Willingham Woods

We started today’s little jaunt with breakfast outside at the lovely Wharf side Cafe that is located at Sutton Cheney Wharf. Here you can sit and watch the narrow boats pass by while munching on a bacon batch or in Bob’s case a nice big fry up!

After we had finished our food we headed up the A447 towards Coalville and then onto the B5324 into Melton Mowbray, from here we carried on though the town and onto the B676 into Bourne. From here we decided to use Bob’s favourite toy (no the other favourite toy) and use his Garmin GPS to get us to Market Rasen where a couple of miles along the A361 you will find Willingham Woods

After following the A15 around Sleaford we finally approached Lincoln and we were rewarded with not only some great views of Lincoln Cathedral but also loads of AWAKS airplanes lined up on the tarmac at RAF Waddington

After Lincoln it was just 16 miles up the A46 to Market Rasen and after a few wrong turns we eventually found the Willingham Woods cafe.

The Willingham Woods cafe is just off the main A631 and is part of a small car park where people park up and go a wandering around the local woods, or if your a biker you can buy a cup of tea and a bacon batch and sit and admire all the other motorcycles parked up. Guess which one we did?

The atmosphere was very relaxed, probably aided by the unusually warm weather we were having but it was very relaxing sitting on our asses on the grass bank watching all the bikes (and ladies) pass us by. After an hour we decided that it was getting late (remember Bob's ASBO?) so we jumped back onto our bikes and decided to take the more direct A46 to Nottingham and then the A42/M42 home.

More pictures can be found here
 

Red Marley Hill Climb

The Red Marley Hill Climb is classic motorcycle hill climb that takes place near Great Witley in Worcestershire. This was the 1st time I had been to this event and from what I had heard about it I was really looking forward it.

Due to everyone else having other commitments only myself and Bob we decided rather than go the boring direct route we would take a nicer route past Stratford-Upon-Avon, Arrow and south of Worcester so that we could call in to Fromes Hill Cafe for a quick breakfast.

Unfortunately when we arrived at Fromes Hill cafe we found it closed so we decided to head for Great Witley and get a burger instead.

After following the signs for Red Marley we came upon a queue of traffic leading up to Great Witley and then we were directed in to the field set aside for bike parking.

The only complaint I have with this event was the bike park, it was located near the entrance (nice) but it was on the side of a hill and the field was very bumpy (bad) but the organisers had thoughtfully placed a stack of wooden cut off’s near the entrance for you to place under your side stand to stop it sinking into the field (good). The problem was that with the incline of the hill and the rough ground it was very hard work just keeping your bike upright in fact I saw 3 riders lose their balance while attempting to park their bikes and each on toppled over and onto the grass, in each case there didn’t seem to be much damage excluding the riders pride.

After successfully parking the bike we then had a little walk up the hill to the entrance and paid our £5 to get in (kids go free!) and I had to almost physically hold Bob back as he wanted a go on the bouncy castle but I managed to convince him that food was more important that him getting a few jumps in...

After a baguette and a coke we settled down on the grass and watched the racing. One of the nice things I noticed (apart from all the lovely ladies) was that because it has a hill climb you could watch the event from almost any where, that is as long as some twats don’t come and stand right in front of you while you and a couple of hundred people are sitting on the ground watching the racing and block your view very thoughtful bunch of twats there were, especially the guys in the cowboy hats how cute (sic)

Highlights of the event included watching some brave soul on a bright yellow scoter attempt the hill and he almost made it to the top, much to the crowd’s enjoyment!

There was some great classic machinery on display and the air was filled with equal amounts of dust and Castrol-R lovely and quite a few riders didn’t quite manage to get up the hill with one or two deciding they would have a better chance by going sideways into the roped off area!

After watching the racing for a few hours, having a wander around the handful of trade stand that were there and spending 30 minutes queuing for the toilet we decided to brave the bike park and start heading home.

The event was extremely well organised, well marshalled and not overly priced and well worth a return trip, only this time I think I will take the car (and the kids) as it’s much easier to park.

More pictures can be found here