Perfect, thanks Mark. I would be lost without the .gpx files, literally:)
BR
Dave
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Perfect, thanks Mark. I would be lost without the .gpx files, literally:)
BR
Dave
Nah, just follow me and you'll be fine....;)
Mark, Big Ta for doing all that, mucho appreciated. Gotta be worth letting you buy me a pint, surely!
Planning on doing a recce of a large chunk of the route this week, and the other part (Hexham to Kielder to Corbridge) a week Saturday, hopefully, when I'm up there visiting a pal. Still not had word back from the Lords of Entropy on whether we'll be having sunshine or not...
But I was planning to do the whole route, I wouldn't want to miss out on the tea and cake stop;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Normb666
Oh ha bloody ha :P I'll most likely be Porsche-powered, so reasonably confident of doing the whole shosher, as even if my LB gets through IVA on Tues 3rd it's highly unlikely it'll be registered by DVLA for Fri 6th...
Been Oop Norf today, doing a recce of a large part of the route (didn't have time to do the whole thing). All looking good, and only one "gotcha", which is leaving Hexham as you join the A69 - there are major roadworks at the roundabout, so where I said "get into the right hand lane", that'll now turn you through 180 degrees and have you heading for Newcastle! But I'm sure all you clever Strat Peeps will be able to use your grey cells and suss out what needs doing.
Other big thing is that the hotel's still there, not burned down or anything, so that's looking promising too! Only a fortnight to go now....
Latest update on the Big August Gig - I've just sent the latest list of attendees to the hotel to make sure their list matches mine (anyone tried sleeping in a Stratos before?) :) We have 16 cars this time, which is a goodly number, 8 of which aren't club members. So a variety of vehicles! For those who might be interested, here's the list - club members first.
Me
Phil & Helen Dolby
David & Pat Jowsey
Robin & Carol Tyler-Morris
Mark Eaton plus pal
Dave Evans
Neil & Deb Beardsley
Richard Craig & Sarah
...and the non-club peeps...
Mark & Sarah Earnshaw (Cayman GT4)
Sam Earnshaw (son of above) plus pal (Cayman)
Dave & Chris Atkinson (Lotus Elise S1)
Ade & Jill Burns (Jaguar F-Type SVR)
Keith & Wendy Jones (Volvo P1800...or BMW Z3)
Chris Jones (son of above) & Lara (car unknown)
Peter Jowsey (David's brother) & Better Half - can't remember her name! - sorry! (Ginetta G15)
Dave Hill (Porsche 911 Carrera)
The Hotel have also told me that face masks are not compulsory, and dinner will be at 20:00 on Friday, to allow for everyone getting there, and 19:30 on Saturday.
I may be able to recce the part of the route I couldn't manage last week, i.e. the section from Hexham, up to Kielder, into Scotland and back to Corbridge, this weekend when I visit a friend up in the North-East. But that's not guaranteed though!
Weather is looking a bit so-so according to the forecasts, but it could still change....either way!
That's a great turn out Norm..!
We are really looking forward to it
Also like the variation of cars !
Looking forward to the Rice Crispy's at breakfast !
Believe it might be Fruit and Fibre this year, although the "fibre" component might not be what people expect ;)
Hi Norm would be ok to join in from shap up to kielder?
Hiya Martin - course it would. More the merrier! :)
Final update on this before it all kicks off tomorrow - dinner Friday is at 8pm to give peeps time to get there, and on Sat it's at half 7. I've not been informed if we've got a room to ourselves for dinner but I think they're trying (and you'll think the same, come Sunday morning...) David J's brother's had to drop out due to covid, but everyone else is still up for it (or they've not told me if they're not!). Weather is looking pretty poor...don't think it'll be non-stop rain, but it'll deffo be wet. Take those shower covers!
I've got a small prob with the Porsche exhaust - well it is 10 years old! - where the switchable thing isn't switching and is stuck in a sort of halfway not-noisy-but-not-quiet mode, which is actually quite unpleasant-sounding. I've checked both flaps and they're free so it must be either the actuation system or perhaps the flap valves themselves becoming worn (they default to "loud" and are pulled to "quiet" using vacuum from the inlet). So I might be in the Panda....
See y'all there, and remember - er.... oh I've forgotten.
Hi Norm,
I intend to tag along for part of the run on Saturday will probably join the route just after Hexham, hopefully meet up with some of you by Kielder Castle.
rgds Bob
No prob Bob, assuming you can get past Bellingham this time...bring water wings and a flotation device :)
Thanks Norm for organising a great run yesterday, visited some lovely places on good roads that aren't that far away. Good to see everyone, thats probably my first trip out since lock down started. Almost made it home as well but the water pump seized up so had to get towed by a friend the last 10 miles but it was no real bother.
Thanks again everyone.
Hi Norm,
Many thanks for planning yesterday's run I enjoyed the drive out and nice to meet up with everyone at Kielder.
Sorry but forgot to take any photos.
Bad luck Martin but not too difficult to fix, make sure you get a replacement with a metal impeller.
rgds Bob
Many thanks again Norm, great weekend again, great roads, great social ..!!!!!...... very much appreciated the time and effort that's gone into organising again...
Phil and Helen
Hi Norm
Echoing earlier comments. Your efforts in organising a great driving and social event are much appreciated. We had a fab time and hopefully you and I can join the Strat Drivers next time. Met and chatted with some lovely people and nice to put faces to names. (Some great and varied cars as well )
Thankyou and all the best
Neil & Debs.
Another memorable weekend for all the right reasons great roads, scenery and company, the weather was even better than the BBC forecast. It so lovely to catch up with everyone after these rather trying times.
The next Drive will be the Yorkshire Dales on June 10th & 11th 2022 watch out for details which will be posted shortly.
Thanks again Norm for bringing home the bacon once more.
Pat and David
Couldn’t resist. Mrs B and I smokin the Merc barge (roof up this time) and came across a random group Porsche GT3 GT4 and F Type SVR. The Strats were long gone
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Hi Norm, Thanks a million for the super re run through the northern counties and into Scotland. This time the fabulous views you had planned were seen in their full glory, almost rainless!!!. You have taken us on great driving roads and even managed to organise not too much traffic. Thanks for organising the weekend for us all to have such a most enjoyable and sociable time with great company. The ability to have technical Sratos exchanges on the occasion is a bonus.
Carol + Robin
Thanks for a great weekend Norm.
Excellent route on Saturday and great company all weekend. Just covered 700 miles over the weekend some were even in the dry:)
Look forward to the next one!
Cheers Chaps, glad you all enjoyed it! Really appreciate you appreciating it, and I'm sure you all appreciate me appreciating you too....arrrgh!
Moving on! - although it was raining at the hotel, it was great that it soon dried up and despite the lowering sky and heavy clouds, only rained occasionally and never really heavily. And even when it did, we soon moved out of it and it became dry again! The whole route was designed for the views as well as the roads themselves, and also to allow people to experience an area they'd never been to before and likely would never consider. Talking to some of you later, I get the feeling it won't be the only time you're up there! And although the scenery is great in the sun, the menacing clouds actually added to the views, stretching away to the end of the world...or that's how it looked...
The length of the whole route was supposed to be a bit of a marathon - 215 miles is more than most people want to drive in a day, but not us, eh! Shame a few more of you members don't feel the urge to come along, cos you'd have a great time. The wife of the guy in the S1 Elise joined us for the first time after much persuasion, and said "why have I never come on these weekends before???" - to which I said "cos we never asked you". Nah, just kidding, been trying to get her to come for ages! And my pal Bruce who rode shotgun in the Range Rover, although initially a bit disappointed that we weren't in the Porsche, had a really good time as said he'd be back, despite looking nowt like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Here's some pics he took - some at the hotel, some at the car park over the Kielder dam.
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....and a few more....
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Ta to the staff at Shap Wells Hotel - rushed off their feet, especially when the coach party arrived! - and great to see Martin and Bob, who travelled over on the morning to accompany us for part of the run.
So, time to start thinking about next year's....got a couple of ideas that'll need some investigation. Awww, I have to do more driving over great roads....what a shame. (hee-hee!) But before that, it's the AGM in a few weeks, so need to put a bit of thought into that. Not too much though, cos it's not like you lot pay me, is it! :)