Words by BB
As a season closer the title seemed apt when announcing and anticipating the likely conditions for this run. In the event global warming proved its worth and we had great weather and dry roads all weekend.
The friday for assembly at my place in North Staffordshire dawned fine if cool. Huw and Trish were first to arrive having come up from South Wales via the new war memorial opened by the Queen the week before at Alrewas, only to find it still closed to the public. Perhaps the white paint on the toilet seats hadn’t dried……..
Huw and I got the chance of a little rehearsal of some tunes we had been working on when at around dusk everyone else turned up and found their beds. We therefore had the opportunity of a proper sit down meal and gave Marion’s lasagna and shepherds pie a good seeing to accompanied by a rather nice pinotage.
Sleep was welcome even though CtC couldn’t find his ear defence having gone to bed in the dark some time after JB. Folks were up early but the garage being rather well packed did not allow room for much fettlin’ before the off. Unfortunately also I’d missed Rod’s text from the previous evening to say he would come to the house, so we left at 9am and apart from losing JB en route at a roundabout with lights, and being rather thrown by a closed road south of Nantwich we got to the nominated Little Chef at Whitchurch at 10 o’ clock. There was a text on my phone from home to say Rod was chasing us so we settled in while Jane Keith Nick Sally Rod and Bulldog joined us for a pre off coffee. I had been deliberating on whether to run 2 groups as Jane had kindly recced the route, however with JB’s reassurance we opted for one big group of eleven and duly set off at about 11.15 with JB tailing.
There was a little mist around on the first leg to the Wroxeter roman city ruins but inevitably the group had stretched out and catch ups were said to be “fun” despite some nadgery little roads we had to use due to another road closure. We all arrived at Wroxeter without major mishap however there was oil smoke emanating from Sally’s Harley…. Inspection revealed a loose oil tank filler which had been dripping onto the right hand exhaust since Sally had topped up the tank earlier. Correctly refitted the cap sealed and after attempts at cleaning off the worst of the oil, battle was rejoined and we headed for Much Wenlock and on to Craven Arms for lunch. The B road to Craven Arms is a favourite of mine and was great fun as always – and there’s another similar if shorter road back from Church Stretton along Wenlock Edge if one is so inclined…. We left that for another day and plotted up at Harry Tuffins café in Craven Arms where the club had lunch on the Gloucester run. Brilliant bacon baps for some, Sally chose a heap of salad which looked like great value – see pics.
After some refuelling we set off this time with Jane tailing, on a shorter but more technical leg via Montgomery to Llanfair Caereinion station, terminus of the narrow gauge Welshpool and Llanfair Railway. Now I’d been taking a little flak about the insipient train spotter in me. Well – we had to stay till a train came in didn’t we? But when the train did come in my fellow quacks were all over the little engine like a rash. Rod got some fantastic photo studies of the flaskies that run the railway and I think I can say it was a successful tea stop – especially for the railway after I’d spent £30 on a book in their shop…………
The route onward remained a debate for me to the Llynclys crossroads south of Oswestry. Should we do the twisty nadgery little roads across to Wem or use the blinding but to me very familiar route through Ellesmere back to Whitchurch? In the end I opted for the latter as we had been getting quite spread out and the temptation of some open fast road was too much. From a timing point of view it was a good choice and we stopped at the Whitchurch services west of the town for a debrief and to go our separate ways after a group photo.
Bulldog came with us as far as the M6 on the run home to Biddulph and I led Sally up to her B&B on the hill on the way only to find when I did get home I had not been left room to stow my TL. After a bit of shuffling all the bikes were tucked up for the night and we set about the evening. Events had overtaken my plans and we had to incorporate the watching of the rugby world cup final into the schedule. I collected Sally from the B&B by car and we plotted up in the pub next door for “”us tea”! The Talbot staff were efficient and the wine pleasant so we only missed the first 10 minutes of the match. The result was disappointing but the craic congenial and while some watched it all, others of us went into the dining room and played some music. Whisky tasting seems to be becoming something of a regular event at these Quack events and this was no exception – Huw had brought some Penderyn and Robbie some Bladnoch so with my Highland Park we had a good spread of style.
Sunday breakfast was the tour de force of Staffordshire life. Staffordshire oatcakes are like chapattis or soft galettes made of oatmeal and you can get them with various breakfast fillings including an entire fry up in a double oatcake envelope – called “the Works”. I’ve taken JB before to see the spectacle of their making, this time it was CtC’s turn. In a small shop there is a machine worthy of a Wallace and Gromit movie comprising a long hotplate perhaps 3 ft by 15 ft long above which runs an automatically controlled mobile reservoir containing the gloopy mixture and a couple of nozzles that eject pancake like splodges onto the hotplate as the reservoir runs above. It cheers the day up to see it in operation even at godawful hours of the morning and the results are a sumptuous takeaway breakfast…...
The day was warming up nicely by the time everybody was ready to leave and Robbie and Scabbers were away first. It had been a cracking weekend apart from the rugby score and a similar event can be easily repeated from here anytime it is wanted. In fact if I can get a volunteer cook or two we could do another camping weekend with midsummer barbecue at some future date.………just don’t rely on my cooking!!