Mick's Motoring September Stroll

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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by myglaren »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 14 Sep 2020, 17:27 Useful Steve, should be able to pick them out at the Beefeater now!

REgards Neil
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by mickthemaverick »

Had a brilliant day, full details will be posted in due course but thanks so much to Steve and Neil for making the effort to join us and making it such a memorable day. It is a very long time since we have had the opportunity to meet such good blokes and a real privilege to spend time with them. Hadrian's Wall here we come!! :-D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Great meeting you Mick and Bob too. You are fortunate indeed to have such a good friend, and you are quite a double act :-D Take time to smell the flowers at Hadrian's wall....Steel Rigg Car Park is as good as any to get out and have a little walk and feel the wind in your hair!

This view here is a bit more of a hike

Image

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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by mickthemaverick »

Another excellent day with a walk on the wall a cruise on the ferry and a lovely dinner on a terrace overlooking the beach in Lytham
Full details in the write up when I get home :-D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by mickthemaverick »

The Stroll just gets better and better!!! Had a great time in Liverpool today and meeting Paul for a guided tour really made the day!! Full details will be posted as a daily diary when I get home. Thanks again Paul, fantastic tour and believe it or not I got 78 photos!! :-D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by Paul-R »

'Twas a pleasure to meet up with you both today. Glad to be of assistance.
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

If you have the appropriate tools Mick with a lot of photos, maybe putting some of your holiday snaps together in a little video slideshow to the soundtrack of the boys are back in town! may be nice. You tube is of course one of Google's offspring but there are other platforms which the FCF can cope with now I do believe.

Off into Gibbo country tomorrow, have another great day :-D

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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

That was a highly enjoyable evening, with excellent company, great food, and unusual circumstances. It was a bit tricky getting into Henley on Thames due to the active roadworks, and when I got to the pub both Mick and Bob were already there (nice atmospheric pub; I shall have to remember it, but that won't be hard), and we had a good chinwag (I hope I did not talk too much; I do have a tendency to go on a bit), placed our meal orders, carried on talking (about lots of different things), and then the lights went out! This was probably due to a digger finding a mains cable. Fortunately the pub was cooking with gas, so that was OK (and I had my Panther Vision baseball cap with LEDs in the brim). Unfortunately Michel did not make it, which was a shame; I think he would have enjoyed himself as well.
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by mickthemaverick »

Our concluding day on the Stroll was highlighted with our meetings with Gibbo and James. Unfortunately Gibbo had car trouble so could not get down to the cafe so we went to his house to meet him and exchange souvenirs!! Thanks for the jam Gibbo, I hope the car is on the mend!!. Had a good time with James in Henley and concluded the trip with a power cut in the pub. All will be revealed as I write the full diary!! :-D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll DAY 1

Post by mickthemaverick »

I rose at 06.45 in time to be on the road for 07.30, we had amended our start plans so I had to drive to Elstree to meet Bob and then back here to start the route as planned. I wanted to keep to the plan as much as possible to ensure a sensible comparison between my map wheeled measurements and the mileometer measurements from the actual driving. So in the end we left the actual start at 09.20 and headed for Ely:
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After a brief look we motored on towards King's Lynn to have a look at the market. Unfortunately it was non existent due to a combination of Covid and Sunday so we struck out for the ride round the wash with an eye open for lunch. We found an interesting bridge and couldn't resist a quick flick with the camera:
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Not too far along we came across a cafe with an interesting military collection around the car park so we decided to stop for lunch.
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Having put away a pasty for me and a sandwich for Bob we set off for Lincoln which led to our first small diversion around a new stretch which wasn't on our 1982 map! However we managed to get there for a few drive by shots of the cathedral:
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and then we set course for the Humber Bridge. Never having been there before it was a significant landmark for us and we were not dissappointed!! A truly beautiful structure which we found quite awesome, judge for yourselves:
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and as I was taking the under bridge shot I heard some footsteps behind me:
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After a change of driver we set off to cross the bridge and make our way to York for our first overnight stop at The Saddle Inn in Fulford:
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Having settled in we strolled down the road to our evening meal without the cameras, for fear of forgetting or breaking them :-D, and returned for a good night's sleep.

Given that that is probably what the reader is doing by now, I'll stop it there and return with Day 2 when I have finished the pictures! Watch this space :-D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by CitroJim »

Great stuff Mick :D Loving the pictures!

Looking forward to day 2 ;)
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by Paul-R »

Great stuff Mick.
As I get older I think a lot about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.

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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll Day 2 Part 1

Post by mickthemaverick »

Monday dawned with a beautiful backdrop to the car park (pictures on the Misty Mornings thread) and we went down for breakfast. I was so tantalised by the aroma that I dug in before I'd taken a picture so apologies for the half eaten look:
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Having dispatched that with relish we headed outside to be enchanted by a little rock garden which I had missed on arrival:
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After settling up and saying our goodbyes I squeezed the car back out through the coaching arch and turned towards the city for a drive by of York Minster:
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followed by a quick run along the city wall:
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and out onto our route to Filey:
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Arriving in Filey I wanted to get a couple of shots which related back to the virtual run in March:
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after which we slipped down towards my Father's favourite beach which I had never seen:
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I wasn't dissappointed, it is a truly gorgeous stretch of sand with no visible pebbles, shells or seaweed, the pictures do not do it justice:
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Having exhausted our supply of oohs and aahs we headed back up the ramp and took the road to Thornton Le Dale spotting a 70 plate en route:
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Which brought us to Mathewsons for an interesting interlude. Knowing we might be short of time with the Sutton Bank diversion ahead we decided not to join the queue to get inside as it was covid controlled and would waste 25 very valuable minutes. So we wandered around the cars outside, not bothering to snap them as they will all appear in the catalogues in due course. However there was much memorabilia on show in the windows so I snapped enough to peruse later:
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I did manage to get a shot of Derek chatting with two visitors who had enough time to join the queue:
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However there was one particular car outside which will be of interest to my Elstree connection:
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Having captured all I wanted we decided to get back on the road and head for High Force and our meeting with Steve.
Unfortunately this part of the Stroll went very wrong thanks to some pathetically arrogant drivers we came across on the Sutton Bank diversion so I will end day 2 part 1 here with a couple of pictures captured after Pickering and see you in High Force!!
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Last edited by mickthemaverick on 19 Sep 2020, 22:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll

Post by CitroJim »

Magical pictures Mick :D
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Re: Mick's Motoring September Stroll Day 2 Part 2

Post by mickthemaverick »

Having left Pickering public toilets floundering in our wake we set off along the A170 towards the Sutton Bank closure which Neil had warned us about. Sure enough as we approached the bank the familiar signs hove into view and we were sent down a country road to take us through Kilburn and then back up to the A170. You can see the original route crossed and the actual route on the photo of the map:
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Under normal circumstances the diversion would not have added more than 5 minutes to our journey which we were well prepared for. Unfortunately the circumstances were not normal and we came down to the end of a traffic jam in Kilburn. Two car lengths ahead of us was a large lorry apparently parked on the left just before a line of parked cars facing us on the right. We pulled across to view the road and we could see that there simply was not enough room for the truck to get through but enough for a car, we duly went round the truck and after we had pulled in front of him another truck coming towards us moved into the wrong side of the road blocking our path. He was around 100 metres away but could not get past the parked vehicles either. So we were trapped between two trucks, the first of which had edged forward cutting off our rearward escape route!! There followed a period of waiting for one of the truck drivers to move. We decided to remove the C5 from the battle ground and reversed onto a resident's drive thus leaving a clear road between the trucks. I had never realised how many bricks it takes to build a garden wall but we had nothing else to do so I now know that you can build a wall approximately 6 metres long and 1 metre high with 351 bricks!!! :-D

Eventually two of the parked cars were slipped up onto the pavement clearing the passage for a truck and the truck to our left capitulated and reversed back to allow the oncoming truck through. We sat and watched bemused as the truck, very closely followed by 70 or so cars that must have been queuing right through the village, drove through the single lane. As the last car came through we dived out of our drive and on our way before the similar queue on our left could get going. Total time spent in Kilburn was 48 minutes which when added to the extra diversion got us to High Force at 13.45 against a proposed arrival of 12.30 - 13.00!! :shock:

Steve had been there for over an hour, having made sure that he arrived early, and greeted us in the car park where he told us we could park in front of the hotel rather than pay for the visitors car park, so we did! :-D We then strolled down to the waterfall which was brilliant and you can see it for yourself from my mini video starring Steve with the camera and Bob chatting up a passing lady who was too slow to escape! :twisted:



A few stills for a better idea of the path and valley as a whole:
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Having had our fill we strolled back up to the hotel for ice creams and further discussions which shall remain the property of the participants. Steve has posted a picture of us which Neil intended to use to ID us in the evening but he didn't know about our little plan for that meeting recognition!

I noticed that Steve and my cars were forming the bookends of a "Not Black, grey or silver" line of cars even though there were only three cars in it but two of them were French:
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Time had flown by with an exceptionally wide variety of topics discussed, thanks again Steve, so we left Steve a souvenir, said cheerio and climbed aboard our trusty transport. Back down the road to the turning which would take us up across the moors and eventually to the Tyne tunnel, the second of our significant water crossings. A truly memorable drive:
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After the moors we drove past Pontop Pike which was one of the radio masts I had used during my ICI pipeline radio installation in 1987-90:
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More interesting sights on the route through Chester-Le-Street and up to and through the tunnel:
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The building in the last two pictures is a very modern school which I can't remember the name of but I am sure Neil can tell us! :-D

We drove on into Whitley Bay where we quickly found Hotel 52 and checked in. We had a wash and changed into our evening wear to give Neil a good chance of recognising us, not knowing about Steve's post at this point although we had told Steve our plan and hence his response to Neil's comment :-D , and set off for the Beefeater. We did raise an eyebrow or two from passers by as we strolled down the seafront, minus cameras for safety's sake, and arrived unmolested to be greeted by Neil coming out the door to meet us having spotted our characters approaching!!

We then enjoyed an excellent meal and exchanged stories liberally for the rest of the evening. Neil had some things for us and us for him but we had left his in the car at our Hotel so he went to get the Leaf and we strolled back to meet him at the car. When we arrived we discovered some interest from the local constabulary who, we think, were dealing with an incident across the road and merely wanted to ensure we were not planning on going anywhere :-D
Once we had confirmed all was well we exchanged souvenirs and said our farewells and went to bed. It had been a fantastic day from start to finish and I really felt we had met two terrific chaps and had a ball. :-D

That is definitely enough for this installment as my fingers are getting sore, so we'll pick this up in the hotel room before brekkie on day three!! :-D :-D
Last edited by mickthemaverick on 20 Sep 2020, 15:12, edited 1 time in total.
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