Irondocs Barbados

Roamers!!


We didn’t take any pictures! That’s the first thing that crossed my mind when I started to think about what to tell you about the round-de-island ride and “picnic”! Cheewiz... another milestone in Roamers’ history and we don’t have pictures. But we do have memories of a fun and safe ride and a nice lime though! So that’s plenty if you ask me! :-)


It was about 4:06am when after a short prayer by Ronnie we rolled out of the Browne’s beach carp-park. It was a really nice morning and the posse was ready and set to make the trek to the north, then to the east, then to the south and then westward back to base. The round-de-islanders were Ronnie Roberts, Stephen Browne, Adrian Bayrd, Roberto Miller, Peter Browne, new-comer Joseph ?? (sorry), Lawrence Downey, Tony Brooks, Lyle Jones and yours truly. For the next 6 hours or so the crew took on the approximate 56 mile (90km) route starting with the flat west coast through St. Michael, St. James and St. Peter up to St. Lucy, before heading inland to take on the challenging hills in St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Joseph and St. John. Of course some of the guys were a bit stronger in the hills than others but the front-runners always paused at intervals to wait for everybody to catch up. Then it was through “the desert” of St. Philip before heading back through Christ Church to base in St. Michael. We were just in time to see the groups taking part in the Independence parade marching from the Garrison to Independence Square. After that it was time to relax, recover and recount the highlights of the roam with a few snacks and drinks. Special thanks to Shane Boyce who prepared chicken and cake for the posse. Very much appreciated Shane!


Adrian Bayrd recorded the route on his Garmin GPS thingy (which measured the distance, elevations, speeds and all other kinds of cool stuff) and has shared it with us... check it out here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58438921
Thanks buddy :-) (I gotta get me one of those!)


All that’s left to be said is that we all had a great time and have agreed that we will try to do one of these roams every 3 months – so look out for the next one at the end of February 2011!


Tomorrow’s roam...
Assembly point: Mall Internationale, Haggatt Hall
Assembly time: 5:30am
Roll out: 5:45am
Longer route: Exit the car park and head east up Mapp Hill (it’s not too bad) to the junction with Dash Valley. Left and across Dash Valley to the Essco roundabout and left to the junction with Salters Road. Right onto Salters Road and across to Charles Rowe Bridge, keeping straight to head to Rowans, Flat Rock and the new junction at Locust Hall. Left and down the hill through Bournes Village to the Lears roundabout, keeping straight to Kelsi’s and then the Hothersal Turning roundabout. Straight across onto Waterford Bottom and straight down Station Hill to the stop lights. Left onto Bridge Road and keeping left at the Welches post office, straight up My Lords Hill and thru Licorish Village to the Norman Niles roundabout. Straight across onto Neils Plantation and back to the Essco roundabout, keeping straight to the Turnpike. You guessed it... right turn and head to the Boarded Hall 4-cross. Left and rightish at the Y to Lower Greys. Right and up to the Coral Ridge junction. Right through Edey Village towards St. Davids, taking the right to head across the Staplegrove link road to the junction just west of Watts Village. Left and back to base via South District and Mapp Hill.


Shorter route: Same as the longer route with a turnoff of your choice (there are many options) to head back to base.
Next week’s start point: Emerald City, Six Roads, St. Philip
(This will be a feature of the emails from now on, so that if the email is sent out late you will still know the start point from the previous week’s email)
Don’t forget the Run Barbados Series this weekend - it’s not too late to sign up. You can try one or more of the several runs on offer... 1 mile, 3k, 5k, 10k, half marathon (21k) or the marathon (42k) – take your pick!
http://www.runbarbados.org/


That’s it for now,
Have a great weekend...
Adrian