Today I was woken up early - by a howling gale blowing past the bedroom window. Hum, I thought, not a good start. Still, never mind - it's a good excuse to see how well my FJR handles in a wind (like a boat is the answer).

So, off I toddle to the meeting point at Forton Services; overtaking Neil on the way. The wind had died down by the time we arrived, but the weather wasn't too good. Gary was already there, so we went for a coffee. We decided that, due to the weather and the lack of participants, it would be fortuitous to postpone the visit to Harry Potters castle to another day and just have a ride up to Hartside and around there. Geoff and Karen then arrived - they were Ok with that too. Outside we met Peter and, while waiting for petrol a new HOC member, Dave, joined us. So we had 6 bikes and 7 people - a pretty good turnout considering the weather.

The run to Hartside was good - over Shap, which is one of my favourite roads. We had an excellent lunch there (as you can see below) and then had a foggy run over the tops to Alstom and Middleton - where another tea stop was called for. After that, we diverted to Barnard Castle for petrol and Leyburn for a last drink before the run home via Kettlewell (yet another fine road). It was only at Colne that the heavens really opened and we got a bit drowned for a while. But, a good warm bath soon makes the bad memories fade away.

So, a good run - we ended up doing over 230 miles. Some pictures below: