- 5 of us – Terry, Clappo, John, Paul and Gary gathered at West Barn
- Weather forecast said Friday would be fine but a major snowstorm would hit on Saturday, named – the Beast from the East
- Paul stayed first at Terry’s in Essex and they rode up to M11 Cambridge services in fine sunshine
- Paul & Terry had to do some off-roading down the side of the M11 behind the armco, through a farm’s yard and out of it’s main entrance, bypassing the head of a traffic queue that would be held for hours yet.
- Met up with John, had brunch and then rode on to Holymoorside, Derbyshire
- Clappo and Gary came in their cars for a social evening together – went to the Bull’s Head for dinner
- Walking home we realised we had been seriously undercharged by the lovely young waitress. See below.
- Weather forecast still predicted snow but we decided to go out and see how it developed.
- A few snow flakes fell in the first miles
- We rode up over high moors into Hathersage and yet more flakes fell.
- We went through Castleton and headed for the planned lunch stop at the Yonderman cafe on the A623
- As we reached it we were in dense snowfall so I decided to head back to base as we didn’t want to get snowed in miles from home.
- That afternoon the Rugby World cup was on TV, so we watched 2 games as the snow deepened.
- Went back down the hill to Bull’s Head for dinner, worried that the barmaid might get into trouble if we ‘came clean’. Decided to wait and see if they said anything and either pay up graciously or ‘keep schtumm’ if they didn’t – we got away with it.
- The next day the snow was really deep, no chance of riding or doing anything much at all. Had a good cooked breakfast.
- Decided to go for a walk to experience the deep snow and we walked up the big hill to the back of the Barn. At points it was waist deep. We had a blast of a time. Just big kids really.
- John & Paul had to pull Terry out of a deep hole that was invisible with the covering of snow
- We walked a couple of miles and down into Holymoorside village and the Bull’s Head again
- A group left a table beside a blazing open fire and we arranged out sodden clothes to dry off.
- We ordered beers and stayed in the pub all afternoon. Irene was driving up to join us and she kindly drove us back up the hill to the Barn.
- Next morning (Monday) the snow had melted a lot, Loads road was clear but our lane and yard still had snow
- It took us nearly an hour to get John & Paul’s bikes up to the road (with John and bike slipping over onto the soft snow an central grass strip)
All retuned home safely again. What a great weekend and not for the reasons we expected.