The Idle Swine

The Idle Swine's to the Peak District.

09/09/2009

Great day out, we were blessed with a fine day and in all 8 idle swine's turned out for the ride. Myself, Roger, Bob, Rod, Tom, Keith, and John met at the lay-by in Kings Bromley as planned and Pete met us on route at Draycott. We stopped for fuel rest and sustenance at Ashbourne, where the Whoopee cushion made it's entrance, and a good laugh was had by all!

First and only fly in the ointment was the Highways had closed the road that I'd planned to take, which is a shame as it's a superb road with great scenery. Nevertheless we made our way along the A515 and turned off at Long Rake, went via Youlegrave to Bakewell. Youlegrave and Alport are smashing little villages and worth seeing, as is Bakewell of course. We went round some really nice roads and stopped at Castleton for lunch. Had a nice ramble round the town, there's not a great deal there, but it's a beautiful location.

Bob & Rod were off to climb the hill up to the castle, it was so steep that I'd need airlifting to it, but they were soon back, apparently they charge you 4 quid to walk up a cliff! Then while we were relaxing in the square, a cheeky bugger of a Jackdaw gave Pete a present! More on that later! There were a few other bikers there and a nice free parking place for bikes. The people round about as usual took a lot of notice of the Bullets, and just before we went a fellow on a 750 Kawasaki was asking questions and got carded by Bob, in such a forthright manner it made me feel ashamed I never thought to do it!

We didn't get to say tarra to Rog as he had made his way off back on a tremendous journey back home, he definitely got the Iron Man of the saddle award! Cool Tom then led us via a fantastic route through the gorge to the A6 and down to Buxton where we split of from our intrepid overnighters and went down the A515 to Ashbourne. We pulled off into the market square for a well earned rest with a drink and a piece of cake, but was harassed by wasps! Thanks also to Tom Keith and Roger for their photos too. Great day out lads!

Additional information from Tom & Keith, the Over-Nighter's!

It was a great run out, and thanks to Malc for organising it, and to fellow idle swines for turning up. It was a bit of a surprise to pull into the "solo motorcycles only" parking spot in Buxton, to find that only Keith was behind me! I'm glad that everyone got home safely, but I never saw you go your separate ways. We found a cash machine in Buxton then moved on to our campsite, which was roughly halfway between Buxton and Ashbourne. It was a lovely afternoon for pitching tents. We took an evening ride towards Carsington Water, ending up at Kniveton. Then we went to Ashbourne to get fish and chips, and took them back to the campsite. That's when we realised how cold it was getting - a reminder that although the daytime had been lovely and warm, we are already halfway through September. So we went to bed earlier than usual and slept well. This morning, we got up, had breakfast and then went into Matlock just for the fun of riding there along the road from Newhaven. After a cuppa and a chat to a 75-year-old rider, we came back by easy stages via Ashbourne, Sudbury, Lichfield to home. I covered exactly 200 miles from setting out to returning home.