I am going to start this write-up by focusing on the positives.  We had an outstanding day; the company was great; the weather was superb; the roads were challenging; the countryside was beautiful; the lunch was excellent; everyone got home safely; the RAC men were both helpful and our boots are now just about dry. Following the usual safety briefing (you are all deemed to be in control of your bikes, marker system – naah, hit the kill switch if you decide to give your bike a wash, etc.), six intrepid bikers set off from Wickham square immediately after Gerry’s leisurely run, heading North boldly going where no SAM run had gone before. 

Our mission was to explore strange new lanes and conquer 10 fords located in Hampshire and Wiltshire.  The first ford at Ovington was  pretty tame and crossed by all without hesitation.  Broughton was a much more serious affair.  This warranted a closer inspection and depth check before taking it on.  Some ladies on a pub crawl kindly stopped their horses mid way to provide us with a depth gauge.  We decided that the ford was suited to GS type bikes and was crossed by Alan, Millard and Brian.  Too deep for my Ducati as it would have quenched the lower spark plug and much too deep for Jill’s scooter which could easily have floated away. Upwards and onwards, we headed for the New Forest where the water levels were lower. 

One large ford – previously too deep for the Italian stallion - was a couple of inches lower than the preceding Sunday and was crossed by all.  Onwards to our lunch stop North of Fordingbridge when Jill’s scooter started squirming a bit – not that this kept her off the pace mind you.  After lunch we discovered that the scooter had suffered a puncture and at Jill’s insistence, we left her at the pub waiting for the RAC man.  Chris also had to leave us at this point as his son had been involved in a pedal cycle accident and was being stitched up by the NHS (our best wishes to him Chris). 

With a 33% attrition rate so far, we headed for another interesting gravel bottomed ford south of Fordingbridge.  It was not very deep but it was long and its bottom comprised large stones.  The GS’s made it fine but my ST3 was squirming like Jill’s scooter. Next stop was the BIG MOTHER at Stratford Tony.  The briefing and write-ups gave ominous warnings about this stretch of water.  The centre portion was over 2 feet deep but a line was found around the edge which looked passable and Millard demonstrated this to be the case. 

I was invited to make the crossing but bottled out – wrong bike, wrong tyres I claimed. 

Brian then decided to follow Millard but hit uneven ground and went over.  Alan and I piled in to pick up Brian and his bike.  Millard was a true professional and kept taking the photos.  After using the remaining 1gb of his memory card Millard eventually joined us in the water to recover the GS.  We realised that the depth was well over the top of our boots as we felt the cooling effect of water rushing in.  Having safely moored the GS on dry land, we squelched around in water-filled boots for a short time, but sensing the onset of trench foot started draining and wringing operations.  The second RAC man was very helpful too, recovering Brian’s bike within the hour.  Oh yes, and after all of that Millard went back for a second run at the Big Mother. 

What a star! 

We finished with just 50% of the starters. 

Perhaps this is a record? Run participants included Millard Patton, Chris Palmer, Jill Kernick, Brian Mudie, Alan Phillips and Mike West.  Many thanks to Millard for his excellent photos, to Alan for riding back marker and to Brian and Jill for retaining their sense of humour in the face of adversity.  For those of you who thought that this was a daft idea, you were probably right but I can tell you from the post-run emails that a great time was had by all - some going as far as to say that this was the best SAM run they had ever been on. 

I will be re-running this later in the year, avoiding the Big Mother, and hoping to cover the entire route without attrition. 

And we will be giving the RAC advance notification before setting off next time.