Early start for me, even earlier start for @Selmer50mark. I played the good samaritan on the way noticing a little fledgling bird in the road. Rather than leave it to being future road kill I turned back, fortunately I got there before my road kill premonition came to fruition. I parked on the wrong side of the road in the middle of the carriageway, facing on coming traffic. At last a use for my hazard lights. Side stand down and a quick stoop and the bird will be saved, put safely and soundly back into the hedgerow. Unfortunately I hadn't banked on the bird not wanting to be saved. He/she obviously didn't know the imminent life threatening danger it was in, and decided to make this a game of chase me. I must've looked quite a sight over reaching chasing the baby bird with one hand then the other. Then guess what? The bloody thing decided it will be more fun to hop even further out of reach in front of my front wheel and make a beeline for the middle of the middle of the road. Not far enough to warrant me standing up but far enough to have me crawling around on my hands and knees trying to ruin its break for freedom, at this point i could hear vehicles coming and I was beginning to panic that it would become flat bird before my very eyes. So i went for my best bird grabbling lunge and managed to get it hopping the right way towards me at which point I decided the best line of attack was to virtually squash it into the ground myself as the polite chasing with my hand was having little to no effect. Fortunately the approaching vehicles turned out to be a few Africa Twins. Luckily they had seen my hideous crawling around on the floor routine and decided to slow down. My desperate squashing tactic had worked and the bird succumbed to my superiority and allowed me to pick it up. The bird was then placed carefully into someones garden well away from the road but hopefully near its mum. It looked non the worse for its poor road safety and hopped away, not really knowing how close to instant death it had come. The bemused Africa Twin riders asked if I was OK, I said yes and I hoped they had seen the bird and that I wasn't some demented codger with perchant for crawling about on a main road in full biking gear. Anyhoo, upon my return later on, there was no evidence of any roadkill, it looks like my Steve Irwin skills have not been wasted. A few minutes later than expected I met up with Mark for the first time at Devils Bridge, introduced ourselves, but Mark didn't introduce his mate. I thought that was a little strange but I spent the next twenty minutes patronising Mark's "mate". Waffling on about nothing of any great interest, all the time I'm thinking who the hell has Mark brought with him. So I decided we'd chatted long enough and it was time point a brace of Fireblades in the direction of Ingleton, Hawes, Leyburn then ultimately Whitby, at this point Mark's "mate" walked away. Turns out he hadn't come with Mark at all. He was just one these peeps that latches onto people at biker meeting places. . Our journey through all the above towns and villages passed without any significant events, we made good progress with a shoulder rest stop at Leyburn. To be honest I was more looking forward to the return journey and another visit to The Velveteen Rabbit Luncheon Club. We arrived at Whitby station and parked up and stood and chatted for a bit. About 5 miles from Whitby it dawned on me that I didn't know what Mark did (if anything) for a job. Hopefully he isn't a policeman. Upon asking the question I was assured he wasn't. Phew. A welcome stop at the above mentioned cafe saw Kevin having his french toast, crispy bacon and maple syrup, whilst Mark thought he'd risk a toasted current teacake. I can vouch for the french toast and the teacake looked nice, and tempting to have as a pudding, unusually I resisted the urge to have any form of bun or cake. We left the cafe, enduring the usual faff of putting all our biking clobber back on, making sure we followed our usual routines and NOT forgetting to put in our earplugs. A few pics outside and we hit the road Jack. The return journey was marred by Kevin's lack of Tomtom programming skills and for some reason, probably quickest route setting, tomtom decided it would take us North up towards Darlington or somewhere like that, along the A66 down the A1 and on roads not available to Tanks, interesting restriction. We managed to refind Leyburn, even though they didn't know it was lost. Note to self, in future don't just tell TT to go home, put in waypoints from the start, adding them later may be too late. Lesson learned. Another shoulder rest at Leyburn and we were back on track but we could've done without the 40 minutes detour. Quicker???? Next stop was fuel at the new Co-op filling station at Ingleton and we both made our way home. 230 miles for me, 290 miles for Mark. I thought it was a bit windy at the start but at least we didn't get rained on. I'd have liked it to be a tad warmer but you can't have everything. Here's a few pics. Ready for off. Leyburn Whitby Cafe at Great Ayton
Great write up of you day's adventures. I was particularly interested in the following: Why would it matter? We have recently learnt that being acquainted with the brotherhood can have its rewards.
I have to agree with that, the germany trip was done with a policeman friend, many speeds should not be spoken about.
Sounds like you lads had a great day, I'm just a tiny bit jealous! You do know that Mark IS 'one of those peeps who latches onto people at biker meeting places' though don't you?! You should count yourself lucky there were no public toilets nearby!
The Blade looks fantastic ! I thought that was gravy with the bacon - wondered what you were all up to - then read the words instead of just looking at the pictures ! Great day out by the looks of it - i will say it again that Blade looks fab ! Good work with the birdie - story of the little bird reminded me of this one I took with the phone - he banged his head on the glass and just sat on the pavement until I moved him along - poor little fella ! That Blade looks fab ! Birdie:
Lol ,,,, I did go to the toilets in Layburn but Kevin stayed and watched over the bikes, ,,,,, so no need to be jealous @PauloHRC ,,, I left the rabbit costume at home
