The campsite and scenic lake combo |
Erm, do we really have time to admire the view? |
Then we can follow this lay line to checkpoint 7 |
Post-event beach malarkey |
I could be wrong about this, but I think this was the first Trailquest event ever, May 25th & 26th 1996 on the Isle of Wight. It's basically the same as a Polaris, but there's only 1 campsite, and you get to leave all your gear there instead of carrying it around. And they sell food, too.
To make it cheaper more interesting, Spud and I also decided to ride there and back
(via the Lymington ferry) from my house
at the time in Southampton.
Friday - Hopped on the small Southampton to Hythe ferry, and rode through the New Forest to Lymington. I seem to remember it rained all day and, after we'd made the crossing, rode to the camp site and pitched the tent, all night too.
Saturday - Rode around for what seemed like forever. It was quite a nice day, and we put in a reasonable, if not stunning performance. Much to our surprise, we found out we were 12th on saturday night.
Sunday - A miserable misty day. We decided to try and gain some places, in order to beat 2 guys who were just ahead of us on saturday night. They had girlfriends with them, so being teenagers (just about still) we had some imaginary point to prove. This point involved riding manically all over the island - apologies to the cars we overtook riding down Ventnor high street. In the end, late and losing points, Spud quite literally pushed me to the finish line. But the effort paid off and we finished an astonishing 8th.
Monday - Rode off the island, across the New Forest again, just in time to miss the last ferry from Hythe. With no map to navigate by, we guessed the way back into Southampton (quite successfully too). Job done.
Overall position: 8th / 100-and-something teams.