Everywhere Virtually

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I had the pleasure of meeting up with Si Johnston yesterday. He had embarked from Northern Ireland early on in the day, Coleraine to be exact with the today’s destination being Cambridge but ultimately he is headed for Mongolia. That’s quite a ride by anybody’s standards and he had a deadline to meet. The start of the England vs USA World Cup match at 19:30.

I met him at the Windmill pub just off the M6 near Knutsford. A suitable venue I felt considering its geographic position and the fact it is where most GS riders meet once a month. He made some amazing progress but he was late for Cambridge before he even set off. I wanted to escort him on a scenic route through the Peak District but that had to be curtailed due to the time constraints. My thinking was that if we did some of the route he could then cut across to the M1 and then onwards to Cambridge.

After a quick fuel stop we were off. We took the A537 from Knutsford to the Cat & Fiddle pub and up the renowned twisty road that takes on its name. Normally associated with speeding, sports bikes ploughing the fields and putting holes in dry stone walls it is also a very pleasant and scenic ride on a blue sky day which it was today.

We carried on down into Buxton and from there took the A515 Ashbourne road. It’s a fast Roman road with great views of the Derbyshire countryside. By this time it was 6pm and Si had to be in Cambridge for 19:30. I knew he had to blast off so I filmed him jet off near Eaton & Alsop. (video to follow)

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I decided to take the scenic route through Biggin, Longor, Hartington Nether Quarter (sounds rude), Hartington Middle Quarter, Earl Sterndale, Crowdicote, Longnor and then home.

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