[AlanHo]

We are planning to take a Cumbria holiday in July next year with a couple of friends. The plan is to hire a holiday home or cottage near to Ambleside.

Libby is my wife, my estate agent, my financial advisor, my housekeeper, my best mate and my travel agent all rolled into one. She has spent the last couple of weeks doing internet research and found a number of cottages  that ticked all the boxes suggested by her and our friends – I added a wifi box and that cut the list down to 4 properties. The girls got their heads together last Friday and decided on their favourite for me to book.

I ummed and arrrrred about their choice and then announced that I was not happy about booking a cottage unless one of us had visited the location and checked whether there was a pig farm next door – or some other snag not obvious on the web site or Google Earth.  So I announced that I would drive up to Cumbria on Sunday –  carry out a reconnaissance of the candidates, stay overnight up there and return home on Monday afternoon. It would be a trip of about 360 miles. Libby thought I was stark staring bonkers but decided she would like to accompany me so we set off at 8.00 am on Sunday. 174 miles and 3 hours later we arrived at the first candidate. It was a disaster – the photos on the web were quite misleading and the property was right on a busy main road. The second property was equally disappointing – parking about 200 yards away and the property was badly overlooked by adjacent houses. Not the quiet retreat the website would lead you to believe.

The third property was fine – a lovely house up a long private drive to the top of a hill in beautiful countryside with an outlook to die for.  However – I got chatting to a guy at another cottage in the same grounds who explained that he owned the place and rented it out via a website Libby had not come across. He invited us in to have a look around and it was perfect – ticking every box on the list.

The fourth property was in a nice location bordering a river – but there was a public footpath running up the side of the garden used by walkers – lots of them even though it is November and supposedly a quiet time of the year.

So we finished up deciding on a cottage that was not on the original list and I have just booked it.

http://tinyurl.com/c8um8zb


I mention all this as background to a little adventure I indulged in whilst there. A few miles from the cottage which we will be renting are two famous mountain passes – the first called the Wrynose Pass which is about 5 miles long and the second the Hardnott Pass which is about 8 miles. The Hardnott Pass is generally considered to be the most challenging mountain road in the UK with many dog leg bends with inclines as steep as 1 in 3. So I decided to drive across both Passes.

The DOD car cam was of course recording and I have rather hastily cut and pasted a number of short clips of the adventure. The video is rather crude but will give you a flavour of the terrain and scenery. It was late afternoon and the sun was setting behind the mountains, so the quality is not brilliant – but the i30 was. Crikey that diesel can’t half pull at low speed up the steep winding sections.

We had a stroke of good fortune – a farmer driving a Land Rover appeared from a side track taking his sheep for a ride in a large trailer and we following him across the Hardnott Pass.  As you will see there are very few passing places and the track is very narrow – often with a sheer drop on the one side. Traffic coming the other way gave way to the Land Rover because there was no way he could or would reverse into a passing place – so I tucked in behind and was able to make good progress. I was quite impressed at how he manoeuvred his vehicle and trailer on such a road – my guess is that he has done it before.  On the descent from the top (about 1300 feet up) you may hear me comment at the smoke or steam (the road was wet) pouring from his brakes. I mention this in case you thought I was referring to my car.

This adventure must have decimated the fuel economy of the i30 on this trip because I did at least 10 miles in 1st or 2nd gear and climbed 1200 feet in the process. Diverting through the passes added about 50 miles to the journey - the trip recorder read 408 miles for the whole 2 day trip when we returned home and the trip recorder calculated an overall average economy of 56.3 mpg.

Best to watch this in 1080p HD if you can.

[asathorny]

very interesting Alan a part of Cumbria with which I am not familiar 

[Doggie 1]

Thanks Alan.
It reminded me of my childhood in the U.K.

[Shambles]

That's a smashing cottage

Hardnott pass. Hrmphh. The last time I drove up there I had to keep looking in my rear view mirror - the only thing that kept me going was not seeing any wrecks behind me

Checked out a few seconds of the vid - will bookmark for later, thanks.


(PS, moved it out of the "stuff to laugh at" section)

[Phil №❶]

Hey, you guys got pommie accents 

http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html#P

[Dazzler]

Thanks Alan .. Looks interesting (bookmarked for later) 

[Keith]

Hey, you guys got pommie accents 

http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html#P

We dont have accents... you Colonials do 

[Phil №❶]

 

[Shambles]

Well that was a rather special vid

It had everything: painful windy roads; burning brakes (but not yours); two deep brummay accents; a cattle grid; a fan-tast-eek and a fab-you-less

And as you said - superb in 1080p 

[eye30]

I ummed and arrrrred about their choice and then announced that I was not happy about booking a cottage unless one of us had visited the location

http://tinyurl.com/c8um8zb

Good job you decided to visit and it looks a great place to stay - Mr Whicker......

ps if you let all UK members know the dates may be we can visit for a bbq and hold an i30 meet up. 

[Dazzler]

Yum to the Cottage 

Delightful and awesome = just two words that came to mind watching the video

  You have, as usual set a very high benchmark for others to reach with that video (not the editing, but the content )

Your accent and voice was different to what I expected (not sure what I actually expected though) 

Almost a hint of "scottish twang" in there ..

[AlanHo]

Yum to the Cottage 

Delightful and awesome = just two words that came to mind watching the video

  You have, as usual set a very high benchmark for others to reach with that video (not the editing, but the content )

Your accent and voice was different to what I expected (not sure what I actually expected though) 

Almost a hint of "scottish twang" in there ..

I lived in the USA for about 9 months in 1995 and the locals all assumed I was Australian by my accent.  Yet I can see very little similarity.

I was born and bred in Solihull - went to a Birmingham school and worked in Birmingham until 1980 when I moved to the Middle East. Hence the brummy accent Steve referred to.

[Doggie 1]

My father worked at Winson Green and I was edumecated at George Dixon Grammar School in Birmingham.
Do you know those places, Alan?

[AlanHo]

My father worked at Winson Green and I was edumecated at George Dixon Grammar School in Birmingham.
Do you know those places, Alan?

Of course - though I have only seen the prison from the outside.................

[Doggie 1]

My father worked at Winson Green and I was edumecated at George Dixon Grammar School in Birmingham.
Do you know those places, Alan?

Of course - though I have only seen the prison from the outside.................

My bedroom window (in the first house we had there) used to look straight into the cell blocks.
A lovely view. 

[Phil №❶]

I think it affected you db08 

[rustynutz]

Looks great, Alan.....I'll watch it all another time though as it's just about bedtime for this little black duck...

But, seeing your vid has reminded me that I need to upload some of mine from my September road trip.... 

[baroudeur]

Best to watch this in 1080p HD if you can.

I am curious as to why the video is so steady and does not seem to reflect the movements of the car whereas the date/time bar jumps about  erratically.

Not into video as you can tell from the question.

[Shambles]

YouTube occasionally offers the option to "correct" jumpy bits in uploaded video. If you take that option, you find the date & time jump around, just like that.

[AlanHo]

YouTube occasionally offers the option to "correct" jumpy bits in uploaded video. If you take that option, you find the date & time jump around, just like that.

That's what I did.....

[baroudeur]

YouTube occasionally offers the option to "correct" jumpy bits in uploaded video. If you take that option, you find the date & time jump around, just like that.

Thank you.