I took the fast ferry over to the UK and went to stay with some nearby friends until the Friday morning.I rode to Warmwell through a beautiful sunny spring morning along the Dorset back roads. This is my old "stamping ground" - . Dorset is a beautiful county and the scenery is hard to beat around the inland shores of Poole harbour and across Winfrith Moor towards Dorchester. We used to ride the very road that Lawrence of Arabia used to ride on his Brough Superior. Arriving at the site I was met by an old friend and we went in search of my wood cabin.
As I was the first to arrive at the shared cabin, I occupied the double bedded room, leaving the twin bedded rooms for the late-comers. This turned out fine when four riders from Alderney arrived (Buck and Co) and since they were all
men they were happy not to be sharing a double bed. The Holiday centre was completely filled with HOG riders and their families with a good proportion of lady bikers and a few disabled riders on trikes too. About 800 Harleys in all.We spent a happy first evening on site listening to the great bands, eating and drinking. I spent the evening mostly with the Alderney boys and the rounds of drinks seemed to come quite fast and soon we were going round a second time. I started with some local beer but soon I was on double Jack Daniels! When the last band had finished we wandered the roughly 500 yards to the cabin where I found that I could either lie down in bed OR close my eyes but I couldn't do both at the same time. I finally fell asleep. I woke up in time to grab a coffee and get ready for the "Mass Ride" into Weymouth,
.About 450 bikes gathered in the sun along a nearby private quarry access road whilst we waited for the official Police escort riders to arrive. I had a pillion for the ride because when I arrived, I offered my pillion seat to anyone who might like to do the ride and hoped for a biker babe! Ha ha no chance . The ride was very well organised and well marshalled about 30 miles of it including Puddletown & Dorchester and it seemed that most of the population of the various villages we rolled through were out in the sunshine to cheer and wave. The whole of the Weymouth seafront was packed with spectators and the Mayor of Weymouth helped judge the custom competition which was held at Lodmoor. We all enjoyed the food and bands there and the custom show in which “Scrapper” John from Thames Valley won the "Best Paint" prize!
It was at the custom show that Maureen, Dave and Scrapper from the
Thames Valley Chapter had spotted me, so when I met up with the Alderney boys again, The organised ride on the Saturday afternoon was the "Sunset Ride" down to Seatown on the Dorset coast near Bridport. This was a self-marshalled ride (second man drop-off) and took about 50 bikes down the coast to a great pub called "The Anchor" where we had a good honest bar meal in pleasant company. Another meandering ride took us back to Warmwell in the evening sun, and we arrived just as the sun set and the first of the evening's bands started to play.
The second night’s bands were good and loud but I decided to take the safe route towards the bar and opted for just a few pints of Otter Bitter
On my way to the bar, the official photographer’s stand caught my eye and I decided to see if there was a pic of me as they all popped up on a big screen. I got chatting to the person beside me (as you do) who happened to be a young blonde lady who appeared to be the photographer’s assistant… Eventually I spotted the two “Dicks” on my bike and asked for a copy
So back to the bands, the fireworks complete with ooohs and aahhhs and Thames Valley friends.
I managed to get to sleep without any alcohol-induced problems, so it was easy to get up in time for my chosen Sunday ride. The weather was even better than on Saturday which had been a bit windy and the sun was still shining. I had decided to go to Portland Bill although there were three other destinations like Corfe Castle, Swanage etc we had another really good ride, well marshalled and the food at the pub near the Bill was very good. One of the bikes towing trailers had a rather large trailer with a Perspex dome and their standard sized poodle riding inside. Oliver the dog was well behaved and proudly wore his waistcoat covered in HOG patches (or were they DOG patches?)
After lunch we rode off to Lulworth Castle and met up with all the other rides and enjoyed a band and refreshments at the castle. Some bikes went down to Lulworth Cove but I headed back to Warmwell and a rest before the Sunday night Fancy Dress party. Some of the fancy dress costumes were really quite good. There was an excellent Batman, more than one Miss Piggy and three tasty Bunny Girls! And a blonde came in wearing two pink feather boas over her undies – The Tom Jones impersonator was very good too, so I’m told,
Eventually three days of riding and partying and riding and partying got the better of me so I wandered off to bed and slept like a log.
Monday morning rained but who cared? We had all enjoyed a great rally with plenty of sunshine, good riding and lots of fun.
Don’t forget the next New Forest HOG Autumn Blitz is on 28th, 29th & 30th September
by Richard Pearce.
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