RtG The Daily Dispatch - Generations - sm - Flipbook - Page 5
25 to 27 March 2022
Day 2
North Pennines and Yorkshire (207.7 miles)
26 March 2022
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
‘I wandered lonely as a cloud, That floats on high o’er vale and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;’ Wordsworth
Arthur Manners and Laura Manners, 1933 Lagonda M45
If this rally could be described as a menu then yesterday’s starter certainly whetted our appetites but,
more importantly, left us hungry for more. And, as expected, the sadly absent master-chef that is Mark
Appleton, served up another mouth watering plateful of the north country for us. Ranging from the
Lake District through Weardale, Barnard Castle and the Yorkshire Dales before rolling home to Low
Wood, once again tired, but happy, and without a trace of indigestion.
The first task for today was to heave the cars up and over
the aptly named Struggle. This infamous shortcut from
Ambleside to the top of Kirkstone Pass was, this morning,
bathed in sharp spring sunlight. What it lacked in distance
this section of road made up for with a savage and,
according to the signage, caravan beating gradient. Luckily
no-one was towing anything today and, minute by minute,
the crews made it safely to the eponymous Inn where the
road turned into a long and easy descent through Patterdale
to the day’s first Regularity over Little Mell Fell.
Yesterday was somewhat of an easy introduction to those
amongst us who are new to the sport of endurance rallying,
today things got a little tougher. For this section no tulip
diagrams were provided, meaning navigators were a little
busier than they might have expected. They needed to both
juggle their speed and distance calculations, whilst keeping
an eye open for landmarks noted in the route description.
A Time Control at Lowther Castle offered a quick coffee
break ahead of the first Test of the day in and around
Waters Farm, just beyond the market town of Shap. From
here we followed our tulips through the daffodils and into
the next Regularity in Westmorland and Appleby where it
became plain that today was not a day for the agoraphobic.
The North Pennines, an Unesco World Heritage Site, are vast
and the miles of empty roads that roll through them gave
the crews an unforgettable ride into the farthest reaches
of County Durham, the Land of the Prince Bishops. After
a quick underbody wash in the Westgate Ford lunch was
served in the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. A sight for
sore eyes indeed.
Three circuit Tests followed in quick succession at
Streatlam. Whereafter the open road beckoned again and
Teesdale slipped neatly into Swaledale and Wensleydale as
we took on another long Regularity over Askrigg Common
www.rallytheglobe.com