It all started when one of Mary's teaching Colleagues rang me to ask if it was possible to give a ride to her hubby Geoff, who farms 400 acres near Liskeard. The whole thing was to be top secret for hiis 60th Birthday.

The secret meet up was to be at Endsleigh Garden Centre and the evening before, at the Wednesday Rendezvous, I mentioned it to Bill and he was kind enough to come along.

Well, before we knew it, Geoff was on the back of the Trike, Joy (his wife) was in Bill's sidecar and we were up the A38 to Bovey on to Newton Abbot, then Totnes, Dartington and back to Endsleigh for tea. Thanks to Joy.

A really good afternoon.

Joy Ready for the off.

All were ready, with Pete leading, then two trikes and Bill’s combo and the rest just followed behind, with James and Val bringing up the rear on their GL1100. Leaving Delabole we then turned right on the B3266 to Boscastle, a road we have done a couple of times this year but still pretty scenic.

We joined the A39 and headed for Bude, then on to Kilkhampton where we stopped for a comfort break and a smoke, Pete had arranged that Jennie who works in the local shop opposite the C.B. stop would video us leaving, but by the time we’d got ourselves together she had to serve customers and missed us! Pete took us further up the A39, then a left turn to a village called Shop and passed the Mowenstow listening station with the upside down dustbin lids, but we couldn’t hear anything, only my stereo, I did try the CB but realised the buttons only work if you’ve got the damn thing fitted!! Again very scenic and nice down hill/up hill twisty bendy bits, we arrived a the campsite and tried to get all the bikes into 3 car parking bays, it didn’t quite work.

We then dismounted, had the usual group photograph (see your next WingSpan), then had a walk around the site. It’s very nice, clean and very new, but we thought that the camping area was too far from the entertainment to be suitable for a Wing Ding and in a gale it would be worse than Tregoad but we could try it out for a D&C get together sometime.

Mike's new catering assistant.

Note: zee hand on zee knee !

We had heard that the light parade last year was very good and we both liked Scarborough so, when we found the date for the event, we booked the caravan last November. It is surprising how quickly time passes and this year’s event was soon here. We set off very early on the Friday morning for the journey to Cayton Bay. We met up with Debs Major at Trowell Services and arrived at Scarborough at around 2:30pm. We were able to get in the caravan straight away and were soon unpacked and settled in and then went to inscribe. Mike and Dottie arrived about an hour later.

The caravan site is about three miles south of Scarborough and has all the usual facilities one would expect from such a site. We had a quiet evening in the bar (well, as quiet as you can be with acts on stage), meeting friends we have not seen for some time.

On Saturday, we went down into Scarborough where there were over 200 Goldwings lined up along the promenade. There was also a display around the lifeboat station, with trade stands in attendance. It seemed that everywhere you looked there were Goldwings.! After a healthy lunch of fish and chips (well you’ve got to, haven’t you) we walked around the town. Around 5:00pm we headed back to the caravan to get changed ready for the evening entertainment and went back into town to watch the parade which started at about 8:00pm. We managed to park at the northern end of the promenade and prepared for the parade to come through.

There were over 150 bikes, trikes and outfits on the parade and they looked spectacular. Unfortunately, one bike provided more of a show than the owner planned when it caught fire!!! Very frightening for the owner and pillion. After the parade had passed and the traffic died down, we headed back to the site and went to watch the awards ceremony. Debs Major won furthest traveled female and we won furthest traveled male. We tried to find a quieter bar but were thwarted when the area we sat in was turned into a karaoke arena; we left soon afterwards and went back into the main bar.

Sunday was a little cooler so we had a quiet day; we went for a walk down onto the beach at Cayton. The evening was spent in the main bar and we left early on Monday for the journey home. It was a brilliant weekend, well organized and great fun to meet up with friends we hadn’t seen for some time. We look forward to next years Scarborough Light Parade. Written by: Chris and Anne Easter

Eight bikes, two trikes and a combo found parking at the top end of the promenade, thanks to Chris who had pre-arranged the space.

Having riden through the event area before settling into our space, it seemed to be the only piece of tarmac left for group parking.

Well done Chris.