Leg over at last

Finally, after 2 months, I was able to get Ginny out of the garage and take her for a ride, as September threw up a few decent days. 

The first trip, was a meander down to a place called Dunkirk, just north west of Canterbury. I was on a mission, that being, to get a snap of the village sign with my bike and my Overland Ride the World sticker. Basically, a bit of fun that could win you a prize, i.e. some new Dunlop tyres, the idea is to visit as many places in the UK whose names match those of somewhere else in the world. For example, there's another place in Kent called Botany Bay, which I already tagged on the UK tour with Grizzly in July. Dunkirk was my 8th place. Two more, gets me a t-shirt. "You don't need any more t-shirts", I can here Catherine saying. She's probably right but don't tell her. 😉 

The ride itself was only about 50 odd miles, as I had an errand to run that afternoon, so it had to be short and sweet. Still, I let Tomtom take me the scenic route on the way there, then gave Ginny a blast along the M2 on the return journey. She's equally happy bimbling about country lanes or blasting the motorways and never complains. Getting back on her after so long is always a really satisfying moment, because she looks and sounds great and is so easy to ride, and when the sun is shining, there's no better place to be.

Another one ticked off the list

A week later, I was out again. I'm not a rider who can just ride around, I need somewhere to go, a focus. Sometimes it can be difficult to chose somewhere. Even with my 'To Visit' list, it can be hard, as so many places on that list are a long way away. This time though, I decided to head down to RAF Manston and pay a visit to the RAF Manston History Museum. I've been to the Spitfire & Hurricane Museum, right next door, a couple of times but on both occasions this place has been closed. Again, I plotted a scenic run down on Tomtom and boy was it scenic. Plenty of single track roads, the kind with high hedges and loads of grass and muck down the middle. Luckily, there weren't more than a handful of occasions when something came the other way and never a time where one of us wasn't able to get in a passing place. I did have a Tomtom issue on the way down, which wasted some time, where I came into a village, only to find my road out closed. I'm not sure how long it took me to find my way out of the 'loop' and finally bypass that village but needless to say I did one circuit, to end back where I started, before I found the way out. Sometimes Tomtom just can't seem to see the wood for the trees! It's frustrating but not uncommon.

The museum itself is housed in a fairly large hangar and is as you might expect, fairly well crammed with memorabilia, old aircraft, replicas, models, mock ups, etc. It was fiver to get in, so pretty easy on the pocket and certainly well worth that entrance fee. I probably spent 90 minutes going round but if you're not into reading too much, you could do it a bit quicker.

Blackburn Buccaneer Cockpit

Replica Sopwith Type 9400

Test Upkeep device (bouncing bomb)
 recovered from Reculver

LEGO, brilliant, eh?

The Lightning

It was an interesting visit, with aircraft on display that I have memories of as a kid, such as the Gloster Meteor or Jet Provost, besides stuff from the two wars. I left the museum and took the quick route home again, which meant dual carriageway and motorway for all but a couple of the 42 miles to home. Mileage for the day was about 100. The next day was forecast to be another warm day. Where should I go?