NORTHUMBERLAND COAST RUN SUNDAY 28th APRIL 2002
North East members at Bamburgh
There is something not funny starting to connect itself with this event,
RAIN!!!!
The day started bright where I met local members Martin Stacey who lives 200
yards up the road and Paul Woods who lives with school teacher Becky in the next
village.
We set off from the ASDA car park and headed towards our second meeting place
at Washington services on the A1M. There we met Mike and Viv and Phil and Helen
Moore.
Time to leave and I set off full boot to join the motorway, passed the angel
of the north and headed north towards Kingston Park to meet up with John and
Claire Moore and new members Shaun and Angela Delaney who recently joined after
I left a club flyer on the windscreen of his red t-bar. The strangest sight of
the day was passing a group of young lads dressed in leopard skin jock straps
heading towards Tescos, I'm sure there's another story to be told there.
We set off around 10:45 and headed towards the Northumberland Coast Route, a
complex of small villages lining the beautiful coastal shores which stretch from
Ashington to Bamburgh.
There's something special and unique about driving in convoy, everyone looks.
It’s great to watch the expressions on peoples faces as we all drive by, not
something you see every day is it.
After a quick stop in Craster tummies began to rumble so we headed off to
Bamburgh our chosen place for lunch. As we arrived at the car park with the
fantastic Bamburgh castle backdrop the sun was belting down, so we eagerly began
to spark up the BBQ's which everyone had brought along. Mike began to
disassemble his boot to make a wind break to light the BBQ, it worked, cheers.
As usual Joanne went overboard and started putting out a lunch fit for a king
and 30 servants. I must admit the kebabs were awesome, Martin enjoyed them too!!
Everyone happy drinking, cooking and eating, chatting and taking pictures when
the sky turned black and Paul made a fatal prediction, "Those clouds are miles
away, there's no chance of rain", wrong 5 minutes later we were all cooking
under brollies not wanting to accept that the weather forecasters had actually
got it right. I'm not talking a shower, it was torrential, bouncing off the
ground. The only good thing to come from the rain was it managed to put out
Viv's very burned sausages, which I'm sure were actually on fire.
How the day turned, we were forced to eat our BBQ from inside our individual
cars while the rain passed and sure enough the sun popped its head round another
cloud which gave us just enough time to get cleaned up, wringed out and demist
the cars.
The next stop after the toilet break was a visit to Duns in Scotland, the
birth place of 3 times world champion Jim Clark. Here we visited a small museum
called '' The Jim Clark Room'', which journals his life from birth until his
death in 1969 and also houses a large collection of the trophies he won
throughout his impressive career. Before we left Duns we took the opportunity to
sample the Scottish pub life for a quick half and then headed back to the sunny
north east to our club local, the Church Mouse in Durham. There we chatted and
joked about the days events and looked forward to the next chapter in the MK1
Club.
Quotes of the day:-
"Shall we drive the causeway to Holy Island?" - Michael Sheavills confident
of his waxoyl undersealing skills.
" MR2 plus salty water, er, I think not!!" - John Moore not sure if his car
has been undersealed.
" Slow down Mike, we haven't all got Superchargers " - John Moore realising
the gap between NA and SC.
" ere, my sausages are soggy '' - Mike Johnson at the now famous Bamburgh
BBQ.
" I'm gonna buy you a fur lined bikini and cowboy boots Paul " - Becky after
seeing those strange guys at the car park.
MICHAEL SHEAVILLS
A brief stop in Craster, famous for its kippers
Toilet stop
Angela and Shaun
Claire
Helen and Phil
Jo
John Moore
Mike and Viv
Paul Woods
Duns
Jim Clark Room
Shaun Delaney
