Sunday 8 September 2013

What the hell are we doing in Derbyshire?

Having a pretty amazing time, that's what.
So are you sitting comfortably? Good, than I shall explain.

As mentioned last time, given the difficulties we were having with the bikes temperature, and also that I couldn't fit the GPS mount the way I intended to, I thought I would put my Ulysses club membership to good use and ask for assistance from the GB Branch. Well one email led to another and just as the London weather got normal again, ie drizzly rain, we found ourselves heading north along the M1 to visit the Ulysses GB Secretary Steve (Stephanie) and her husband Gray.

After an afternoon of both motorway and windey village roads a little reminiscent of the Robertson/Moss Vale area, we arrived wet, tired and wind blown in this hamlet of Wensley and have spent today hanging out with them. As an excuse, Im still tweaking with our gear set up and Janelle has developed a sniffle which makes us a little careful about heading straight over to Europe immediately. If it's going to get worse, much better that we're still in a place they understand us. Having said that, we've booked an overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium for a Monday night crossing.

So this morning we went for a ride into the nearby town of Matlock for some top box mount modification bits, and then this afternoon our wonderful hosts took us for a ride through the most amazing little English villages. Words can't really describe it, so we have taken a fair bit of video, which Ive posted a little snippet of below.  Couple of things to say about this vid, a) clearly we've managed to mount the vid on the bike, b) unfortunately it's sideways, hence the portrait aspect. Oh, and c) the sound is crap.Sorry about that, very little I can do about it.

We also took a trip map on the GPS which I've added as a separate post because it needs to be HTML to work properly.  The attached (rather annoying) graph is able to be closed immediately if you want, and it shows out speed etc.  It averages at 17 mph but includes 2 stops. Yes miles. Everything is in miles.  Im slowly getting used to it.  You can zoom out to see exactly where we are in UK.

Anyway, we're off tomorrow morning, and plan on dropping by Sherwood Forest to play Robin Hood for lunch, then onto Hull to find our Ferry.

I must say the biggest possible thank you to Ulysses GB and especially Steve and Gray for the amazing hospitality, assistance, advice and just about everything else.  You guys are gold!

So assuming everything has worked properly, below is a vid of the ride back into Wensley and a map of our little jaunt today.

Till next time.

T & J.

Ride into Wensley

What the hell are we doing in Derbyshire?

Riding... what else!



Peak District meanderings