Eight go for a Pootle

“To pootle is an informal British verb meaning to travel, walk, or drive in a slow, relaxed, and aimlessly pleasant way. It can also function as a noun describing a leisurely stroll or bumbling trip.” Collins Dictionary

Pootle is a great word that describes our little wander around the countryside last Sunday. The gathering of eight of us at Memorial Park saw the leisurely appearance of eight of us with Ray being the first one at 9:25 through to Rich right on the dot at 10! Tardy. Yes. Leisurely. Yes. This certainly set the scene for a great pootle. It also gave us plenty of time to work out a destination and who was going to lead the pootle. Gary A’s roading network knowledge was put to good use with him leading the way as we headed down Napier Road and a left up Stony Creek Road and onwards in a north westerly direction. Gary always tries to introduce others to new parts of the countryside that most of the group haven’t seen. And so it was with this ride as we passed through Bunnythorpe, Colyton and onwards up the Cheltenham straight. It was then on to Haynes Line off Kimbolton Road, Beaconsfield Valley Rd and Highway 54 and left into Williamson Rd, left into Dunolly and right into Short. Short took us to the ever familiar Makino Rd and passed St Michael All Angels and on to Tokorangi Rd. This then brought us to our café destination in Halcombe, the ex Rusty Radiator now renamed as Kazzas Country Cafe. We have visited here before and as we were pootle mode thought it was our duty to support the café that has reasonably priced cabinet food, good beverages and well priced big breakfasts! These are tough times for a lot of small businesses.

The leisurely consumption of our food and cuppas was also undertaken at pootle pace whilst we chatted with each other and watched the busy world go by with quite a lot of traffic . A few of the locals were also popping in and out as well as truck drivers stopping in for lunch, so a pleasing hive of activity for the cafe owner.

All too soon it was time to head back home. Everyone was definitely in a relaxed frame of mind after our wee pootle and let’s hope we have a few more pootles over the riding season ahead of us.

Roll call
Rich - Suzuki Vstrom 650
Gary A - BMW F700 GS
Justin - Triumph Bonnieville America
Bruce - Kawasaki Z750S
Ray - Honda NX500
Kerry - Moto Guzzi Audace 1400
Jimmy - Triumph Bonneville T120
Gary W - Suzuki GSR 750