Day One - Saturday
4am,
I got up feeling both excited and apprehensive about the long journey ahead of Paul & I. A cup of tea & bowl of cereal later and I was sort of awake. Loading the panniers onto the bike in the dark was quite difficult and it took me longer than I had expected. The tank bag and roll bag went on far easier.
5:45am,
Having readied myself, the bike and said goodbye to my bleary eyed Wife, it was time for the short trip to Paul’s place. The roads were wonderfully clear at this time of day. On arriving at Paul’s, I saw a Heron fly past. Something you wouldn’t normally see and hoped it would bring us luck on our travels.
6:30am,
The sun was just starting to show itself in the clear sky, a welcome sight. We set off at with great trepidation about the arduous journey which lay in front of us. It was north on the M23, which was much clearer than on my usual commute to Croydon, and turned left onto the London Orbital Car Park, which is the M25. Heading west the traffic was surprisingly heavy for such an hour on a Saturday. I suppose everyone else were also trying to avoid the usual ‘Parking’. Then it was left again onto the M40 westbound.
7:48am, Oxford Services – M40 J8, 82 miles, Sunny, 11°C.
We quickly reached our first stop at Oxford. The journey there had been much colder than either of us had expected and the wind blast was not doing my left shoulder any favours. It felt as if I had been constantly punched as we whizzed along. Paul had cleverly packed a flask of hot coffee, which was very welcome.
During a quick luggage check, Paul discovered that one of his pannier mounting points had come un-stitched. He was not impressed as this was its first trip out, other than our testing runs. This was soon rectified by using another mounting point and an extra bungee.
The sun was shining and the temperature was rising by the time we left at 8:50am. I changed to my winter gloves and after a quick fill up, it was time to despatch Birmingham in one hit.
9:25am, Warwick Services – M40 J12-13, 124 miles, Sunny 18°C.
This was an un-scheduled stop. Paul, having skipped breakfast, had become suddenly tired and it seemed sensible to rectify it ASAP. As I said to Paul, we are on holiday, there’s no rush and the last thing we need is an accident that we could avoid. Safety First.
Refreshed, we went through the usual palaver that is getting our ear plugs in, helmets on and radios wired up. If you get the any of it in the wrong order you have to start again. I forget how many times I’ve got my lid on, radio wired and discovered my ear plugs are still in my pocket.
All set for the off and Paul couldn’t get his bike started. While we were planning the next stage and calculating fuel requirements, Paul had left his bike on and the lights had drained his battery to the point where the starter wouldn’t turn. We tried to push start it in the car park, but this didn’t work mainly due to un-helpfully placed speed humps slowing us down. We managed it in the end by moving to a clearer area of the car park. I suggested that we should only stop at the top of hills in the future.
From here we continued north on the M40, turning right onto the M42 and joined the M6 ‘Midland Expressway’ Toll Road heading north. The M6 toll road is an amazing 26 miles of perfect tarmac un-impeded by traffic. It was a joy and before we knew where we were, we had let our speed creep up to just over 100mph. This was fine as we could see for miles in either direction, until we spotted an un-marked Police Volvo ahead. Fortunately for us he was busy with a ‘customer’ to pay us any attention and by the time we reached him we had slowed down anyway.
At the northern end of the toll road we had to stop at the toll booths to pay our £2:50. Well worth it for such a clear ride. We chose different booths and managed to loose sight of each other for the next few junctions, meeting up again at our planned lunch stop at Stafford services on the main M6 after J14.
11:17am, Stafford Services – M6 J14-15, 192 miles, Sunny, 21°C.
Or arrival here meant that we had passed Birmingham and were over halfway to our destination. We had lunch and refuelled once again before continuing north on the M6 at about 12pm. The traffic on this stretch was heavy and slow moving, which was both tiring and hard going on the wrists. We had various limits from 60 all the way down to 40 mph and there appeared to be no reason for them. Paul joked that Cheshire Police were playing with the speed limit signs just to annoy everybody. Well it certainly worked.
1:26pm, Charnock Richard Services – M6 J27-28, 253 miles, Sunny, 22°C.
We had to stop as the fatigue was getting too much to cope with. The previous section of the M6 had taken us 1.5 hours and we had only managed to cover 61 miles. We ached all over. More food and drink was consumed and lots of stretching was required.
We set off northwards once more, hoping to complete the rest of our journey in one hop. For a while the miles seemed to fly by and we finally left the M6 at J36. Heading north on the A590 and A591 towards Kendal the traffic was light and the miles just melted away. However, this didn’t last. As we approached Lake Windermere the roads became clogged with all manner of vehicles, all moving like snails. This was very bad news as by now we were tired, sweaty and sore from all the riding. Luckily the traffic cleared by the time we passed Grasmere and the remaining few miles were dispatched fairly swiftly.
4pm, Castlerigg Hall Caravan & Campsite, Keswick – 340 miles, Still Sunny.
After 9.5 hours of travelling and 340 miles under our belts, we were exhausted, sore and aching all over but relieved to have arrived safely.
After un-packing, showering and cleaning all the dead flies off our visors, Paul gave me a guided tour of the site. On our travels we found a Buddleia which was home to an enormous number of butterflies.
We had dinner and a pint in a very small pub attached to a hotel next to the site. The beer was excellent, but the food was only OK.
An early night was had by all.
I got up feeling both excited and apprehensive about the long journey ahead of Paul & I. A cup of tea & bowl of cereal later and I was sort of awake. Loading the panniers onto the bike in the dark was quite difficult and it took me longer than I had expected. The tank bag and roll bag went on far easier.
5:45am,
Having readied myself, the bike and said goodbye to my bleary eyed Wife, it was time for the short trip to Paul’s place. The roads were wonderfully clear at this time of day. On arriving at Paul’s, I saw a Heron fly past. Something you wouldn’t normally see and hoped it would bring us luck on our travels.
6:30am,
The sun was just starting to show itself in the clear sky, a welcome sight. We set off at with great trepidation about the arduous journey which lay in front of us. It was north on the M23, which was much clearer than on my usual commute to Croydon, and turned left onto the London Orbital Car Park, which is the M25. Heading west the traffic was surprisingly heavy for such an hour on a Saturday. I suppose everyone else were also trying to avoid the usual ‘Parking’. Then it was left again onto the M40 westbound.
7:48am, Oxford Services – M40 J8, 82 miles, Sunny, 11°C.
We quickly reached our first stop at Oxford. The journey there had been much colder than either of us had expected and the wind blast was not doing my left shoulder any favours. It felt as if I had been constantly punched as we whizzed along. Paul had cleverly packed a flask of hot coffee, which was very welcome.
During a quick luggage check, Paul discovered that one of his pannier mounting points had come un-stitched. He was not impressed as this was its first trip out, other than our testing runs. This was soon rectified by using another mounting point and an extra bungee.
The sun was shining and the temperature was rising by the time we left at 8:50am. I changed to my winter gloves and after a quick fill up, it was time to despatch Birmingham in one hit.
9:25am, Warwick Services – M40 J12-13, 124 miles, Sunny 18°C.
This was an un-scheduled stop. Paul, having skipped breakfast, had become suddenly tired and it seemed sensible to rectify it ASAP. As I said to Paul, we are on holiday, there’s no rush and the last thing we need is an accident that we could avoid. Safety First.
Refreshed, we went through the usual palaver that is getting our ear plugs in, helmets on and radios wired up. If you get the any of it in the wrong order you have to start again. I forget how many times I’ve got my lid on, radio wired and discovered my ear plugs are still in my pocket.
All set for the off and Paul couldn’t get his bike started. While we were planning the next stage and calculating fuel requirements, Paul had left his bike on and the lights had drained his battery to the point where the starter wouldn’t turn. We tried to push start it in the car park, but this didn’t work mainly due to un-helpfully placed speed humps slowing us down. We managed it in the end by moving to a clearer area of the car park. I suggested that we should only stop at the top of hills in the future.
From here we continued north on the M40, turning right onto the M42 and joined the M6 ‘Midland Expressway’ Toll Road heading north. The M6 toll road is an amazing 26 miles of perfect tarmac un-impeded by traffic. It was a joy and before we knew where we were, we had let our speed creep up to just over 100mph. This was fine as we could see for miles in either direction, until we spotted an un-marked Police Volvo ahead. Fortunately for us he was busy with a ‘customer’ to pay us any attention and by the time we reached him we had slowed down anyway.
At the northern end of the toll road we had to stop at the toll booths to pay our £2:50. Well worth it for such a clear ride. We chose different booths and managed to loose sight of each other for the next few junctions, meeting up again at our planned lunch stop at Stafford services on the main M6 after J14.
11:17am, Stafford Services – M6 J14-15, 192 miles, Sunny, 21°C.
Or arrival here meant that we had passed Birmingham and were over halfway to our destination. We had lunch and refuelled once again before continuing north on the M6 at about 12pm. The traffic on this stretch was heavy and slow moving, which was both tiring and hard going on the wrists. We had various limits from 60 all the way down to 40 mph and there appeared to be no reason for them. Paul joked that Cheshire Police were playing with the speed limit signs just to annoy everybody. Well it certainly worked.
1:26pm, Charnock Richard Services – M6 J27-28, 253 miles, Sunny, 22°C.
We had to stop as the fatigue was getting too much to cope with. The previous section of the M6 had taken us 1.5 hours and we had only managed to cover 61 miles. We ached all over. More food and drink was consumed and lots of stretching was required.
We set off northwards once more, hoping to complete the rest of our journey in one hop. For a while the miles seemed to fly by and we finally left the M6 at J36. Heading north on the A590 and A591 towards Kendal the traffic was light and the miles just melted away. However, this didn’t last. As we approached Lake Windermere the roads became clogged with all manner of vehicles, all moving like snails. This was very bad news as by now we were tired, sweaty and sore from all the riding. Luckily the traffic cleared by the time we passed Grasmere and the remaining few miles were dispatched fairly swiftly.
4pm, Castlerigg Hall Caravan & Campsite, Keswick – 340 miles, Still Sunny.
After 9.5 hours of travelling and 340 miles under our belts, we were exhausted, sore and aching all over but relieved to have arrived safely.
After un-packing, showering and cleaning all the dead flies off our visors, Paul gave me a guided tour of the site. On our travels we found a Buddleia which was home to an enormous number of butterflies.
We had dinner and a pint in a very small pub attached to a hotel next to the site. The beer was excellent, but the food was only OK.
An early night was had by all.
Total Mileage So Far = 340 Miles.
posted by Chris Pittock @ 9:15 pm
2 Comments:
At 9:13 am,
Anonymous said…
Hehe... feeling the burn after 340 miles? Amateurs!
Just kidding, looking forward to reading through your very precise accounts of your trip!
At 12:07 pm,
Anonymous said…
Just found out from the horses mouth that one of the members of the trip does not like filtering through traffic.
This would explain the long delay's on the motorway and 340 miles in 9.5 hours.
Filtering can be scary sometimes and I do sympathize, but its better to filter slowly then not at all.
When your filtering slowly through traffic, you don't get so tired because your always moving!
I hope this helps.
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