Twenty of us, on sixteen bikes assembled at Stork Lodge Tea Rooms on Sunday 15th August for our Aidensfield (Goathland) pilgrimage. We met at 08:30, and set off at 09:00, which was unfortunately before the Stork Lodge Cafe opens for teas, coffees and fried breakfast products. However, our carefully planned scenic route had a short breakfast stop built in.
We took the Stanley road out of Wakefield, then before the M62, took the Methley route towards Castleford, then onto Lock Lane, heading into Fairburn, then along the route of the old A1, through Ledsham, and onto Squires Cafe for our planned breakfast stop.
However ...... little did we realise that the date clashed with the Yorkshire Rock and Bike Show. Although the show was closing down on the Sunday, they were queueing out of the door that morning for breakfasts, and the queue wasn't going down very fast. Time to implement plan B !!!
We continued on our set route out of Squires, through Cawood, and Naburn towards York. At York we picked up the A64, and instead of taking the nice alternate route we had planned (to avoid the boring A64), we opted instead to stay on it, for our Plan B breakfast stop at the Highwayman Cafe. The traffic was heavy around the east side of York, but being on bikes we were able to filter and make progress as they say.
Suitably breakfasted, we headed eastbound on the A64, picking up the A169 towards Pickering, staying on this road through the very scenic North Yorkshire Moors National Park, past RAF Fylingdales, then into Aidensfield (Goathland). We found a car park with spaces but although they still charged for bikes, the car park attendant didn't mind us packing 4 bikes into one car park space and just paying for the one space, which was rather nice.
First stop was Scripps garage and the obligatory group photo.
Some then opted for a spot of lunch in Mr Blaketon's Aidensfield Arms (Goathland Hotel really),
whilst others had a wander down to the Railway Station, which also features heavily in the TV Series Heartbeat.
We all met back up again after an hour or so, and had a steady ride back, mostly along the A64, but coming off at Tadcaster and taking the scenic route via Towton, to Wakefield.
The weather stayed nice and dry all day, it was a most pleasant and relaxed rideout, and it was great to welcome along Mary & Mick, both on their inaugural Wakefield MAG rideout. Thanks to Toby, our rideout co-ordinator, for planning the route and leading the ride.