Armada Rally

Organised by Drake MCC at their Rally site on the edge of Bodmin Moor. The Armada Rally is the replacement for the Two Moons, which itself replaced the Drum Rally. I believe that the badge for each succeeding rally will feature a different ship.

a special Armada beer in honour of the rally ... was on sale in the pub

- Ted

The Club bought themselves a new control tent and with the usual high winds and heavy rain we seem to get at these rallies it had a testing time. Other than trying to imitate a helicopter and do a vertical take off a couple of times it survived all that the Cornish weather could throw at it!

In 2009 it was heavy showers most of the weekend but at least that meant we got a bit of sun between them.

I had a bad start to the weekend, as when I was about to set off to the rally on Friday lunchtime (in the rain) from Bradford, I found that my lights had stopped working. It was just a blown relay, but it lost me a couple of hours sorting it out. This meant I hit a lot more traffic than usual plus I had to use the motorway instead of my more normal A road run.

I didn't arrive at the rally until just before nine and after the mornings work, the bike repairs then the 340 or so mostly motorway miles I wasn't in the mood for a late Friday session. Several people looked a bit worse for wear on Saturday morning, (well those that actually managed to get up in the morning did!) I was glad I was sensible enough to have an early night for a change.

I went to Padstow on Saturday with Len and Marita Tempest, and it was sunny most of the time. When the inevitable shower started we had to take cover, no, not in a pub but a café (not the one with a Michelin star!)

Quite a few people went on a trip to look round a local micro brewery that was supposed to be within walking distance of the rally site, but not all of them actually found it. Anyway they could sample the beer because they had provided a special Armada beer in honour of the rally which was on sale in the pub.

Saturday evening there was a Folky type group on in the pub, but I was in the new restaurant part and missed most of their set.

The improvements to the pub have progressed, and it looks better every year. I understand that all the accommodation is now being renovated.

Numbers seemed to be a bit down this year, but it meant you could get round to speak to most of the people you knew.

Sunday was a fairly early start as I intended coming back up the Fosse way, but I ended up using the motorway again. I just wanted to get home, I'd had enough wind and rain and was keen to get back to try out the bike cleaning kit I had won in the raffle!

- Ted Trett