“A monster bicycle has arrived from Bim, 6 h.p. and only one gear; with commendable courage, never having sat a machine before, I rode it from the station, the only difficulty is that it won’t go slow. Yesterday I ran amok and knocked down a rifleman, however saluting from the dust he apologised profusely, thus showing the glorious spirit of discipline that pervades the British army and will eventually bring the Kaiser to the doom he deserves.” (Yvo Alan Charteris, 1915).
Many times I’ve ridden past this prominent memorial on the way into the Cotswolds as I did today on the way to meet Steve for our much overdue meet in Burford. Being Remembrance Sunday, I thought it time I stopped by and took a closer look. It’s quite an impressive sight at the crossroads between Toddington and Temple Guiting not far from Winchcombe with the adjacent road leading down to Stanway House. It’s always fascinated me being a bronze sculpture of George defeating a falling Dragon and it turns out it was commissioned by the aristocratic Wemyss family of Stanway House as a memorial to eleven men who died in the Great War, two of which were Sons of the family; Hugo Francis and Yvo Alan Charteris. With some additional research I came by an excellent blog post that’s well worth a read up about the family and the tragic loss they endured as many families did at that time (Two Sons of the Souls).
I continued riding on into the heart of the Cotswolds on this fine and mild (for November) day. The roads were dry with little mud, so I was able to follow my regular scenic run down through the lanes and back roads toward Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the Water admiring the glorious late Autumn colours complementing the yellow Cotswold stone walls and buildings. My favourite route would take me along the Pershore and Eckington side and then on through Toddington and the ‘Rissingtons’ avoiding main roads where possible. A lot of fun, with very little traffic on the roads too.
On arrival at Burford while waiting for Steve I pulled up and got chatting to a very pleasant local lady with her calm and friendly Irish Wolf Hound. The size of breed always seem quite intimidating to me but was attracting all sorts of attention. One guy an ex servicemen from an Irish regiment waiting for the remembrance parade stopped by to have a photo taken and mentioned the wolfhound was the official regimental mascot. The lady was a keen biker too, once owned the F700 GS and now has a Kawasaki in green and took interest in my GS, I was quite impressed she was even aware it was the 1250 engine. She had also toured around Northern France and Belgium, and been down to the off road centre in Wales too.
Always good to meet Steve again who arrived just before they closed the road for the parade. His K1200GT looking pristine as ever, I do envy that sheepskin seat cover looks so comfy and as I understand he has a heated seat too. Our favourite cafe The Priory busy outside today so we chose to warm our bones inside instead and order a pot of tea before wandering up the road to take part in the two minute silence, listening out for the bugle call signalling quiet thought and reflection. Afterwards, catching up over a most enjoyable all-day breakfast we are now both looking forward to next May, riding together again as we join our long awaited Picos and Asturias Motorrad Tour postponed twice from 2020/2021 due to Covid. Hopefully, back to more normality in 2022. I really can’t wait to ride around those Spanish/Portuguese mountains again, in good company with great stopover locations and equally great food and wine.
Our meet point in Burford is equidistant from our respective homes, so after another cup of tea we said our farewells for now and I picked a similar route back home, stopping occasionally for a few photos while winding back up toward Stratford, then on through Feckenham, Hanbury and the back roads via Droitwich. A nice ride, still enjoying my bike. Today was everything a motorcycle ride should be for the last ride of the year. I will now pack her away until the Spring and start planning next years ‘adventures’ during these oncoming dark and bleak Winter months. 2021 wasn’t such a bad year all in all, almost 8k miles on the GS in just over 12 months, all in the UK so looking forward to getting across the water again now.
