Land's End and generally being silly!

The title of this blog sums up the last month! The silliness side has returned with a vengeance! I had to be reminded of my little quote; "life's too short to be sensible!" and yes it is too short, go out, have fun and that's about it really!

So here we are, the first days of autumn. The trees are losing there leaves and branches, as I nearly drove into a branch today, and not one of a bank variety! The evenings are colder and there seems to be a bit more wet weather on the horizon, well a bit more than the summer anyway. Snow has been forecasted, so that is it! The end of riding the Monster for another year! What does a sensible, normal person do, well apart from not owning an Italian bike, they hide in their thermals and just go about their normal work.

As for short, stupid people like me, we go out and have more fun! Bank Holiday weekend, the final one of the year before Christmas (yes, Christmas, the chocolates and wrapping paper is in the shops now, well has been since August!), I decided to say bollocks to the normal hum drum going shopping and looking around the shops stuff and head off on my once every seven year adventure to Land's End. The sign post was calling, and needed my bike to fill the gap between the lens of the camera and the sign post to Walton on Thames. After looking at the Premier Inn and Travelodge websites for a room for the night, and nearly laughing at the top price of £103 for one room, no food in Hayle, I decided to try the Land's End Hotel website and scare myself silly with their price.... £40 for a room and breakfast over Bank Holiday weekend! Result! Room booked on the interweb, which now meant I had to pack my bag, make sure I had oil, petrol and air in the bike parts that mattered and head south west!

The old girl made it to Land's End in just over seven hours! No aches and stiffness from the rider, only one forced stop to change to waterproof gloves and jacket due to the typical Bank Holiday weather outside Sherborne! What the hell, it's an adventure!

Bank Holiday Monday comes with a bang! Well, three false alarms on the fire alarm through the night. I managed to ignore them, which was nice! After a wander around Land's End at 8am, which to be fair, apart from the tourist attraction that does spoil it a bit, at 8am the place is great! No tourists, just the odd person wandering about, loads of rabbits, and just the sea breeze, a few ships and a couple of birds to keep you company! After my morning exploration, I headed back to the hotel for breakfast, and then headed outside to check the oil and tyre pressures on the Monster. A couple of bikers who had stayed the night in the hotel were just leaving for the other end of the country, John O'Groats! Mad fools, and they were doing it for fun! And they had sensible bikes, a Triumph touring bike thing (I think it was the ST) and a Honda Blackbird. Amazingly they wouldn't swap their bikes for a 1993 Ducati Monster. No adventure then! After wishing them good luck, I packed my bags, checked out, got a refund of my money due to the fire alarm problem (dodgy smoke detector in the kitchen), and wheeled the bike round to the patio of the hotel to take the above shot.

Land's End or Bust 2011 completed!

Then it was time to get my picture taking at the sign post. Two tips, if it is sunny and early, remember your sunglasses! Second tip, there isn't a second tip yet. My picture was taken and off I went, sort of south east ish. Down to The Lizard Point and another marker knocked off the list, Ness Point (eastern most point on mainland the UK), The Lizard Point (southern most point on mainland UK) and Land's End (western most point in mainland England). Not bad for an 18 year old Monster! All in all, with stops for food, drink and general sight seeing, it took me 10 hours to get home. No traffic hold ups, well I lie, one traffic hold up, there was a red light in Bodmin and about 10 cars infront of me! I headed home via the A30 and A303, and both roads were quiet! Excellent! To start at the end of the A30 (Land's End) and finish at the start of the A30 (Henleys Corner) in the same day just made me smile (I'm very sad about things like that!).

Down at The Lizard

And the weekend ends near Henleys Corner.....

A good weekend, even better getting the refund for the hotel! That paid for the petrol and food on the way down!! So, here is to seven years time. Maybe I'll have a hover bike by then......

That is where it all started with the Monster, five years ago at Liskeard station! Slightly warmer on the day this picture was taken though!