitch dark and I was concerned (unnecessarily so) about my progress, so I once again took to a motorway – M18 this time. That took me all the way to the Rotherham control in about 20 minutes. Heading East from there to Gainsborough was yet more straight, flat roads with 50 mph speed limits. Then East to Lincoln, where I decided to take a further hour’s break and start writing this log. After an hour off riding and a couple of cans of Red Bull I was refreshed and ready for the rest of the ride. The sky was just starting to lighten before dawn, and I found my way down to the control at Grantham. That left a fast ride east on a rather nice road. In the early light after 04:00 it was fast and just bendy enough to keep my attention, and, best of all, empty. Suzie’s Café on the A17 was the Sutterton control, from where I went South to Wisbech. On the home run now, I headed for Wansford. I missed the control, just off the A1 west of Peterborough on the first pass, but managed to find it on the way back. I then took some interesting B roads to Corby, which left only Milton Keynes control at Bletchley Park.
If you know Milton Keynes you’ll know the problem I had. The instructions for how to find the control were two paragraphs of details of which exit to take at each of about 50 roundabouts. There’s no way you can keep that all in your head, so I just rode around aimlessly until I found signposts to Bletchley. Eventually, after a bit of panicking, I spotted a sign to Bletchley Park, and recognised the last 3 instructions in the list. Final check-in time was 08:04 – so you can see I didn’t need to panic about the progress I had been making.After signing in I went to find Sinead from Mencap who had been calling me regularly about publicity; she wasn’t there, but I met Oliver, her colleague, who took some photos of me looking exhausted and bedraggled. Then after a cooked breakfast, I crashed out in the “rest area” (a hut with a choice of a hard floor or a hard chair) for an hour or so, before heading home. Now that the rally is done, here’s the detail of the route. It adds up to 540 miles, so that should qualify for my first platinum award.
