A (relatively) warm & dry Sept mid-morning found six Wilts HOC members meeting at the Ram car park, Tidworth for just over an hour’s ride of 53 miles for a ‘full English’ breakfast at The Pinewood Café in Wokingham. Here, six became twelve and the Tidworth contingent soon made up for lost time at the breakfast table… 😋 Shortly after 11 AM, the overstuffed bakers’ dozen (13 including pillion, Katie Young) waddled from the café to the adjacent car park, mounted their trusty steeds (several of which were Hondas!) 🏍️and embarked on what would prove to be a memorable weekend of riding, ‘variable’ weather conditions… ⛈💧& cracking entertainment! After linking helmet intercoms, the 12 bikes were led away by ‘Graham ‘Grubs’ Atkins.

The route took riders East initially along the M4 & M25 before heading North then swinging East again towards Norwich. After a mix of different types of roads, including the boring but fast motorways, we’d ridden to the East Coast & reached Caister-On-Sea. Arriving in the late afternoon, after about 240 miles, we’d got to this year’s HOC National Rally at Caister-On-Sea Holiday Park, Ormesbury Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 5NQ. Still in good spirits and still dry, we now had a renewed sense of urgency as we said a few quick ‘hellos’, found our caravans, located welcome bags, keys & bedding, & dumped our luggage. We then nipped out again to stock up at a local Lidls & refuel bikes before returning to site, hopefully before the heavens opened! Stopping at Reception on our return to purchase a towel (I knew we should’ve packed one)! We almost made it..! 🌧 ☔️ 

Friday evening found Wilts settling into their new temporary homes, participating in the ‘meet and greet’ and socialising in the on site restaurant and sectioned off area of the main bar / function room. Charles Deakin’s intriguing & thought provoking quiz saw a few heads being scratched too…🥴

Saturday morning’s events started at 0915 with a photo call by Chairman Marcus destined for the landing page of the new HOC website. With 36 bikes & 1 pillion gathered in the car park to receive a short brief on the ride out from the lead, Steve Armstrong from North London HOC; he was supported by a few reminders & wise words on the ‘drop-off’ technique of marking junctions from Marcus M & Charles D.

Leaving the site just after 0930, this ride was to prove memorable for a few reasons…🥴 Initially, Chris Smith from Oxford HOC & his pillion, Violet unfortunately suffered a flat tyre courtesy of a faulty valve before leaving the site. Then the group split due to long gaps in riders, a major roundabout being rapidly closed off & a breakdown in junction marking. Mid morning saw the majority of riders eventually arriving at the Walkers crisps, pre-planned coffee stop & then dividing into two groups. We then continued the ride to  the lunch stop. Following this, we rode through a spell of drizzly rain 🌧️ in the mid afternoon. Finally, after about 130, sometimes wet miles, all bar one of the bikes & riders (mentioning no names, HOC Chairman AKA, ‘David, I’m in the hedges & shrubbery Bellamy’) lol! 😂 The main thing of course being that Marcus was ok & his bike has been recovered. With riders re-fuelling on route, as required, it was otherwise an uneventful return trip to the site.

Saturday evening was the night to socialise in the on site, Seagull club, enjoy the outlandish, live performance from ‘Mario’, the Freddy Mercury looky-likey & win prizes at the raffle (where over £550 was raised for a very worthy charity)!

Sunday’s ride-out was a shorter, more subdued & (almost) incident free affair where 12 riders chose to further enjoy the East Coast cross winds 💨 & roads. Again, all bar one of the bikes & riders mentioning no names (HOC Membership Sec) made it back to site safely…😶‍🌫️ The main thing of course, being that Graham G is largely ok (broken collar bone) & his bike is being recovered.

Meanwhile, others opted to do their own thing and amuse themselves locally by taking a stroll along the blustery beach & walking to a tasty lunch at a local carvery. Late afternoon & into the evening saw Wilts HOC’s Andrew Young organising a very successful & fun darts 🎯 & pool competition. Here, Wilts outstripped the competition (again!) by emerging victorious at both the darts (Dave, ‘speccy, 🤓 don’t ask me how I won Jolly’) AND the pool tournaments   (Darren ‘the hustler’ Offord). 🏆 It was then just a case of confirming who had the best attended branch at the rally. Yes, you’ve guessed it lol! Wilts took that accolade too!😁 Alright, alright. We’ll let Essex HOC   (& Mr Google…?🥴) have Charles’ quiz! Well done all! 👌

As usual, Monday was the last day, so the morning found Wilts packing up, strapping luggage back onto the bikes and returning caravan keys etc. 10 AM saw 7 Wilts’ riders setting off Westwards & homeward bound. Several hours of riding in warm sunshine at 24 deg Cent 🌞 with blue skies on busy, traffic laden  roads with comfort breaks & fuel stops as required, found riders eventually peeling off for home after another superb HOC long weekend. 🏍️👌

And so began the post-rally admin of: off loading luggage & unpacking & cleaning bikes etc before finally collapsing into our own, comfy big bed. 🥱😴

It was great meeting up with friends and making new ones too. A huge thanks must go to Marcus, Sarah, Jennie, Steve, their partners & the whole team of hard working volunteers for all their work and everyone else who helped in any way and made the effort to travel from all over the country to attend the 2026 HOC National Rally.

So, until the next National (Rockley Park Haven site at Poole, as organised by – Wilts)! 

Write up by Dave Jolly.