Blue Hills and spindrift

March 25, 2008

Blue Hills and spindrift

As you can see, there weren't so many people at Blue Hills this year. This was because it was so bloody cold. No. 43 Colin Bentham on his 350 Ariel/Triumph looks quite alone as he prepares to re-start on the final section.

A warmer reception in both senses would be more usual.

I turned up with some of my mates but even enthusiastic types like us couldn't bear the gale blowing in from the Atlantic for the whole afternoon and went home after only half the entry had gone through. At least astride a motorbike the entrants had something hot underneath them.

The smaller crowd meant we had no difficulty getting a good place to watch but after sitting still for three hours things like fingers and circulation generally weren't working started to not work. I turned blue at Blue Hills and am not ashamed to admit it. It took a long time to get warm again afterwards.

I haven't spoken to many who were actually competing yet but it seems they had plenty of weather to keep them amused. I spoke to Ian Rennie who was competing on his new Yamaha Serow. He didn't have any problems but then he has years of experience. He complained that he'd messed up his re-start at Felon's Oak. The re-start box was a bit small apparently.

I was determined to stay until I'd seen Dave and Rob go through. Running as 139 in Dave's BMW318iS, they cleaned Blue Hills but failed the first three sections because they were so slippery.

Many of the motorcyclists were obviously fatigued while others conspicuously weren't. Some had even jet-washed their bikes in Perranporth before attempting Blue Hills, the sting in the tail of the Land's End Trial. By the time they got to Blue Hills, they'd already encountered rain, sleet, snow, sun and very strong winds but at the top of the section the winds were strong enough to blow people over.

A couple of entrants got blown around so much they went off course, staying on their bikes but bouncing from one side of the section to the other. One flew up to the left and parked neatly on top of a small heap of mining waste with his front wheel nuzzling that of the emergency JCB for towing failed cars up the hill.

The other seemed to over compensate in the steering department and ended up looping around behind us. He gradually came to a stop but not before gently knocking down a sidecar crew who had paused to watch and were generously acting as our windbreak. Half of his escape lane was none other than Celia Walton, who puts together the MCC magazine. However, as you might expect, everyone was very understanding and good natured and nobody will be suing anyone.

I'm afriad I didn't note the numbers of these intrepid entrants because I couldn't hold a pen to note their numbers. Operating the camera on automatic was just possible but when it came to getting back in my car getting the key in the lock and turning it was nearly impossible even with two hands.

I've never seen crowds bend and whip around like willows in the wind before. Sitting or lying down wasn't much better for although we were out of the wind the icy earth clutched us to her bosom.

So it was the earliest, windiest, coldest Easter and Land's End Trial that I'd ever known.

However, I amused myself by catching lumps of spindrift on my tongue. It was blowing up the cliff from the sea below in big lumps. The cliffs were whiter than I remembered and in really strong gusts you could see hurricanes of the stuff whipping up into cones below us. I should have taken a picture but in all the excitement and perishing cold forgot. When you catch spindrift on your tongue - we were practising on the snow that fell at one point - it's like a rock salt explosion, a bit like eating organic crisps without the crisps.

But the climb I liked best was by No. 74, Ian Burton and Gary O'Shaugnessy on their Yamaha TTR600 outfit. , it was great to see them recover forward momentum, having almost ground to a stop.