Setting off at a brisk pace we picked up Nigel who had been amusing himself frightening other motorists by sitting in his black gear and white helmet on the bridge over the main road at Ringwood. Sad to say, despite promising a sea crossing, our intrepid leader (me) had forgotten to make the Sandbanks Ferry a Way Point on the dreaded Garmin and the damn thing decided to take us off on the scenic route to Swanage as it calculated that to be the fastest way there.

With a bit of help from Nigel we eventually arrived at the sea to join the merry throng of assorted motorcycling Santas and other festive folks and parked up to take in the air and observe the fun whilst we awaited the start. I haven't heard the exact count of numbers but there was well over 100 bikes taking part. We duly set off in convoy with Police and Marshall controlling the junctions to let us glide through, waving to the locals and children as we past.

There was only one casualty from SAM when one of our group's bike broke down and eventually had to be assisted by the RAC. Arriving at the pub, which as usual was absolutely heaving, we found places to park where we could easily escape and then queued for refreshments with the hordes.

After lunch and a look around, the majority of us elected to go on to Stockbridge for tea and cakes and had a very pleasant trip across the hills through Salisbury in the winter sunshine. Much to the disgust of several of the group, Lily Langtree's will not serve toasted tea cakes until after 15:30 so we had to make do with other things! We ended the run there, after searching for Chris' glasses and everybody went their separate way home to put their feet up.