Had this booked in the diary for a few weeks now, but couldn't believe how great the weather turned out to be. I had arranged to stay with a Panigale 959 owning mate at his place in Southend on Sea, which meant the dreaded M4/M25/A127 dredge on Friday afternoon. Yes, I know there are nicer routes from my home in Bristol but as I was carrying luggage for the weekend I thought the motorway would be the quickest and easiest...yet again I was wrong and 5 hours after setting out at midday I arrived at my destination. A few beers on Friday night but nothing too heavy as we'd planned an early start on Saturday to make the most of the weather. I'm not too familiar with the area but the roads were great, dry and well surfaced, although the traffic was very heavy in some places...I guess we weren't the only ones who wanted to enjoy the clear blue skies around North Essex and south Suffolk. Coffee and cake was taken at the Tiptree Jam factory, and an afternoon beer at a lovely pub named the Black Lion in Long Melford overlooking the village green. Sunday saw us joined by another local Ducati owner, riding his yet to be fully run in Panigale 1299 FE .. boy did it make some noise This time we only had a few hours in the morning so headed into Herfordshire, again making the most of dry roads and actually very hot sunshine. Coffee was taken in a lovely tea room in Hatfield Heath. I wanted to get back to Bristol before it got too dark so headed home around 2pm and with only a quick fuel stop in Reading services managed to open the garage door at 5.10 which was around 2 hours quicker than it took me to get there on Friday, with both the M25 and M4 a lot less congested. All in all a fantastic weekend of riding...I even (almost) enjoyed the ride home around the M25 mainly due to getting lots of friendly waves and thumbs up from some of the cars I passed. Hopefully everyone who also managed to get out at the weekend had a great time too..I know I did 20181019_141349 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181019_173427 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181020_151654 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181020_151000 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr FB_IMG_1540059363404 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181020_145212 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181020_151605 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181021_184249 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181021_184417 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181021_184345 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181021_184323 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr 20181021_180849 by Steve Bolt, on Flickr
Judging by the balcony photo were you staying in Westcliff /Chalkwell end, Best i can do Essex A127 to Bridgwater is 3 hours, very nice 749 and yellow, how many miles did you do over the weekend,
Yes you're spot on. Apparently it's Westcliife on Sea, I just assumed it was Southend but my mate assures me it's the posh end
Including the ride up from Bristol I did a total of 575 miles, of which 340 odd were motorway. Would have done a few more on the Sunday but wanted to be back before 6 as I'd promised the wife I join her for Sunday dinner
