Series: Round Britain Run

240 miles
3 great sights seen

The last day dawns bright and clear but cold. Breakfast at the Cumbria Park is fine standard English fare and we’re relieved to discover the car has remained unmolested in the slightly cramped car park. Our first port of call is Hadrian’s Wall and happily Birdoswald Fort is just 15 miles distant, but we have to go there and nearly back to Carlisle again as it’s a spur off our main route. It’s a nice run though and we’re soon off the main road and looping through the countryside catching glimpses of sections of the wall in various states of disrepair, most notably at the village of Gilsand where the wall lies alongside the River Irthing. Continue reading “Round Britain – Final Day”

330 miles
3 great sights seen

The Britannia Leeds Hotel is our first ‘chain’ hotel and the first hotel that is close to our £50/night budget. It seems to be pitched primarily as an overnight stop for coach passengers, (there are three in the car park), and is clean and basic if a little jaded. Although we tried to take the room + breakfast deal when we checked in, it seems that the night man didn’t manage that and we’re not on the list, requiring a quick trip back to reception and some cash in exchange for a voucher. During breakfast Stu takes exception to Eamon Holmes’ interviewing technique on Sky News and tweets a mildly derogatory comment. This gets picked up and refuted by one of Eamon/Sky’s minions and Stu is quickly embroiled in a multi-person twitter flamefest, which we find highly amusing.
Continue reading “Round Britain – Day 4”

390 miles
7 great sights seen

Morning dawned wet and grey on Dartmoor. The cooked to order breakfast goes some way to making up for this by being both excellent and plentiful. Out in front of the Inn the landlord had parked his TV-star (Darling Buds of May) Morris Minor next to our Citroen, which makes a nice picture. Our plan today is to head along the south coast as far as Dover, picking off sights as we go along. Continue reading “Round Britain – Day 3”

365 miles
7 great sights seen

Today dawned bright and clear, and it was the first time we’d seen our surroundings in daylight. The Battleaxes is situated on a nearly blind bend in a surprisingly busy country lane, so in order to take a photograph of a phone box clad in vegetation, we had to scamper across the road with alacrity. After breakfast we were keen to head off and make a start on the list of ‘great sights’. The nearest of these was the Clifton Suspension Bridge, back in Bristol.

Continue reading “Round Britain – Day 2”

200 miles covered
Zero great sights seen

Citroen were due to deliver the car ‘around 9am’ but being a French car delivered by French people on a Monday morning, no-one who was English was very hopeful of this timetable. However despite even the low expectations, time passed. And passed. And passed. At 11am we hear it’ll be arriving soon. Continue reading “Round Britain – Day 1”

Back in the early summer, a colleague (Stuart), and I were asked by a University spinoff company if we would like to take a car from Citroen on a road trip around the country in order to collect telematics data for the company. This data could then compared with the Citroen’s on-board telematics data, found to be far superior (perhaps) and much exchanging of contracts and business would thus ensue. We jumped at the chance because firstly it’s a free road trip, plus being early summer it would allow us to use the light nights to do some awesome photography in some awesome places. In addition it was a free road trip (have I said that?). Unfortunately Citroen were unable to come up with the software-enabled car at the last minute, so the whole project was shelved. Fast forward to the end of October and a couple of new cars make an appearance, and once again we are asked if we want to go. Luckily we both had a 5-day gap in our schedules, so were up for it. This is the story of that trip.