On a very sunny Sunday morning 64 Meridian members arrived at Warr's South East in Mottingham in readiness for my Murder & Smuggling rideout. On purpose our end destination had been shrouded in mystery and other than the Road Captains and Marshalls no one knew our final destination.
After breakfast Tea & Biscuits courtesy of Warr's South East, and after swiping in and the ride briefing - we rode out through Chiselhurst onto the A20, passed Brands Hatch then turning right towards Shipbourne. We circumnavigated Tonbridge and sped on towards Lamberhurst.
We went out through the glorious Spring countryside and at Marks Cross turned left towards Hadlow Down and on to Nutley where we stopped for a well deserved rest break and free hot drinks courtesy (again!) of our sponsoring dealers Warr's.
After drinks and suitably refreshed we rode out up the A22 and across even more green country towards Turners Hill and straight on towards Lingfield. We then popped out onto the A22 but the Sunday traffic was very heavy so we turned right at Blindly Heath heading towards Tandridge on the A25. We then continued on to Westerham through Biggin Hill into Bromley and onto the final destination - Chiselhurst Caves! I bet you didn't see that one coming?
Unfortunately during the ride one of our members who was dropped off at the left turn towards Tandrige committed the ultimate Chapter sin and left their post before the last man arrived. The poor folk following this person now had no way of knowing which way to proceed on the route so unfortunately we lost a few of our group.
Thankfully there were a few Road Captains and Ride Marshals at the rear of the ride to help round up the lost riders and helped get some to the end destination. Apologies to those that didn't make it. I hope the rider that left his post (you know who you are) thinks on about the mess he left by abandoning the ride without bothering to tell the last man.
Anyway...
Many thanks to John, Patrick and Charlotte at Warr's for opening up early, and to our master snapper Jay Dhokia for the brilliant photos (here and on FB) and of course many many thanks to last man Dave Mann, all the Road Captains and Ride Marshals for all the work they did on the ride and especially to Fred for stepping in to help the last few 'lost' riders home.
Next rideout is Alan Wright's 'Windy Tunnels' ride on May 20th. See you all there!
Graham Allen, Meridian Road Captain
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