9th April - Alan and Anita's Warm Up Run
The weather in Aberdeenshire at the beginning of April was unseasonably good with blue skies, bright sunshine and warm temperatures. We were therefore reasonably confident that we had picked a good date for our traditional Warm Up run which was scheduled for Saturday 9th April.
Three or four days into April though, it all started to go rapidly downhill; the weather deteriorated significantly and we were faced with sub-zero temperatures, rain, hail, strong winds and, at least where we are in Alford, a fair dump of snow!!
Not really the weather for a group of hardy souls in their open top sportscars to venture out on the first run of the season then…..
Luckily though, Saturday 9th dawned bright and sunny and although it was still quite cold, a healthy 15 cars congregated at Morgan McVeigh’s for a coffee and a bacon roll before heading off to Huntly for the start of the 2022 ‘Warm Up’ run. Curiously, all the roofs were up…..
The run, which was very ably put together by Alan and Anita Kreft, was initially planned for last year but the Covid restrictions prevented us from running it, and we therefore decided to use it for the 2022 Warm Up run. Luckily the weather Gods were kind to us for most of the day and the sun shone for the majority of the 70-mile route which took the participants on some fantastic roads through some amazing scenery – much of which we haven’t seen before.
The morning loop went north-east from Huntly through Milltown of Rothiemay and then back south towards Huntly before heading for Dufftown. Following a brief comfort break in Dufftown with tea / coffee / cake - all of which was supplied by Alan and Anita - the route took everyone over the fabulous Cabrach, through Rhynie and on to the finish at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford for a Museum visit and lunch.
The only casualty on the day was Jim and Harriet Sellens in their Midget who unfortunately suffered braking issues and had to drop out.
It was a fabulous day out and everyone seemed to enjoy it, so many thanks to Alan and Anita for all their hard work putting it all together.
Special thanks too to Lewis Mackland who, as well as doing the run in his MG 3, provided some of the photos below.
