Well we all met as planned at Yelverton fuel station and nobody was late... Good start.

Unfortunately we had to endure a long, cold (apart for Spider-heated grips LOL) ride across the Moors. Eventually 191-082 was upon us and the fun was to begin. There was a bit of ice in places, but nothing that we couldn't deal with... However saying that, a few badgers were spotted as we rode towards Widecombe on 191-085. One of the fallers was the run leader................. Whoops, that's me! Also I am lead to believe that Stumpy had quite a theatrical off, where his KTM insisted in doing pirrouettes over the Moorland. Excuses were made and the hard frozen ground was to blame.

Great progress was being made through the first few lanes and the ever popular 191-069 was soon upon us. A welcome 10 minute break was welcomed here by all after we all negotiated the crossing with ease.

Now I was not really aware what was going on behind me whilst at the front, but I did hear a few giggles at the end of a lot of the lanes and most of the focus was on Spider. This was his first proper group ride out and he was doing his best to get all his new camo two piece suit and bright (very bright) lid dirty. He was totting up his badger count at speed... Always smiling though. Great effort mate!

Speaking of good efforts, Lazychubbs made the hill climb in Manaton woods look quite easy. He didn't convince anybody else to have a go there though. Strange... We were all thinking bent forks, bent frame, broken plastics, trashed bike etc

We had a fuel and food stop at Bovey Tracey were all the near misses, offs etc were laughed upon.

Before we knew it we were now on the southern side of the A38 where we enjoyed some nice clusters of lanes, with a lot less road work in between.

Not 100% sure what lane it was in, but myself and Lazychubbs witnessed an extremely large cat (Puma like) in front of us which lept into the hedge and ran across the field. It was a biggun. They are deffo out there lurking around.

A buzzard was also spotted swooping down and grabbing a mouse by some of the group. Good stuff!

Great fun was had trying to get up and over the field on 202-129. The MT43 gang struggled a bit here as mud sprayed everyone in its wake.

Few more lanes on and we hit 202-179 which is still flooded in the middle. The first few of us made it through (just) and a few got slightly bogged down in the middle and help was required to recover their machines. Hats off to Stumpy who must have thought "oh not again" when he seen that water. But he gave it a good go. Especially just after the rebuild.

We eventually got to Devil's Steps where we all got down ok. A few of us decided to go back up and down again.

After that bit of fun, we only had a few more lanes before we stopped and said our goodbyes at Yealmpton garage.

I personally enjoyed my first run as leader and I must admit the class behaved well... LOL! Thanks to Gump who was Tec for the day. Good job done matey.

We all had a good laugh at one another, which is what it is all about at the end of the day.

Summary:

Loads close calls, numerous badgers, 1 big cat, 1 happy buzzard, 1 sad mouse, 1 bright lid, a lot of 4x4s, a few polite walkers, couple of miserable ones and a few pairs of wet boots.

Riders:

Danno82

Gump- (Held us all up when he trashed his front light against a tree )

Snailpacejase- (Had a further 2 hous of lanes to return to B/leigh. Hardcore)

Stumpy

Mike

Gripper

Lazychubbs

Withybrook

Spider (Rider of the day!!! How many badgers was it in the end???- great laugh)

Thanks for the company guys. Had a great day!!!

Until Next time........

Pics and Vid from Gump to follow