Afghan Heroes 'Ride of Respect'

3rd April 2011

Short Version –

Booked 10am to 11am. Got there at 9.50am. Linked straight onto another group. Back home 11am.

Long Version –

When the Scrumpies went to the Afghan Ride last year some of us ended up hanging around for 4 or 5 hours. This year a group of us decided to go earlier to see if we could get through a little quicker.

No arrangements were made for the Scrumpies to meet so Archie and I tried to get a meeting point together.

Becks, Mary, Phil, Mandy, Neil, Joan & I got to the lay-by before Somerset arrived. We waited 20 to 25 mins but as usual Somerset was on Somerset time.

We realised that as the lay-by started to fill up that when Somerset arrived there would be nowhere for them to park up. There was no option but to ride on and hope to meet up at Hullavington airfield.

We arrived and decided that we would put Joan in front with the trike – we could wind around other bikes easier than she could. This turned out to be either a blessing or a curse!!!

Joan was stopped by a Marshal and all we saw was her nodding. Instead of pointing us to the right where bikes were going they put us on the left where there were a large number of trikes.

We were about to take helmets off when the trikes and all the other bikes around them started up – we were off.

We kept with the pack and went down a side road with all the main pack of bikes parked on the main runway.

We tried to get off the bikes again and a lady came up and said – “I am a Scrumpy. I just joined” – but before we could get our helmets off and have a chat we were off again. If anyone recognises her from this picture – say hello from us.

What we can work out is this. Joan said that when the marshal talked to her she could not hear him so she just nodded.

We think that he asked her if she was part of the trike club that was already there. She nodded so we got attached to a group that was already there.

Gemma and James were in Wootton Bassett and managed get photos of us going through:

It was a moving experience riding through the crowd and it was well worth doing. It was a shame we did not meet up with other Scrumpies. When we got home I called Archie and he said “we are near the front – where are you?”. I had to say that we were at home on the drive – and the kettle is on when you want it.

We went through Hullavington so quickly that I did not get a chance to get my camera out. Thanks to Mandy for taking photos off the back of Phil’s bike and Gemma taking photos in Wootton Bassett.

Take care

AJ

Selection of other photos from the day