Northern Drive-Out Weekend - Kielder - Fri 6th/Sat 7th August 2021

Friends, Fools and Freaks!

It's that time already, when thoughts turn to meeting up for a coupla nights away, and going for a nice long wizz round some ace roads!

This is really just to let y'all know that I'm on it - haven't booked a hotel yet as I'm waiting to see how the Covid thing pans out over the next month. I fully expect us to be able to go ahead, unless there's some major setback or Harry and Meghan decide it's racist not to acknowledge the role slavery's played in us all flogging ourselves half to death in our sheds nailing our cars together....even if we're only slaves to our own ambition... And no-one can accuse us of lacking diversity, as cars from all manufacturers are welcome, in any colour at all! How good is that? :)

Enough of wokeness, already, and a bit of info on what I'm planning. After last year's Tynemouth gig, a few peeps asked if, for 2021, I fancied re-running the Kielder route that we did in 2019, only without the biblical quantities of water. Or at least, keeping the wet stuff in the lake, rather than liberally distributing it all over the North. Well I'm up for that, not least cos it saves me having to create and type up a road book ;) I'd be planning on staying in the good old Shap Wells Hotel again, if everyone's cool with that? Good parking, out of the way, not as posh as the Grand in Tynemouth but still not bad.
The potential spanners in the proposed works are: 1) English lockdown gets delayed/reimposed; 2) Scotland fails to lift, or modifies, travel restrictions such that we're affected; 3) SNP gets a majority in the upcoming elections and bans the hated English outright. (For those who don't know, the Run incorporated a loop into the Border area of Scotland, before re-entering England at Carter Bar on the A68.) For these reasons I'm also looking at a completely different route a bit further south, should we be unable to go with Plan A, but it's somewhat hazy at the mo (i.e. I've only spent 5 mins thinking about it).

So there we have it. Or at least, we have an intention, which is as good as it's gonna get for now. I'll post more as things start to become clearer, including hotel details, but if they remain foggy regarding Border Crossings then I'll fall back to Plan B in order that we can be (relatively) sure we'll be able to hold the event without major route changes.

Fingers and other bits crossed.... !

Go for it Norm, not sure which of the three categories we fall into, but this household is looking forward to an adventure where we can see more than 50 yds down the road through rain of Biblical proportions, with the threat of floating away in the next lake.!!!!! It could not happen again, could it?? We said at the time a StratArc would have been more appropriate, and Noah should have been with us.

*** UPDATE - it's on!! ***

The news you've all been waiting for (maybe) - the gig's now on! I've just reserved 10 double rooms with Shap Wells Hotel for us on a dinner bed and breakfast basis, at a price of £60 per person per night, so a couple will be £240 for both nights. A single room will be £80 per person per night, and a single in a double room £85. I'm waiting for info on how they want us to book (make your own booking with a card, as usual, or whether I have to manage the whole thing) so can't yet say to call and reserve a room, but I should know soon. Reason for the slight lack of certainty is cos they're running with a skeleton staff right now, as you'd expect, and their Events person isn't available today.

As requested, the run will be the Famous Kielder Marathon Route from 2019 of about 250 miles on some ace roads, where you'll be able to let the old girl off the leash. And the car too, which should hopefully not bother the lambs in the same way (this has brought about a very strange image in my mind, but then, life can be disturbing at times). This time around, though, there'll be a break-out point after Kielder itself, where you can head pretty much directly back to the hotel should you have had enough, or find yourselves flagging.

More info as it becomes available....don't yet know, f'rinstance, if the self-destructing cereal dispenser will be putting in an appearance for us to marvel at all over again ;)

I'll try to make it along to this even if it's just popping along in something non-Stratosy for the dinner bit.