Lizard Rally

30 April 1982 Lizard MCC

Three of us, myself, Helen & Neil, set out from Surrey as soon as we could all get away from work on the Friday. The sky was dull, but it wasn't raining.

                   

- Phil

It was on the trip, down to the most southerly rally in Britain, that I discovered the grooves that road menders carve into the old road to key the surface for the new layer, tend to send me cross-eyed, (this is the grooves that follow the line of the road, not ones that traverse it). I had many chances to experience this effect, as there were many sets of road works on the chosen route. Must be something to do with the time of year. I can't help thinking that, had we used more motorways and main roads, this problem would have been lessened but, the navigator was one of those people who prefer the 'shortest distance as a straight line' route to the faster one. I occasionally agree, but when the trip is going to take over five hours, I might sometimes opt for the quicker route, especially if we don't leave until mid-late afternoon and it's going to be dark by the time we get there.

Predictably, it was getting dark when we got there, but the weather was kind to us and it didn't take long to get the tents up and ourselves into the marquee. Normal dancing, singing and drunken debauchery followed, bringing Friday to a close.

On Saturday, we were promised a Hog Roast. It was obvious from quite early on that it was going to take some time to prepare, so most people went out for a ride. We chose to pop into Penzance, to see if we could find some pirates, (no such luck, by the way). Unfortunately, I managed to find a patch of oil on some 'S' bends and dropped the bike, no surprise there, grazing my knee and snapping my foot peg, (luckily not the other way around). We could not find anywhere to fix the bike in town, but got some plasters in Boots, so we went back to site and patched up my wounds.

Eventually the hog was declared fit for consumption, so a few had some of that. As it happens, many people got fed up waiting for the roast, so they had gone out for a meal in local cafes. This meant more pork for the rest of us. Result! Whether people had the pork or not didn't reduce the amount of fun and frivolity we all had in the marquee that night.

On the Sunday we all went on our way, although I had a different target ahead of me as my family were having a holiday on the Isle of Wight and I was intending to join them there. Easy enough these days, with satnavs and mobile phones and such, but fairly tricky when you just have an address without a detailed map and no way to contact anybody. I managed though, eventually. I was able to get the footpeg welded back on while I was there.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley