Alan Broom's ride to a secret underground world 30th September 2023

 It was a fine late September morning when eight team 5ers and a couple of guests met at Strawberry Fields at Crockey hill for my ride to visit the underground bunker at RAF Holmpton.

After a short briefing and ensuring that the guests were ok with the drop off system with Jezz taking the back marker role, we set off. turning left at the lights we headed east towards Weldrake and Elvington, then we came across a road closure, these always worry me a bit when leading a ride, but after a short diversion we were back on the planned route and made it to Market Weighton. From here on we left the planned route and headed along the A1079 towards Hull. Rather than navigate the direct route through the city we skimmed round the western then northern outskirts until we could head east again arriving at our planned stop at the Water side cafe and farm shop at Halsham for an early lunch.

Refreshed and refueled we completed the outbound journey to the nuclear bunker at RAF Holmpton.

Here we were made welcome by John, Brandon and the rest of the team. The feedback suggested everyone enjoyed the visit and were impressed with both the construction itself and the way it has been maintained and presented by it's current owner and his team of volunteers.

After a couple of hours exploring it was time to head off.

From here I handed the leaders baton over to Chris Otter who suggested a route back to Seaways. So we headed off general north roughly parallel with the coast until it was time to head west through Cowlam and Sledmere and finally to Seaways for a final cuppa and debrief. By this time the weather had turned a bit damp but never really threatened to spoil a great ride and an interesting visit. Many thanks to everyone who joined me on this trip, especially Mike for the motivation to plan it in the first place, Jezz for bringing up the rear and Chris for leading the return journey.