Last day - full circle

Waking up on my last morning of our tour together, the sun was out, and following a quick cuppa we were self motivated to don our swimming cossies to go for a nice swim, having done so on the last day of our first holz and it being a perfect precursor to a ride home. Outside of our window was a large courtyard area with a huge hot tub so we knew roughly where to go even if the hotel corridor signage wasn't the best.

Finding the reception to the spa and asking for the pool we were told that there wasn't one, but there was the stonking hot tub. Fair enough, it looked very inviting and was, interspersed with popping in the steam room, sauna, and lounging for much too long (check out time was as per the previous day - 11am) / not long enough (the sun was lovely).

It was much more tempting to stay on the loungers than climb back into our motorbike clothing but rules be rules and the road we had to roll down. Bags packed and ferried to the lobby, we were so on the dot that the room keycard had expired and I had to endure some tut-tutting from the receptionist to have it re-activated for another 10 minutes. We eventually got the bikes loaded up (extra top) and snapped a few more photos of the hotel before bimbling off back in the direction of the A14. Discussion for the first mile revolved around Biscuit's fuel level, having ridden almost 140 miles the previous day. The low fuel warning wasn't flashing so I offered that we should carry on for me to holler should things get desperate. In the event it illuminated quite a distance up the M1 & she ran on fumes all the way up to Leicester where we had a picnic stop penned in for brunch!

Picnic stop arrived before we spotted any petrol pumps so we parked up next to a green adjacent to the main road, and found somewhere to sit - a shaded picnic table in sight of an old Packhorse Bridge (extra middle left - cute nesting box) & extra middle right - walking across the bridge). A fuller picture of the bridge on besties blip of the day. Peanut butter and Banana sandwiches were as Nom as always, filling a corner and stacking us full of energy for the rest of the afternoon.

Discussing new motorcycles over our eats, the map revealed that a dealer where I had first taken some test rides was almost on our route, and so after topping up a by now gasping Biscuit & her friendo the Africa Twin, the M1 was rejoined all the way to the A50 near Castle Donington, and Derby routed around to find the motorbike dealer at Smalley Cross. We didn't have enough time for test rides or much else apart from a good nosey around, although they were happy to keep the shutters up and answer questions.

Back on our own steeds, we then bimbled not too far up the A6, hugging the railway & Cromford Canal to our offside, to reach and hang out with a handful(!) of bikers at Matlock Bath. There were less than a few spaces between the other machines but we found a good gap to park up in (main blip) and took a stroll along the road to Ooh & Aah at what was possibly around a hundred other bikes, looking out for a decaf latte along the way. Ms. @Arell spotted a super rare Honda CTX1300 - under the skin a Pan European like her Fidra, but clothed in very rakish, futuristic & laid back bodywork - Honda has made a few special bikes over the years in small numbers and it was fab to see one in the flesh.

Still hot in the sunshine, we toddled across an old footbridge to a wooden walk along the opposite bank of the River Derwent. Bestie had sneakily bought us a chunky Rocky Road each from Beccles which we nibbled with our coffee. Very nice indeed. From there we rode briefly to the town of Matlock, just accidentally on purpose stumbling across a Lion Foundry bandstand to say Hai to before quietly riding up the steep side of the hill to experience a very enjoyable ride down the other side. After a brief junction to junction of M1 we found her hotel for the night and enjoyed a last cuppa in the bar - hers a decaf tea, mine a latte that contained two shots of expresso to keep me alert for the last 50 miles over the Snake Pass (extra bottom - Ladybower at the southern end of the Pass).

Before leaving I may have had a massive sob onto Ms.Arell's shoulder and we made a promise not to leave it so long until next time. Was an awesome hol, all 1011 miles of it for Biscuit, and I await to hear of how many more were ridden by the Africa Twin on its swansong tour :-)