South West and back

My youngest daughter had a special birthday in May. Being in lockdown, it wasn't possible to give her her presents, so with the easing of lockdown rules, I hatched a plan to ride Ginny down, as the bearer of gifts. But this was to be a two pronged trip, as I also arranged to visit my friends Helen & Vid, in Shalford, on the way back, and take a ride to St Andrew's Church in Tangmere, to find the grave of Pilot Officer Lake. More of that later.

The plan was, to ride down to Exeter on Wednesday afternoon, right after I'd finished at Spitfire Club and had some lunch. I'd prepped Ginny on Tuesday, tyre pressures, oil level, tomtom, etc, and had done most of my packing, so all I had to do was load the bags into the panniers and set off. Tomtom reckoned on about 4 hours, taking me the usual route, M25, M3, A303, etc. Weather was warm and dry. Ginny was showing a range of about 280 miles, so with only 204 miles to go, I didn't need any fuel, least not until I got to Exeter. There's a Sainsbury's just up the road from Elly's place, so I planned to stop there and fuel up, once I arrived. I left home at 13:15.

I rode without a stop, and without incident. It was quite boring really, except for the 3 car pile up on the road by Stonehenge. Rubbernecking again, I suspect. That was going the other way, so didn't inconvenience me that much. It was almost exactly 4 hours, as I pulled into Sainsbury's petrol station. I'd done 249 miles since I'd filled up in Folkestone. Ginny took just short of 22 litres. Range was still showing 63 miles.

Filled up, I rode round the corner to Elly's and was soon relaxing with her and boyfriend Ross, whilst they prepared dinner. Presents were opened and dinner eaten. We settled down to watch a film, when we were disturbed by the noise of a hedgehog eating the food that Elly puts out for them. She has a hole in the gate and a ramp up the steps for them, so it's a bit like a hedgehog fast food joint. I haven't see a live hedgehog for over 20 years, so I was quite thrilled. A little later, a second joined in the fun.

Hello Hedgehog!

 

Thursday, the plan was to drive into Dartmoor, for a walk around a couple of reservoirs. It was a very warm and sunny day and it was clear to see there hadn't been much rain in these parts. The journey was interesting, with us having to drive down the tiniest of country lanes but we managed to find the car park OK, before setting off on what was, in total, a shade over a 4 mile walk.

Tottiford Reservoir

Back home, we had some lunch and I got ready to leave for Shalford. I messaged my friend Helen to say I'd be about 2h15m but I'd miscalculated and the trip was more like an hour longer. I arrived at Helen's place about 18:15. This trip wasn't as uneventful as the one down though. I was following a couple of cars on the A303 at Newcott. We were bowling along nicely at 50mph, which is the limit there, them about 100 yards ahead. As I approached a place called the Route 303 Diner, a VW Golf pulled out from the car park and turned straight across me. I jammed on the brakes and with ABS in full song, tried to steer away from the VW. Luckily for me, the driver obviously became aware I was there as rather than turning fully into my lane, he straddled the white line, leaving me enough room to squeeze between him and the verge. Had he not done so, I reckon I would have hit him. A lucky escape. Shaken, I just glared at him, as I went by, ignoring his raised hand in apology. The rest of the journey went without incident thankfully, apart from me taking the wrong exit off a roundabout. DOH!

I had a very pleasant evening with Helen & Vid, them providing a nice dinner, bed and breakfast option at no charge. 😃 What are friends for eh?

Friday morning, it was scorching. I was clad in my summer mesh jacket, with a wicking microfibre t-shirt on underneath and my kevlar lined jeans. Warm enough garb when the temperature hits the 30s. Helen though, had a normal cotton t-shirt underneath her 2 piece leather suit! I set Tomtom for a twisty route to Tangmere, our destination, and off we set.

Why Tangmere? Last summer, another friend Helen and I did the RAF Museum's Spitfire 10k run. All runners were given a label, with the name of a pilot on it. Mine was Pilot Officer Donald Millar Lake, who is buried in St Andrew's churchyard in Tangmere, where he was based. I decided last year, that I would go to find the grave of the man whose name I had worn on that run, and so here we were. Being close, a few hundred yards from where the WWII airfield was located, it is unsurprising to find a large number of RAF graves. What I wasn't expecting though, was a number of German pilot's graves. Looking at the dates on them, I reckon they were shot down  in those early days of the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe tried to destroy the RAF airfields.

Pilot Officer Lake, just 20 years old

Lest We Forget

The German Graves

From the churchyard, we rode a few hundred yards to the Tangmere Aeronautical Museum, all that remains to remind one of the airfield which once stood there. Douglas Bader was stationed there, along with, as I found out only on Saturday, the mother of one of the chaps at Spitfire Club. She was, apparently, one of Bader's ground crew.

As we set off from the churchyard, I heard an unmistakable sound, that of a Merlin engine, looking up, I saw what was making the sound, a Spitfire. Looking back down, I was very nearly in the kerb!! Nearly another German machine brought to ground by one of Mitchell's finest!

The museum was closed, due to Covid-19 but we stopped to take a look through the gates at some exhibits, and then, the Spitfire once again. Goodwood aerodrome is just a few miles away and the Boultbee group run 2 seater Spitfire flights from there. I couldn't tell whether it was a single or twin seater but whatever, it was a glorious sight in the clear blue sky. One can never grow tired of the sound of a Merlin engine or the sight of these magnificent aircraft.

View of/through the Tangmere Museum gates

Outdoor collection, Gloster Meteor, Hawker Harrier and McDonnell Douglas Phantom

A quick drink and fuel stop, so Helen could fuel her bike, then we headed back home, going our separate ways at Petworth. I arrived home about 16:30, after a very hot ride back. Another adventure over, I think I need to plan another before the weather takes a turn.