Leg 1 - East Fortune - Barton, 2h 25m (30 lites of fuel use 180miles
Leg 2 - Barton - Dunkeswell, 2h 35m 200 miles
Leg 3 -
Dunkeswell - Bodmin, 55m (53 lites of fuel used) 72 miles
Leg 4 -
Bodmin - Sandown, 2h 30m (36 litres of fuel used) 190 miles
Leg 5 -
Sandown - Welshpool, 2h 25m 181 miles
Leg
6 - Welshpool - Caernarfon, 1h 5m (49 litres of fuel used) 61 miles
Leg 7 -
Caernarfon - Cark, 1h 40m 122 miles
Leg 8 - Cark - East Fortune, 1h 45m (fuel used not yet
known) 128 miles
1134 miles (acc to Graeme's plot on Google Earth)
Sunday 29th/Monday 30th
There wasn't actually a 'plan' as such - after the success of the
last 'Round
England' trip, we set aside some dates in August to make another attempt
either North or South - but one that I could join in as well! As July
slid past in torrents of rainfall, I don't think anyone really thought that it
would actually happen - after all, what are the chances of two big trips in a
row coming off in one summer?
The 'plan' disintegrated further as Richard had to pull out, but
he very kindly offered Graeme and I G-RIBA, his GT450, so that we could
comfortably accommodate two sets of camping gear. I was pleased that the 'state
of the art' sleeping bag and mat that Mike bought 20 years ago was still very
light and compact by today's standards! Robert Whitton had kindly lent me a
tent, which proved very small and light, so after watching Gordon's technique
for stuffing sleeping
bags into the wings, we managed to pack all our kit into Richard's plane.
We all met at the airfield on Tuesday morning, still with some
packing of planes to do and an itinerary and route to plan! Poor Gordon and
Jill were absolutely bushed after a hectic week before - taking delivery of 2
new planes, plus a busy Air Show - I don't quite know where they got the energy
to get everything together and organised for 3 more days away, but they did!
The 'plan' finally emerged after Gordon and Graeme huddled in the
caravan with rulers and maps for a few minutes - a few lines drawn on the maps
(I had my own map as well as Graeme so that I could co-navigate, and Jill
followed it on AA maps to spot tourist sites!), some tourism requests from Jill
and I for sightseeing (we wanted to see the flooded areas around the Severn,
the Eden project, Portmeirion and the Lake District!), and miraculously by
10.30am we were ready for off!
Tuesday 31st July
East Fortune to Barton, 2h 25m (30 lites of fuel used),
180miles.
We set off with little wind, but thickening
cloud as we headed south, which we climbed above and looked out for the
navigation clues through the many holes in the clouds. By the M6, it was
actually getting harder to spot Tebay, our second turning point (after
Langholm). Over in the
It was sunny in Barton,
which we welcomed after our chilly high altitude trip, and we sat on the picnic
benches to eat our sandwiches, and get coffee and chips, although the chips
were probably the worst of the trip. We got the maps out and plotted the next
leg, refuelled and set off again.
Barton to Dunkeswell, 2h 35m, 200 miles.
Heading down the 'Manchester corridor' keeping below 1200 feet to
avoid being controlled by ATC, the landmarks were coming thick and fast, but I
managed to keep up with them and between us we could spot most of the various
airfields that we were passing. We turned at Ashcroft for Ashley, then straight
down to Bath Racecourse. Lots of traffic to spot, and as we progressed south we
saw the huge red brick chimneys of Ironbridge, near Telford, then started
seeing evidence of the recent flooding at Kidderminster, with some fields clearly
showing tide marks and changes in colour where they had been 'washed out'.
Further south to
We changed track then for Dunkeswell, passing over the 'shelf' of
hills which drops dramatically to a lower plain to Wells, whose cathedral stood
out prominently from the town. After
Dunkeswell
was charming, and we had cups of
tea in the evening sunshine - very welcome after that long stretch! We
called Perranporth to see if we could land 'after hours' and camp, but it was
'no go', so we tried Bodmin,
who said 'no problem!'.
Dunkeswell to Bodmin, 72 miles, 55 mins
We had good views of the south coast, and Exmouth, in the evening
sunshine, then could just see the peninsula narrow into the familiar 'leg' of
Cornwall, and arrived safely at Bodmin, where we took full advantage of the
on-site bar facility and all had bottles of 'Bud'. We met the "Beast of
Bodmin", in this case a ginger cat who we were told was 'not
friendly', and recommended a real ale pub a short taxi ride away. We persuaded
them to lend us the key to the clubhouse so that we could use the toilet, which
they kindly did, and arranged to get fuel from them in the morning. Quickly
unpacked the planes, set up
tents - Jill helping me to decipher the instructions for Robert's wonderful
little tent, then we washed and changed and got to the Blisland
Inn for 8.50pm. This was a 'real old English pub', set on a village green,
with tables set out in the sunshine and Cornish accents to the fore. The boys
dined on Bodmin Beast Burgers, and Cornish Knocker ale, Jill had salmon
fishcakes and I had rump steak in a bap. They then all
went on to Ardbeg whisky, and after some persuasion I joined
in the next round, and was surprised how easily it went down! Taxi back to the
airfield, and picked our way in semi dark with a couple of torches to our
tents.
First night ever in a tent, first night in a sleeping bag - I was
terrified of my feet getting too hot and decided to sleep just in the liner,
but then everything else got too cold, so spent most of the night gradually
edging myself bit by bit fully into the sleeping bag. I hadn't realised cows
were all so noisy, but then they all went quiet at the same time for a bit,
then started up again! I didn't get much sleep that night, but woke up to
sunshine, and was snug and warm in my bag at last, and my feet hadn't
suffocated.
We dug out extra sandwiches and munch bars for breakfast, and
debated where to go. We contemplated splitting up and one doing the Scilly
Isles, the other the Cornish Coastline, then meeting up later, but then after
measuring that it would be getting on for 200 miles to the Isle of Wight, we
decided we would all do the 'Coast' run and head directly to the Isle of Wight,
via the Eden Project near St Austell.
Wednesday 1st August
Bodmin to Sandown, Isle of Wight - Birds of a Feather stick
together - 190
miles 2h 30m
Eden
project was dramatic when it appeared, and it was lovely seeing Polperro
and Looe,
where Mike and I had been (by car) the year before on our Cornwall trip. Over
We headed across land again, while
G&J popped down to have a closer look at Torquay. Graeme decided to throw a
steep turn to try and correct a left turn on the wing, and just as he came out
of the turn, we spotted a light plane zooming towards the track that we had
just moved across from! We had both been keeping a good lookout, so he had come
from nowhere, and he waggled his wings at us as if to say 'thanks for avoiding
me!'. We proceeded to Dorchester, keeping an even more
careful lookout, and saw Chesil
beach which looked amazing from the air - I remember it was a
disappointment to walk along as I had been expecting sand, and it is all hard
pebbles. We were soon crossing the sandbanks at Poole Harbour , then skirted across the Bay to avoid
Bournmouth zone. The beaches were mobbed - all 10 miles
of them!
Down to Millford on Sea and across to the
The 4 birds stuck together for lunch,
ordering identical drinks and food, which was delicious. A chap asked us to
change a £20 note, and we heard him explaining about 'that strange Scottish
money' as his children examined the notes that Jill gave him. We eyed
with envy the shower in the loos at Sandown airfield!
We checked with Caernarfon that we could come in after hours if
required, and were told we were welcome to camp by our planes. We called
Welshpool to check we could stop there to stretch our legs, and told that the
chap would be there till about
Isle of Wight to Welshpool - Bluffing around Boscombe Down - 181 miles, 2h 25m
Jill spotted that Stonehenge lay not far off our proposed route,
so Gordon called Boscombe Down military zone to ask if we could have clearance
to do 'the tourist bit'. They agreed as long as they weren't too busy, and
suggested we call them in good time as we approached. We refuelled and set off,
and hit the only real turbulence of the entire trip over the
A rapid fire of clipped instructions were barked back, which we
couldn't follow at all, but Gordon seemed to guess they were asking if we were
transponder equipped, and replied 'negative, we have no transponders'... 'stand by', then some more instructions, which Gordon
miraculously read back as height and direction. We had no idea how he was
managing to understand him, but Graeme said 'just don't lose sight of Gordon,
we'll just follow them!' Full of admiration as Gordon seemed to be answering
instructions, I didn't dare take my eyes off their plane, as Graeme started
muttering 'I wouldn't have bothered to see Stonehenge if I'd known it would be
this much trouble'... then I realised I'd completely lost position on the map,
and had no idea where we should be heading - it wasn't easy to follow Gordon to
a small, precise spot on the ground, but we managed to put together the
landmarks, and spotted the car park full of coaches.. and
then the stones
themselves. It was good to see them from our position, watching hundreds of
dots trying to see them properly from behind wire fences, and then we were
given instructions for leaving the military zone, which again Gordon seemed to
understand but I still couldn't make out. They then instructed us to 'contact
Bristol', but Graeme wisely decided to go back to microlight frequency, and
found Gordon had done the same, so we exchanged similar expressions of horror
at Boscombe's communication skills, and decided we'd avoid contacting anyone
else unless we had to! I privately vowed never to speak to a military zone again, I found the whole episode so scary!
Gordon later confessed that he felt he had bluffed a couple
of bits, but they seemed happy with what he was telling them, and it all
sounded very professional to me!
We got back on track for Bath
Racecourse, only recognising Longleat just as we had passed it, and I thought
Graeme had accidentally changed radio channel as a very well spoken lady's
voice came over the radio "G -BA, I have some tourist information for you
- if you look to your right, you will see a chalk horse in the
hillside!" - I hadn't realised Jill had a ptt switch as well, and would
have certainly missed the horse if she hadn't said. It was a relief to hear
another friendly voice over the radio after the Boscombe Down incident! We then
headed north from there for the long haul to Welshpool, which we
did make just before the
Welshpool to Caernarfon - via Portmeirion - 61 miles 1h 5m
A spectacular
flight across
the hills in evening sunlight revised my opinion of
Not such good news on the toilet front, as we were told there was
no access to the toilet till the staff came back in at 8.30 in the morning, so
we skipped ablutions and headed straight for the caravan site bar and
restaurant, where once again we all ordered the same food - lasagne and chips.
It started pouring with rain as we were eating, so we had to stay in the pub
until it stopped (: - trying to block out the 'live entertainer' from the other
room. Jill managed to get someone to charge up her camera, and also begged
someone to give us access to the shower block tomorrow morning, which they
promised they would arrange if we came back for about
Keeping in tradition we had another nightcap of whisky, then splashed back through the puddles to our tents. I was
hoping to have rain falling on the tent and being snug inside, but the rain had
stopped by that point. I slept much better this time, more used to my little
den, and we all woke at about
Thursday 2nd August
Caernarfon to Cark, 122 miles 1h 40m.
We spoke to Valley Information as we headed up the Menai Straights,
and were warned 'you are entering a high traffic area, I would suggest you
maintain a height of 1500 feet and keep your own lookout!'.
Paid suitable homage to Richard Murphy's theatre
building near the castle, saw the Menai bridge, Great
Orme Head and Llandudno, the mass of
caravans from Colwyn bay to Rhyl then over the River Dee to cut off the end
of Birkenhead
peninsula, cross the Mersey and track up past Crosby Beach, which I
unfortunately missed as I was trying to put together the landmarks that I
remembered on the ground from visiting the Anthony Gormley's ' Another
Place' - sculptures of men on the beach. But Jill managed to spot
them, although she said they just looked like posts in the sand! I did see the
Liver buildings further down the
Past Lancaster, then over the Morecombe bay and a sober look at
the sandbanks that trapped those poor cockle pickers - there is a huge expanse
of sandbanks there - its easy to see how far from the shore you could get
trapped. We landed at Cark,
and spied another caravan site where we hoped to get lunch. However this was
the caravan site from hell - teaming with children and the 'great unwashed'.. we had to go through rooms and rooms full of clanging
slot machines to get to the cafe, and our meal took ages to come - dried up
baked potatoes and chili which looked and I am sure would have tasted like dog
poo if it hadn't had so much chili powder in it, although Jill's sandwich
looked more inviting. Ice lollies on the way out, then back
to the planes and ready for the final leg home.
Cark to East Fortune- 128 miles 1h 45m
We left Cark,
(renamed 'Cack'!) with the
I feel thoroughly spoilt that my first 'big trip' went so
smoothly - in fact I was rather hoping we would get stranded at Carnaerfon by
the weather and just have to spend more time there... but it just shows, it CAN
happen - the weather can all come together, and it can actually all go
according to plan!
When's the next one?!