Eden Camp

After meeting Richard at Poplar Services, we headed for Haslingden through patches of mist and fog. But when we arrived at McDonalds, it was warm and sunny. By the time we got going there were fourteen bikes and three pillions, and we were meeting Malc and Val on the way.

As the leading bunch started travelling along the M65, we realised that not all the group had followed us. Because we usually head towards Clitheroe on the A6068, some of the regular members went that way, even though there was no marker on the junction of that road. The marker was on the motorway sliproad. Luckily, the radios got everyone back together and we carried on the ride through Colne and onto the A56 and A59 for Harrogate.

The next problem was that two of the new members hadn’t had the Buddy System explained to them and so they weren’t marking junctions - a quick tutorial and off we went again. It happened again near Ripon, but luckily I had told Malc the route I was taking, so he led some of the tail-enders back to the group. Now that everyone knew what to do, we carried on without any mishaps.

We stopped at The Old Red House pub, on the outskirts of Thirsk, for some lunch, and then carried on to Eden Camp.

When we got to Eden Camp, Alan managed to blag a discount for us because we had a large group. We paid £5 instead of the usual £6.50. After we all had parked our bikes, we agreed a time we had to look around, and split up in to various groups. We soon realised that it was too big to see in the time that we had, so it looks like we’ll be coming back pretty soon.

There was a parade around the camp with a band and surviving veterans of the war. After the parade, the veterans were chatting with some of the visitors: David met up with a 95 year young gentleman who was a comrade of his dad’s, serving in the Royal Dragoons Guards in Dunkirk, fought in the battles of El Alamein, Invasion of Sicily, Italy and the liberation of France and Denmark. A real reminder of just what these men did for us - very humbling.

We came home via Thirsk and Northallerton and had a short comfort break at Leyburn. Then we took the road through Kettlewell and onto the A59 towards Clitheroe. We passed Clitheroe and then everyone went their separate ways. We had a great day and look forward to the next ride. (Which is today, because I took so long to do this report.)

Gary

 

Gary's Report