Rendezvous with the Captain ... 09:30 hrs

Last week I took orders to attend a brief with my captain down in the Cotswold village of Burford. It had been five long years since I last met with him, so I was much pleased to ride down on on such a fine Spring Sunday morning remembering that last campaign I served under him; the defeat of Ralph the Red Barron at that infamous 'bridge'. History recounts the campaign well, with such clarity and accuracy thanks to the excellent report in dispatches. You can read the full account here.

The weather forecast predicted a warm day at last, with slight rain early in the morning. I was due to meet Steve at 09:30 so left home around 07:30, the route planned as described in the previous post would take me across country through B roads into Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds taking in small villages like Toddington, Ford, Temple Guiting and Guiting Powers, then on through Naunton, Bourton on the Water and Great Rissington . Very few bikes on the road at this time either, though I did pass Mick - one of Lindsay's mates coming in the opposite direction just south of Pershore, unmistakable on his white R80/GS, we exchanged a wave but I doubt he recognised me.

It was so good to ride through the Cotswolds with zero traffic for a change. The early start, cool after slight rain as the day warmed up I couldn't get over the fragrance of Spring in the air with the unmistakable intense blossom and rapeseed fields in bright yellow bloom.

For this ride down I had plotted the journey using MotoGoLoco - on-line motorcycle route planning software that uses Google Maps. As I understand Ride magazine now use this site to host their download routes. The software is a lot easier to use than the Garmin Basecamp software, so I was interested in how it would perform. The basic idea is to plot a route using Way points to force the Garmin GPS to take your chosen route. You can view the route I made in MotoGoLoco here.

Zumo showing the Waypoint at Naunton.

I'm pleased to say the route I plotted worked flawlessly. My concern at first would be how the Garmin would interpret the way-points, as each route to a way-point showed on the unit as a separate route with an individual 'Go' button. I wondered if following the route I would be expected to pull over and select the next part of the route. Fortunately, the Garmin continued the route seamlessly, moving from one way-point route to the next without issue.

I couldn't resist pulling over to take a few pictures of the Cotswold countryside, lit up with the carpet of rapeseed yellow fields. That distinctive aroma that reminds me of bike trips away in Northern France on Harley tours with Rob, where we first met up with Steve all those years ago in some French town I can't remember now.

Sea of rapeseed

I arrived at Burford just as Steve was arriving too. It was great to see him after so long. I couldn't believe it was almost five years since we last met at the MotoGP, Silverstone where Steve got me in the BDRC area for a great day out watching the racing. Today we discussed plans for an upcoming tour we have planned, I'm really looking forward to it.

Steve and his very smart K1200GT

Parked up outside some pile in Guiting Powers. 

 For the route home I chose the 'TracBac' function on the Garmin. The function reversed the route I came down, but then I adjusted it slightly heading back through Pershore and then Upton on Severn before skirting around Worcester and down to Martley where I met with a chap on very nice matt grey Ducati Multistrada - we had a bit of fun on the twisty run up to Martley, but I'm afraid he left me for dust as we approached Great Witley. A quick blast along the switchbacks in Bewdley .. arriving home about 2:30pm.

This house will do !

Super ride and great scenery but you must get up early before the tourists clog the roads up though. Also, avoid the main roads and pick as many B roads as you can to experience the best of the Cotswolds. I'm really impressed with MotoGoLoco so far. It's the easiest/fastest software I have used for route planning. I will definitely be using it again!