The latest “cottage holiday” (my fifth in total: one week of rented cottage, plus an optional day on the way back depending on the weather) starts in the morning of Saturday, 1 June 2019. It is a perfect day, with only a few clouds in a very blue sky, giving some (irrational) hope that the rest of the week may follow the example.
The engine starts at 7:48. The first – and boring – part of the day is very simple: as fast as I can to Harrogate. This means the dratted M25, then the M11, then the A1 straight to Harrogate.
The weather keeps being good as I progress. There is still very little traffic, no accidents, no queues and no Nazi Nannies. It truly is a beautiful day and the perfect start of the ride. The only little fly in the ointment is the almost total absence of the rapeseed fields I like so much; but one should never try to be too happy…
Before 11 am I am already out of the A1 and heading towards Harrogate, but the sky has been overcast for a while now. I refuel at the big Sainsbury’s at the outskirts of Harrogate. It is now after 11 on a Saturday, and the shopping crowd is out in force. I crawl out of endless queues of cars and slowly pave my way out to the open roads. The plan is now to cross an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that I have never visited, the Yorkshire Dales, on my way to the 2019 HQ in Windermere, Cumbria.
The road, carefully planned at home, leads me through a stunning scenery. It reminds me of the Peak Districts, but with fewer and lesser… peaks. Also, I notice the same dry-stone walls (love those!), and the same houses with stone masonry: brown/biscuit the newer ones, darker the older ones. As nothing is perfect in life, it starts to rain just after leaving Harrogate. The rain will not leave me for the rest of the ride.
I first ride on the A59, then it’s the Greenhow Hill Road to Greenhow Hill, hence the B6265 to Threshfields, when the B6160 takes over all the way to Buckden. From there I ride to Hawes via Yockenthwaite. Then it’s west on the A684 to Kendal, where I am already in the Lake District AONB. A police road block (motorbike accident!) causes a slight delay, but I am in Windermere at 2:20. The rain is now insistent, but the sunny morning is still fresh in my mind and I am not fazed at all, still thinking that the weather during the following week will “likely” be good. Oh, the capacity of human nature for endless optimism!
I Collect the keys and ride to the nearby HQ for this holiday. This is my fifth rented cottage and is, by far, the best: spacious, conveniently located, picturesque, with a quiet patio at the back and reserved parking (very useful in Windermere), with only a short walk to the shops and pub. It is a converted chapel, but pretty modern on the inside, meaning that there are no little bugs crawling out from thousand little crevices as it happened in the “character cottage” in the Cotswolds. However, that cottage had a glorious garden complete with a small army of bumblebees, whilst this one only has the nice patio, albeit near a still quintessentially English church. I tell you now that the nice patio will not see massive use, for the reasons you have already imagined.
I buy something to eat and decide to “eat a morsel” in the new cottage. After a “power nap” ( I love power naps, and love calling them that way because it makes it sound less lazy…) it is past five and the rain has ceased. Dutifully rested, I decide to go out for another round, on a short route inspired by Stirling Moss’ book, “Great Drives in the Lakes and Dales”. It is a round trip touching Ambleside, Skelwith Bridge, Elterwater, then along the B5343 (Side Gates Road) to Wilson Place, then Coniston and further east to Hawkshead. Hawkshead is a truly nice little village, and I plan to ride back and spend some time if I can. The rain comes and goes, but it is still manageable.
At this point I ride back to Windermere via Ambleside and conclude the day. This little afternoon ride went on for around 90 minutes of bliss, saying “hello again!” to the glorious Lakes landscapes.
It is past seven when I go back to HQ, and discover that I have no olive oil for my meat. Not happening. A short walk to the grocery and Bob’s your uncle, showing once again the convenience of not having your HQ in the middle of a shop desert. It is the evening of the Champions League Final (a Juventus supporter, I have already cried my tears on this), and the people outside the pub are already visibly drunk, and screaming pretty loud, twenty minutes before the start of the match between Liverpool and Tottenham. I wanted to pop in and watch the last twenty minutes, but perhaps better not. However, I see (and hear first from behind!) a beautiful Guzzi Griso, black, on my way home from the grocery store. This is the first Guzzi of the holiday. A good sign. Talking of Guzzis, I have not seen a new V85 TT in the metal yet. Will this trip be the right time? We will soon know…
Dinner , some TV watching (what a decline compared to Netflix!) and extensive notes writing before going to sleep. The day ends with a couple of reflections.
The first one is this: laminate motorcycle suits are a great thing. They look a bit like an armour (at least mine, which is several years old), but the rain never soaks the suit. This means no getting cold and feeling miserable because of a soaking wet jacket, even if with waterproof membrane. In the end, a laminate jacket makes riding in the rain for hours a way more comfortable proposition. I can only recommend the small sacrifice in suppleness (but you get accustomed to it) for the advantage of riding in the rain for hours without feeling miserable and then go out again, with a dry suit, a couple of hours later as I did today. Laminate suits have become fairly afoordable nowadays. I can only recommend one.
The second reflection is about the weather. Lake District means rain. One needs to embrace the concept and accept it as part of the landscape, like the trees. There will be some sun, but to expect a sunny day in the morning is to prepare oneself for a disappointment. It will rain when it has to rain, and it will stop when it’s time for the rain to stop. I think this is the only way to visit this beautiful part of the Country without feeling shortchanged, or desiring one were in Southern France.
355 miles today.
Beautiful day overall, even with the rain.
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