What a glorious piece of planning! It was beautiful weather, it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far, wonderful scenery and the roads were virtually empty wherever we went.
The meeting point for the Rally was Deal Pier and we expected that a few other MGs would be waiting ready for the start. Our intrepid leader, John Bennett, had unusually planned the route to begin on the more major roads of East Kent, taking us very quickly via the Sandwich bypass to cut through the pretty lanes and villages of the Kent coalfield. We continued on through Barham, then Folkestone and visited the Roundwood Hall Golf Club near Lyminge for a short break where we were all asked to estimate the height of the club house!
The next part of the planned route was a tricky “herringbone” of instructions which zig-zagged us like an Alpine pass around and then across the beautiful Elham Valley to find the squat, black tower of the old Westwood windmill. We all then turned west again to the Chequers Pub in Petham to search for one of those old-fashioned, cast iron phone boxes which so often appear on O.S. maps but which are now all too often missing from village life!! Virtually everyone must have had a quick pint here before once again heading east to find the highest point in East Kent, thoughtfully situated close to the old Hawkinge Aerodrome.
After we finished, we were both amazed to discover that our time for the entire Rally was a record breaking 51 minutes 50 seconds. Just goes to show how slippery the Twin-cam can be with no roof!
What a wonderful day, with the rose-tinted sun-glasses and the breeze in our hair, we ended up with lovely sun-tans and the satisfaction that we could continue sitting in our own back garden for a cold beer afterwards. Thankyou John!
It should be noted that John has now promised to organise another Rally for the first Wednesday in May using Sheet 188 (Maidstone & Royal Tunbridge Wells). The only extra item that you might wish to consider for the May event is a “Casdon” Sat Nav Steering Wheel available from Asda for a little under £12. We would not consider this to be cheating, because sadly, it is no longer supplied with its own sucker!
– Chris & Janice Leigh
