Riding in Gran Canaria at the start of February had been so warm and refreshing but all the joy of that adventure had worn off by the start of March, the long dark winter days were starting to take their toll. Taking every opportunity to get out on the Goldwing was key to getting some enjoyment, after all, it’s amazing how much a decent coffee and slice of cake can pick up your mood. I was also trying to keep my focus on the busy social calendar I have lined up for the rest of the year, a mix of stag do’s, and weddings acting as suitable excuses to take some holiday and plan some more travel from May through to September.
It was with this future travel in mind that when later in March a friend invited me last minute to go motorcycle camping even just for a night I agreed, I needed to get my camping setup shaken down anyway with a trip in September planned that involved camping in France and Spain. That is how in late March and in temperatures down to below 5 degrees C I found myself shivering and watching my breath through the middle of the night whilst watching my mate blissfully asleep inside his cozy warm sleeping bag. There was one point where the thought of killing him and stealing his sleeping bag passed through my cold poorly aligned thoughts but It was my own fault, I had forgotten my sleeping bag and was doing my best Viking impression with a blanket and some layers on top of a camp bed. Despite the negatives of the cold and a stranger in another tent howling like a wounded animal in the middle of the night for an extended period, it was an enjoyable trip.
The small campsite in Stockbridge, Hampshire was pleasant and the meal we had had at the pub before settling down for the night was sublime. The next morning after getting feeling back in my extremities and packing up we had a beautiful ride through the back roads to Salisbury, then down to the coast before coming back through the new forest and washing the bikes. The next day, both back at work, it dawned on us that it was crazy that we hadn’t done more trips like this so we looked at calendars and stuck a pin in for the 19/04. We both booked the Friday afternoon off so that we could have two nights away and left it till later to find a site and a direction.
On the short trip in March, it had become clear that we had forgotten a few important things, and that some of the items I already had wouldn’t be practical for my trip in September due to needing the rear seat space for a pillion. Therefore in the month we had until our next adventure, I started working on a few optimizations to my setup.
Starting with the items of highest importance, condiments, sun cream, and washing-up liquid all of which had been distinctly absent in our Stockbridge trip. Finding some small bottles online turned out a great idea, the only challenge being where to put them on the bike. We don’t want to get ketchup on everything nor do I want my sleeping bag covered in extra virgin olive oil. The next item to shrink was my camping chair and to review my tent and sleeping arrangements. Helinox luckily had a sale but it was still painful shelling out over £100 for a lightweight camp chair that would both take my sizable heft and fit neatly in a pannier. I could at least take comfort in the color scheme of the chair being suitably 90’s and therefore matching the retro aesthetic of my GL1500.
I then started to look at new tent options, I wanted small and lightweight but also practical for me plus another in motorcycle gear to be able to get in and sleep. Whilst my current tent had a sizable headroom and a vestibule you could sit in keeping this just wasn’t practical and I had a tarp and poles if I wanted to create a sheltered area outdoors for cooking etc. I came very close to taking advantage of the AlpKit sales and ordering a Tarpstar 4 and some other bits, however, I was too slow on the draw and they were soon out of stock and back up to higher prices. Therefore wanting to use the trip on the 19th as a shakedown I went forward with my backup route and picked up a Vango Banshee 300 and a new OEX sleeping mat. The 300 is definitely not a 3-person tent, 3 children or three adults if sharing one sleeping bag and playing a game of 696 but definitely not more than 2 burley guys especially if you want somewhere for your clothes. It does have a little trick hatch/zip up the top by your head to a small storage area under the flysheet though. Some of my previous gear including waterproof bags had been on my last bike when it was stolen, I figured it was time to replace them and picked up some fresh Lomo rolltop bags for clothes and other storage.
My real remaining challenge was my sleeping bag, I had since picked it up from my dad but it is bloody massive and doesn’t pack down very small. It’s massive because I am, having 18 months earlier ordered what was meant to be a reasonably large camping bag and finding myself stuck at the shoulders I had marched back to go outdoors and return it. I then proceeded to try every sleeping bag they had in stock to work out what I could physically fit in, in the end leaving with a Pod ‘The Beast’. Its lining is not particularly plush, it is not down and it is not 4 season but it is the best I could do reasonably at the time, with this in mind I kept looking but reserved myself for the 19th to the idea that it would have to be squeezed on somehow…
The day came around all so quick, with a little bike-packing practice and a BBQ in between having the trip to look forward to had been a good move and had kept both mine and Owen’s spirits up as the days had started to get longer and notionally warmer. We had decided that given how much both of us had traveled west and how little we had both gone east, we should head east a couple of hours. With a little searching, I managed to find and book a nice campsite a little east called Stud Farm, it was both one of the cheapest and most appealing due to it offering the optional addition of a firepit and logs as well as the farm own produce such as sausages, bacon, burgers, and fresh veg.
With the bikes loaded we set off, I had looked the night before and roughly memorized a non-motorway / a27 route that would hopefully take us on some nicer roads and avoid the Friday holiday rush that the east and west artery roads of the south can suffer.
The journey there was extremely pleasant and we managed to avoid most of the Friday traffic and the rain that was due for an hour or so that afternoon, only getting caught as we headed up the A3 from Clanfield to the A272 north of Peterfield. This was enough though to lift the grease on the road and remind me that the tyres on the wing whilst not terribly old (4 Years) seem to really suffer with wet grip. I suspect as a result of the previous owner not doing many miles and sitting in a garage likely wheels losing the natural oils to the cold concrete. In this instance despite significantly reducing my speed as we exited the A3 onto the A272 via the ‘s’ bend exit I found myself with 400kg of Goldwing, 155kg of fat rider and Rukka gear, and probably about another 40-50kg of stuff in panniers and top box, loosing the rear end. I managed to catch it and run the bike wide across the left hand solid white line as I left the ‘S’ bend into the straight in time not to make a full dukes of hazard style jump off a dual carriageway bridge. I thought maybe I had let my nerves get the better of me and I had let the bike run wide premature of losing grip, but a sharp burst of exclamation and praise over the comms made it clear that I had in fact lost the rear end enough to be noticeable from behind.
This wasn’t my first such experience on the wing, having locked up the rear wheel in the cold about 6 weeks prior on the way into a roundabout, that time had definitely been my fault for using too much rear brake though it had made for a rather impressive drift, whilst I did everything I could to not target fixate on the roundabout curb and force the wee beasty round the bend. Since then I had been further getting acquainted and retuning my barge control skills and finessing my understanding of the balance of the bike, In the dry my confidence and lines had greatly improved from when I first picked the bike up at the start of the year but the wet was still vexed me at times.
Luckily downpour was short-lived and as we stitched through Steadham, Midhurst, Petworth and Billinghurst the weather warmed and it turned into a beautiful Friday afternoon ride through the south downs. After a brief snickers and fuel stop we headed down the A23, thoroughly confused by the nature of the junction to get onto the A27 we ended up doing a minor detour a mile or so in the wrong direction before looping round and filtering the barge and the bus through some traffic. The road out towards Telscombe from the A27 is lovely bar a small village section with speed bumps it flow through trees and fields, catching the signage for the camping just before southeast we turned off up a steep single-lane slightly gravelly track. This track opens out over the top of the hill and it’s a beautifully stitched single lane with great visibility over the rolling farmland and any approaching traffic, after a mile or so of undulations, sweeping bends, and beautiful views you head down into Telscombe village it is a classic farm hamlet of only a few houses in the dip of a valley. At the gravel-covered rough road surface ‘Y’ in the basin of the village you go straight over to the left and up another climbing stretch before a gate and steep gravel entrance to a field appear on your left, as soon as you pull into this field you are met with a view across to Peacehaven and Eastbourne. Stud Farm Camping is on a Studland and it is breathtaking, the small collection of reserved signs and around 8 other camps suggest that we are not the only ones that need to be out in the fresh air and weather for a weekend.
LazyModernTraveler 