Since about the age of nine, which is far more years ago than I care to recall, I have had a 'favorite place in the world'. Ok, so I haven't actually seen much of the world but of that I have seen Trebarwith Strand in Cornwall is absolutely the best bit.
As a child I went there on a family holiday and I visited many times subsequently..... to this day it remains my place of solace, a place of peace and healing, there is a tiny place on the cliff face rocks that I consider 'my rock' and in times of trouble, if I can't get there (which usually logistically I can't) it has been my calming visualization. At low tide this place boasts an amazing surfing beach but it is at high tide I really love it, when the sometimes immense waves crash endlessly against the rock face and the beach disappears completely beneath meters of raging, powerful waves.
So Saturday, having hooked up with Fletch who has his new love 'Eloisa' to become truly accustomed to and having been told we would ride to the West Country 'somewhere' off we set on a beautiful but cold November morning, for what I envisaged to be maybe a couple of hundred miles. I do not do 'cold', I mean I really don't do cold, leathers let me tell you are not made for warmth, they are made for safety.....and 600 miles later I was bloody cold! Fletch may have been in his high tech all weather gear and he may have been on the front but whilst he was warm and snug I lost all sense of feeling in my lower limbs and completely lost track of where my hands used to reside!
But, and here is the big but, having made mention at sometime previously of 'my rock' little did I know that was where we were headed until finally about an hours ride away I 'fell in' and all thoughts of the cold were lost in my excitement at seeing once again the place I love so much.
We arrived in beautiful bright clear sunshine (is this really November?) in the mid afternoon to an amazing and unusually high tide and he could barely get the bike on the side stand before I was rushing off over the rocks to my very favorite special little bit of the cliff face. I was 'home' again. :o)
We booked into the local cliff top hotel , a place I have long wished to stay in, it's rooms overlooking the beautiful vista of the beach and rugged cliffs, I have always imagined falling asleep to the sound of the waves breaking against the rocks and Saturday night, at an embarrassingly early hour (hey, riding pillion is hard work), under a bright moonlight I did just that, left the window open and fell asleep listening to the sound of the sea. Amazing.
Sunday morning is was back onto Eloisa and on the road again, this time the less scenic but faster motorway route home. I forgot just how much stamina is required to ride any distance in the cold....600 miles later and I'm shattered, I can only guess how tired Fletch is having had to do the real hard bit but it was a fantastic weekend, a real treat and worth every numb finger and toe.
Thank you Fletch, you're a star :o)
You can read the version 'from the front' HERE.
*Apologies for the image size and quality, um, I ran out of battery and had to use my phone! :o/
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