19-06-2021, 04:49 PM
Not strictly speaking today, but this week I have mostly been in the Dales.
Due to our companions 1964 Fiat 500 having a hissy fit, its metalastic bush on the hub end of a drive shaft disintegrated, we were obliged to travel about 4-up in the Austin.
The Fiat on Beweley Moor, Cold Stones Quarry, before its tantrum.
The Dales comprises a lot of narrow twisting roads, bounded by rather hard stone walls. These roads are rarely flat for long and often resort to steep gradients, with the aforementioned tight turns and hard rock walls.
We took the road from Pateley Bridge NW along Nidderdale, turning off at Lofthouse to climb Trapping Hill onto Masham Moor. The first part is at 1:4, in two miles it climbs 1,000ft, all of which in 1st gear. On one of the very steep turns I was obliged to request two of the passengers to disembark. The photo is from shortly after this event while waiting for the pedestrians to complete their ascent. You may note the slight incontinence, which was I think excusable in the circs.
The weather was glorious and apart from the lunatic behaviour of the brutalist SUV drivers, it was a lovely few days. Grassington was bustling with film crew and props in preparation for a forthcoming feature film shoot of "All Creatures Great and Small", despite cruising through the town we were not offered a drive on part!
Despite the very noisy ( I think) mains, the engine managed three days of arduous touring, used about ⅓ of a pint of oil, the merest sip of water each day and returned 34 mpg.
Due to our companions 1964 Fiat 500 having a hissy fit, its metalastic bush on the hub end of a drive shaft disintegrated, we were obliged to travel about 4-up in the Austin.
The Fiat on Beweley Moor, Cold Stones Quarry, before its tantrum.
The Dales comprises a lot of narrow twisting roads, bounded by rather hard stone walls. These roads are rarely flat for long and often resort to steep gradients, with the aforementioned tight turns and hard rock walls.
We took the road from Pateley Bridge NW along Nidderdale, turning off at Lofthouse to climb Trapping Hill onto Masham Moor. The first part is at 1:4, in two miles it climbs 1,000ft, all of which in 1st gear. On one of the very steep turns I was obliged to request two of the passengers to disembark. The photo is from shortly after this event while waiting for the pedestrians to complete their ascent. You may note the slight incontinence, which was I think excusable in the circs.
The weather was glorious and apart from the lunatic behaviour of the brutalist SUV drivers, it was a lovely few days. Grassington was bustling with film crew and props in preparation for a forthcoming feature film shoot of "All Creatures Great and Small", despite cruising through the town we were not offered a drive on part!
Despite the very noisy ( I think) mains, the engine managed three days of arduous touring, used about ⅓ of a pint of oil, the merest sip of water each day and returned 34 mpg.