MilesA Posted September 27, 2020 Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 (edited) I mentioned elsewhere on the Forum that two weeks ago, I joined a tour of England and Wales in my 3A, covering 1248 miles in 7 days. Credit for organising this goes to a guy called Chris Denham, who plots these events for his friends from his local pub! I thought I would detail it here is case any of the day sections were of interest / value to others. Set out below are each day’s waypoints (they were all pubs, but strictly no drinking until the final destination - there was no time in any event!). Having been given these the evening before, we simply programmed them into Google Maps on our phones. GM did a pretty good job. Most of the routes were A and B roads with some tracks and inevitably some motorway stuff just to move around a few cities. We experienced stunning scenery and cracking driving roads over the week. There are few photos only (let alone one of Hamish’s decent videos) because it was pretty full on, driving solo each day. Day 1 - 135 miles North London to the Saracens Head, Symonds Yat. The main group was travelling from South Devon, so I plotted my own route using Garmin BaseCamp. Very fiddly and time consuming but worth it so that i could concentrate on driving across country and keep off the M40 / A40 most of the way. Day 2 - 205 miles - Abergevenny to Chester Abergevenny > Brecon > Builth Wells > Llanbrynmair > Aberdovey > Dolgellau > Betws y Coed > Ruthin > Chester. Day 3 - 157 miles - Chester to Windermere Chester > Longridge > Whitwell > Slaidburn > High Bentham > Kirkby Onsdale > Oxenholme > Greenodd > Torvet > Coniston > Windemere. Day 4 - 152 miles - Windermere to Richmond Windermere > Kirkstone Pass Inn > Little Langdale > Holmbrook > Ennerdale Bridge > Buttermre > Rosthwaite > Penrith > Alston > Barnard Castle (just checking our eyesight) > Richmond. Day 5 - 188 miles - Richmond to Buxton Richmond > Low Row > Muker > Hawes > Masham > Earby > Snake Pass > Baslow > Buxton Day 6 - 229 miles - Buxton to Meonstoke Buxton > Fenny Bentley > Abbots Bromley > Stratford upon Avon > Moreton in Marsh > Cirencester > Wooton Basset > Honeystreet > Upper Woodford > Meonstoke Day 7 - 77 miles - Meonstoke to North London The overall mileage is from the odometer and reflects couple of, Ahem, navigational errors from the daily target distance. The weather was very kind to us and I had the roof off all the way, even when the mizzle came down in north Wales (inevitably)! Otherwise the sun and fresh air, combined with the constant noise of the sports exhaust, was pretty tiring and would have been worse if I had not used earplugs a lot of the time. The car did well. The overdrive switch started playing up second day in. This was irritating because it is only about a year old and I found I was using it a lot. About the same time I was reading about Eli’s almost identical issue here on the Forum. Pretty sure it is the switch itself as it needed ‘jiggling’ a bit before the OD ‘on’ lamp and overdrive itself would kick in simultaneously. Will take apart, clean up and see if that improves things. Going over various passes in the Lakes, including the Hardknott Pass really shook up the car but nothing broke or fell off (that I noticed). I also got through a lot of oil which is a bit of a mystery. The car has been on long trips before (eg Classic Le Mans) without such high consumption. Seems to be a lot of leaking rather than burning it off. Again, a more controlled root cause analysis is required. As for petrol consumption, let’s not go there. With couple of Weber 45s, 18 mpg is average on a local trip! Overall, a fantastic week after all the confinement and frustrations of the year. It really opened my eyes to how stunning parts of E&W are (but of course al lot of you already know this) and reinforced that we should just use the cars - they are pretty robust! Miles Edited September 28, 2020 by MilesA Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MilesA Posted September 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 (edited) Apologies - Cannot seem to edit the posting to remove the smaller versions of the photos I used initially! Miles Edited September 28, 2020 by MilesA Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lebro Posted September 27, 2020 Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 Excellent stuff Miles, very envious ! Bob. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Forey Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 Great stuff Miles. How about sharing that great trip with the rest of the membership, it would really brighten up people's day in these gloomy times. A some words and selection of photos sent off to magazine@tr-register.co.uk. Thanks, Mick Quote Link to post Share on other sites
foster461 Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 Fantastic. Where is that darn Like button. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BRENDA1 Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 (edited) Looks like you had a fantastic time. We have just got back from a week in the lakes. The like button would be great to use for items like this on the forum, not everyone likes to post but would put a thumbs up. Mike Redrose Group Edited November 25, 2020 by BRENDA1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Z320 Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 (edited) The Boat House Inn at Chester (and also Chester itself) is LOVELY, we enjoyed very much to stay there Edited September 28, 2020 by Z320 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tim hunt Posted October 1, 2020 Report Share Posted October 1, 2020 Thanks very much for posting Miles. It was most timely and gave me much vicarious pleasure since thanks to Covid I will not tomorrow be setting off on my 23rd Club Triumph 48hour 2,000 mile Round Britain Reliability Run in the 4A and will have to wait at least another year to add to my tally. Tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MilesA Posted October 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 Very kind Tim, but my jaunt was in a different league to the RBRR - especially on 22 occasions! Let's hope the 23rd is not too far off. Miles Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CarreyRT Posted November 25, 2020 Report Share Posted November 25, 2020 Totally awesome road adventure, man! Love the scenery! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.