Gypsies! Of my childhood books! We saw lots of them with their classic wagons and tired looking horses.
We also tried to find this viaduct called the Whalley Arches. We drove under it but couldn't see it. Best view was from the motorway after we had given up.
Just down the road from our camping ground is the really cute village of Settle. We were lucky to find a park for the motorhome and walked 2 mins to the center of town. There was a busy market and the village had a buzz. Lots of cafes all doing well. A great although tiny hardware store and a very old museum. The village is tucked in underneath stone cliffs.
Gateway to the Dales: I used to come to Ilkley and Skipton when I worked in the wool trade in the 70's. It's not changed much.
We enjoyed looking around in spite of the cold and wet. The church is beautiful. We didn't have time to do the castle although we walked around the walls to our very handy car park.
45 acres down a narrow walled road in the middle of nowhere. Sounds idyllic. In reality, this is bank holiday weekend and school holidays. Tents and caravans jammed into a relatively small space. However, really friendly owner and surrounded by sheep bleating and barring and the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. We are the only motorhome.
We have no telephone coverage, no data, and no GPS signal and limited WiFi if we sit in the main building. There is an extremely busy restaurant and bar. As long as it's open, it seems filled with families and noise. Cold wet weather means it's a haven for people in tents.
Very pretty area with some beautiful houses and huge trees. The town has everything you could need. I walk most mornings and enjoy the surroundings.
We needed some part for inside the distributer. Around Birmingham, we stopped by Powerspark Ignition Ltd.
Very friendly Simon Lowther came and looked at the car, as well as his staff. Had part and even gave us a discount - to put towards travel costs!
So helpful! Made the travel and traffic worthwhile!
More traffic! Never complain about Auckland! Thank God for a good GPS and even then things can go wrong.
We claimed for some damage (self inflicted) to our motorhome. The insurance company have preferred repairers and gave us the post code closest to us. 45 minutes later, we found out that it was the wrong branch and the correct one was in totally the other direction.
When we finally got there, it was really only for trucks.
We then found a motorhome repairer 15 minutes from urban base in Knutsford. We have to go back on Wednesday when the man who does estimates is there.
Meantime, Noel wrote a "dear people" letter to the insurance company.
A stunning 27 yesterday! No wind. I was busy trying to make some camping bookings. This weekend is a bank holiday and school holidays this week so everything is booked out.
I have managed to find a place up near West Yorkshire Dales for three days so we leave on Sunday. Much to Robin and Sue's relief I imagine. They are of to Castle Combe today for a Club Elite day tomorrow. The guest speaker at their dinner tonight is Max Mosley son of Osborne Mosley. Should be interesting.
Noel worked on his car all day with lots of help from Robin. Waiting on parts.
In the evening, we dined outside and enjoyed some lovely wine. Perfect end to the day.
There will be some readers interested in the other guests Howden invited for lunch at the BRDC at Silverstone.
John "Ace" Woodington and Bob Sparshott "Buckshot" were sitting with us and had some amazing tales to tell. They formed BS Fabrications and built the first 2 Hesketh. Bob was the mechanic with Graham Hill for the Tasman Series; he thinks 1968.
We determined we would not drive the motorhome today!
We are staying at a spacious, treed camp site just out of Milton Keynes. It is rather unique in that it is surrounded by parks and next to the Grand Union Canal.
We woke to be stunned by the news from Manchester and were fixed to the TV for a while. This is not religion; this is an illness! No one in their right minds could even consider such an outrage!
We got our bikes ready and headed off along the canal, around Lake Willen and back along the canal. A light shower motivated us to stop at a cute cafe for coffee and homemade cake. Very pretty English countryside.
Not much time left after lunch but we did make it to Bletchley Park. Really interesting and well explained in a presentation of the Enigma and how it was broken. A shame we didn't have more time.
A charming old pub next to the Grand
Union Canal. From your table you can watch the three locks operate and some charming narrow boats pass through.
We met up with Colin and Nina for lunch and met their new puppy Tex.
An early race this morning and very cold.
I was at the assembly point with Howden and he invited me to join him and Joy in the BRDC to watch the race. A great vantage point. It didn't take long for Noel to catch up with Sir John. I said to Howden that Noel really wanted to catch him but passing could be a different matter. Next lap when he passed in front of us he came down the straight well ahead. Yes! we chorused. A few seconds later, he went through the tight loop in front of us, Luffield, he spun out on the grass, facing the other way. By the time the immediate field had gone through, he had lost several places. He got back on the track well behind that group.
He seemed to get slower and we realised something was wrong. Finally he raised his hand and came in. He didn't realise that the race was finished. As a consequence, he did finish the race in 15th position, still 2nd in class behind Sir John.
It turned out that his oil leak had affected the stability of his left back tyre, which was slipping and sliding out of control.
Mark Woodhouse had been running in second place all the way. At the last moment he also had a problem and had to drop back.
We packed the car into the trailer and then had a lovely lunch at the BRDC with Howden and Joy. Quite a treat. Lovely people.
There were so many cars, trucks and trailers, it was very difficult to get out of our parking space. As soon as we left a gap, someone filled it. Finally, we got underway just after 4pm, headed to a camping ground near Milton Keynes where we will try to recover. This stuff is all very tiring!
The sun is shining and the temperatures are rising!
British Racing Drivers Club is one of the most exclusive clubs here. Very hard to get in. Situated at the most interesting part of the circuit with panoramic views over the track, some beautiful trophies and a huge collection of handmade model cars.
We sat at a friendly table of FJ people and enjoyed good food and company. A freezing walk back to the motorhome!
The first race for Noel at Silverstone was neatly timed with heavy back clouds rolling in and large drops falling by the end.
Noel started at 14 on the grid. Sir John Chisholm (in an almost identical Gemini) started at 10.
It is a very long track and the cars quickly spread out, the gap between Sir John's group and Noel's was too much.
Crispian Besley had taken the time to give Noel some advice earlier and he was racing close to Noel. Noel had also benefitted by some advice from Howden Ganley, so armed with all this help, all he had to do was remember it!
The track was very slippery. Even on the rolling start cars were sliding. Some didn't know it was a rolling start and there was a bit of confusion with drivers sewing to look for their place on the grid. Noel looked confident and managed to hang on and advance a place finishing 13th, but actually second in class behind Sir John. A very satisfactory race.
He's got some bad oil leaks. He lined up Matt King to work on the car next week, then he ran into Bruno Weibel. We met Bruno when he was in NZ this year as mechanic for Colin Nursey. Bruno kindly had a look at the leaks and (hopefully) identified some parts that need replacing.
Guess what! It means Noel has to take the gearbox out again! Robin has volunteered to help him.
Just after Prizegiving, the rain came down in a deluge. We were all confined to the garages for a while. No one seemed to mind.
Woke up Saturday to blue skies and viciously cold wind.
Noel was up bright and early to do those things that always have to be done prior to racing. Qualifying was at 9am.
Overnight, the Gemini had been leaking oil! So the back comes off and Noel is working on the car again! This is the part of motor racing that drives me crazy!
He only just got the back on again in time to follow the last man out to the grid. Just as well as it was a long way and he didn't know where he was going. Then there was a wait until each car was checked and tested for noise. (I asked Duncan about this as I wanted to know what they did with F1 cars when we all had to race with mufflers. He answered that Silverstone had days with different noise level allowances.)
Noel was at the back and started out cautiously. Immediately, two cars spun out on oil and everyone was under yellow flag at that corner, which was right in front of where Duncan and I were sitting.
I could see Noel gaining in confidence with every lap. His best lap could have been the second to last, but he came in too fast to the corner and instead went straight ahead. The good thing about Silverstone is that there is plenty of run off. He found it and recovered before he hit the kitty litter and was on his way again.
He qualified 14th out of a field of 40, so very good for a beginner.
Today was testing, scrutineering and documentation.
It finally stopped raining half an hour before Noel went out. The track was very wet and slippery. He had three laps and spun and came in. He was out there with some very powerful cars: Formula 5,000's, Formula 3's and Formula 2's. So he always had to be very aware of what was coming up behind in the mirrors. Another two laps later in the afternoon before testing was red flagged as someone had an accident. Not enough time to learn a very difficult circuit. This is the Historic GP version, one of three variations at Silverstone.
Lovely to be greeted by some of the FJ family who were in NZ earlier in the year. Also enjoyed a glass of red with Duncan in our motorhome.
The pause in the weather didn't last. It is still raining as we retire to bed! And very cold!
We decided to drive to Silverstone tonight so we would be there first thing Friday morning.
We knew of course that we would be in peak hour traffic. I don't know how people do it day in day out! The one and a half hour journey took two and a half hours and mostly in pouring rain!
Still, we arrived in daylight. We thought we would have to park outside, but security let us in. We found lots of others already here. We found a handy spot to park. Simon Durling offered to share his garage with us for tomorrow until ours is opened on Saturday. So generous of him. What a shame they missed coming to New Zealand in January!
The Gemini is now unpacked. We have eaten. Now time to retire. A big day with early start tomorrow.
