Planning - SW Rally

SW Challenge


Somerset Advanced Motorcyclists have organised the 2001 SW Peninsula Spring Rally for the beginning of April. Peter has roped me in (kicking and screaming, of course).

Our first 'planning meeting' at Loomies the other day revealed my weakness for any challenge. There are 4 'awards (but no money);
  • GOLD - 3 manned and 15 unmanned checkpoints

  • SILVER - 2 manned and 12 unmanned checkpoints

  • BRONZE - 1 manned and 9 unmanned checkpoints

  • LANDS END AWARD (GOLD - 3 manned and 15 unmanned checkpoints + Land's End stamp)

Now, which would drive me? Yep. The Land's End one.

To begin with I didn't quite see the challenge: ride 400 miles and pick up some answers to geo-cached clues. A standard navigation exercise then, really. But then there is the time appreciation and fatigue deprivation. The Start Point closes at 12 midnight and the 'Rally' starts at 8am. That's 14-hours.

With the best will in the World combined with lateral thinking and compromise of some scenery the best theoretical time I've made so far is...13:30 hours (to include anticipated stops and some clue breaking). Plus, we want breakfast 8am to 9am! Okay - it's more difficult than I thought!

Here's the best guess from Google Maps:


View Larger Map

The great thing is that our pace is generally about 15% quicker than Google-guess and if I use my Tom-Tom Rider it often finds little tracks that feel slower but make great time with fewer miles. Confidence is high but it's going to be a really long day in the saddle and the last 4-hours are all A38 and M5, which is not ideal when tired but is the lesser of 2 evils compared to navigating country lanes at night.

There are 2 main compromises so far. First, that the Princetown checkpoint closes at 1800hr, making the Land's End capture a risk as we'd like as not miss the timing. This means we miss out on the Atlantic Highway. The second is that at the moment I've added a southern return route past St Austel and then the A38 pass by Plymouth, which adds 30-min but avoids riding the same road twice where possible. If time presses by Princetown, we can change the route to take in Liskeard on route rather than on the way back, opening the A30 as our escape route back to civilisation - er - Somerset.

Right. That's that bit out the way. Now I need to go fit a power outlet to Shadowfax to give GPS and iPhone (Google Map) access for the route around.

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