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Northants Navigation Rally 2021


Write up and photographs from Mick Leach:- 

On September 5th at 0630hrs three of us Burton section riders set off from Stapenhill Co-op on what is turning out to be an annual pilgrimage to Earles Barton in Northamptonshire to take part in the Northamptonshire Navigational Rally.
We had a clear run and we're amongst the first to arrive at the cricket club in pleasant sunshine. The car park steadily filled up with cars, vans, trailers and like ourselves many who rode from home on all sorts of motorcycles dating right back to the vintage period.
The rally caters for all classes, the requirements to visit a number of controls depends on the age of motorcycle.  We were entered in the late classic and modern class so we had to visit 15 unmanned and 3 manned checkpoints where we had to answer motorcycle and highway questions of which I knew very little.
We left the route planning in the capable hands of Malcolm who, as we have come to realise always does a thorough job.
The route of a around a hundred miles took us through picture postcard villages with stone cottages many of which were thatched. Apparently few counties display such a wide variety of building stone,  including limestone, sandstone and ironstone.
We met Ian an old friend of Malcolm's on the village green in Islip, he joined us on the ride around the countryside making us a group of four Hondas.
All good things have to end and we arrived back at Earles Barton a little tired where we signed off relaxed for a while chatted and admired the motorcycles before setting off home.
Thanks to Malcolm, Dave and Ian for the company and good humour, thanks to Malcolm for doing the planning and thanks to Trevor Pinfold and the Northamptonshire section for organising a great event.
Mick Leach