This was to be our trial run “camping” for the upcoming Germany international rally and had spent a few hours loading the bikes in different ways, mainly so they didn’t look overloaded (as there wasn’t much weight) just plenty of bulk, tent, sleeping bags and rolls and some cooking utensils/clothes etc.. We were happy with how the bikes looked as we left Coventry and so set off for the 50 miles or so to Peterborough.
We had an absolutely brilliant ride in the sun on Friday afternoon, only slightly baffled as the sat nav (on my phone) took us a merry tour of every single little village on the outskirts of Leicester. In fact, according to google a 1 hr 30 mins journey…after an hour (and a bit) we were still in the outskirts of Leicester???…after a quick stop and recalibrate finally it decided to send us to Peterborough.  So after 2 hours and 30 mins (ish) we arrived at the showground and the marshal pointed us in the general direction of the Indian Riders club stand.
It seemed to me everybody stopped what they were doing to see if I could slow ride on the 47 chief (which off course I made look really easy) Vera on her new scout (also making it look easy). Finally getting waved down by Snowy or else we would have carried on going (as we had gone behind the Indian riders stand) but I guess the club members can always recognise an Indian coming (must be that 42 degrees angle) .
Anyway once everyone had got over the shock of how much stuff we had loaded onto the 2 bikes, we with much help from Snowy, pitched our tent as it was exactly the same as his. After draining a little fuel from the 47 chief got the petrol stove fired up and tucked into dinner…Everybody was going up the bar to listen to the band and once we got straight we followed, sadly we didn’t find the others (we didn’t know they hadn’t been let in due to some contraband being carried) We however did enjoy the band and doing the age old game of see who can guess the song first (I never win that one). We then retired for the night and only learnt the next morning that the others who I presume by now had drunk all the contraband serenaded us in our tent with “Hey Jude” on the ukulele (it was the only song they all knew apparently) We were totally oblivious, fast asleep ……

The next morning we all laid out the bikes in formation for the public to see and what a beautiful collection they all made.  There were many many comments made over the weekend about how wonderful our stand looked and I agree, everyone saying how rare they are, which we find quite odd as we are always (pretty much) with the club and see loads at the events we go to (always at least a dozen)
The weather was fair all weekend, but blustery at times. We had a good wander around and there was plenty to see including a great Polaris stand.  We obviously jumped straight on their new chieftain for photos and afterwards read the do not sit on this bike sign…doh. But we got away without a telling off.  Also on the Polaris stand was the 2 Guy Martin wall of death bikes and Snowy’s 47 chief parked right next to them…. there was so much to see and do we had trouble taking it all in, loads and loads of clothing stalls, new bike stalls, wall of death, lots and lots of club stalls, some mad racing going on and some drag sprints, just so much (it was huge).  We wandered round several times and I still think we missed some of it, in fact I’m sure there were lots off events we missed, but we will catch them next time. Sunday was much the same but more crowds…
We had an absolute great time and I’m sure the other club members had a great laugh at us re-packing the bikes as we were both getting grumpy with each other.  After about an hour the tension was broken as the bikes were packed ready to go, then we realised the bike keys were in the tent (that was now nicely packed away) we did laugh…..
So we will be there again (13th and 14th May ish) next year as it was excellent

Andy & Vera Townsend