A window in the weather......

.......gave us the opportunity to set forth in 'Nellie' for another drive and picnic.

The forecast was good, just for the one day of course, because tomorrow and indeed for the next few days it's scheduled to be raining again. So, with temperatures expected to rocket to a searing 17 degrees ( I am being cynical!!!) we set off.

Quick stop in Great Eccleston to pick up the pies and goujons for our picnic.

Our target for today was Gordale Scar near Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, a place that I last visited with my family about 54 years ago. 

Coffee stop en route.

Gordale Scar is a dramatic limestone ravine 1 mile or 1.5 km northeast of Malham^. It contains two waterfalls and has overhanging limestone cliffs over 100 metres high. The gorge could have been formed by water from melting glaciers or a cavern collapse. The stream flowing through the scar is Gordale Beck, which on leaving the gorge flows over Janet's Foss before joining Malham Beck two miles downstream to form the River Aire.

Malham

Malham Beck.

The route was M55, M6 briefly thank goodness, the A59 to Skipton and then left on the Settle/Kendal road for a short distance before heading up into the hills at Gargrave. Beautiful scenery on what, at that moment, was one of those blue and white days, white puffy clouds scudding across a glorious blue sky.

Picnic in the car park!

Sadly, it didn't last, it rarely does in the UK and darker clouds stated to thicken, threatening showers.

The path up the gorge

The Scar with the lower waterfall just visible in the centre

Anyway, the day was dry for the most part although we did have a light shower on the way home and it was obvious, as we passed through Bentham that we had been fortunate in missing some heavy rain by the size of the puddles at the side of the road and the amount of spray that was being generated by approaching vehicles. Sadly this means that the Morgan is going to need a good clean!

Not really my 'cup of tea'!!

The journey home through some gorgeous scenery

I just love Norfolk!!

We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Norfolk, a county I have been visiting since 1954 when I was 'knee high to a grasshopper'!

Our accommodation for 9 days was in Neatishead, just a few miles from Wroxham, at the centre of Broadland.

The photographs tell the story.

 

Neatishead

Neatishead Staithe

A Blue Tit having breakfast, taken during my early stroll down a Norfolk country lane.

Sailing on Barton Broad, where Nelson learned to sail.

Great Crested Grebe

Ardfen Broad, landlocked broad north of Horning.

The walk back from Ardfen.

The sailing wherries, 'Olive', 'White Moth' and 'Hathor' at Horning

Coltishall

The view from the top of St.Helen's churchtower, Ranworth. 89 precarious spiral steps, two vertical ladders and a very heavy trapdoor at the top.....but worth the effort.

Pulls Ferry on the River Yare at Norwich, Norwich Cathedral and Norwich Castle

The first of our Day Boats moored at Horning.

Picnic on board.

Happisburgh, pronounced 'Haysbru'.......Church, the Lighthouse and the coastline with a half-hearted attempt at sea defences. Many houses have been lost to the sea and the erosion is continuing.

These two charming young chaps had hired 'Woodcut 2' from Hunter's boatyard for 4 days. They were sleeping onboard under a tent supported by the boom and were, when we spoke to them, searching for their towel as they were about to take showers at the facilities provided at the National Trust site at Horsey Windpump.......classic Arthur Ransome stuff!!!!

Hunter's boatyard at Ludham. The yachts at the yard are as they were in the 30's, no electricity, paraffin lamps and gas for cooking.

Approaching Barton Broad in our second Day Boat

Superb sailing on a very breezy day on Barton Broad.

Lunch at Barton Turf.

Sadly a little blurred, but you've got to be extremely fast to photgraph a Kingfisher and I was steering the boat at the same time.

The 'Ferry Inn' at Horning.

This is a shot of Cockshoot dyke taken on our lovely walk to Cockshoot Broad, private and a wildlife sanctuary.

........and finally, a collage of some of my other photographs of our holiday, not in the Morgan on this occasion, but the weather forecast is looking good for later this week so we will be off in the Mog for another picnic.

Lakeland Trip

The weather forecast was sensational, Lancashire basking in sun all day and temperatures up to 29C.

What does a Morgan chap do on a day like this? He gets the top and sidescreens off and goes for a spin, that's what!

Garstang High Street

We had some business to do at our new bank in the delightful market town of Garstang and another visit had to be made to the National Trust property of Sizergh Castle to pick up another official parking pass for the Morgan.

Parked at Sizergh Castle

Both these calls were on the route to the Lake District so it was a 'no brainer', a picnic in the Lakes!

I was delighted, because I must admit that I love to have a specific target in mind when driving the Mog, rather than just driving around aimlessly.

'The Mason's Arms', where, just a week earlier, we had enjoyed a wonderful meal with two of our very best friends.

The route I chose was via the Lyth Valley, famed for its damsons in season, then a tiny road, just wide enough for the Morgan, towards Bowland Bridge. Slower than the main roads but utterly delightful, scenically beautiful and we hardly met another car.

Beautiful South Lakeland scenery.

The morning was glorious until we approached Windermere at around noon, when the cloud started to appear, not just over Cumbria, for looking south it was obvious that the Fylde coast of Lancashire was also cowering under leaden skies.

Above Windermere with Gummers How on the right and the Langdale Pikes in the extreme distance

It was very warm though, at least the Met Office got that bit of their forecast correct, but it is so much nicer in the sun....ah well, such is life!

Overlooking Lakeside and the southern end of Windermere, a lake that was the scene of many of my yachting escapades.

As is our wont, we drove around trying to find the ideal picnic spot ie. no people, peace and quiet, a fabulous view and level ground on which to have our picnic. We failed miserably and ended up behind a wall, marking the boundary of High Newton Reservoir in the Southern Lakes with a view that was quite ordinary by Lakeland standards.

Your hero!!!!

But at least it was peaceful and we read the morning paper, ate our delicious chicken goujons and egg butties, washed down by a glass of Chilean Merlot.

Homeward bound we saw a band of blue sky directly above our home and as I put the Morgan back into it's garage the garden was bathed in sunshine and I was 'sweating buckets'.

The moral of this story is, don't place too much emphasis on the weather forecast!

"Oh I do like to be.....

.....beside the seaside!"

We have recently returned from another visit to Whitstable in Kent where we thoroughly enjoyed a few days with our eldest daughter and her family. Living as I do by the seaside and with strong family links to Devonian fishing stock, I think the sea and water is in my blood and I love to be near it, so the prospect of some time on the Kent coast appealed very much.

The seafront

Whitstable is a working port so there is always plenty of activity to watch and it is renowned for its oyster fishery. The harbour area attracts hundreds of visitors especially at weekends who come to sample the seafood as well as to soak up the atmosphere of the place....and Whitstable certainly has atmosphere.

Whitstable harbour

As I walked in the quiet streets, early in the morning, I was approached by two locals on different days, asking why people came to the town and what attracted them to it. In describing what I found appealing about the place, the working port, the architecture, the lovely flint pebbled beaches and the shabby chic, if not downright shabby, appearance of the town in places, we jointly decided that, from their point of view, it was possibly a case of, familiarity breeds contempt.

But the fact is, that it is a funny old place, without the sophistication of perhaps a Devon or Cornwall seaside town but with the enduring appeal of an historic, honest working town.

Whitstable High Street

Another notable fact is that it has one of the longest High Streets in the country populated almost exclusively by independent traders, no Superstores in the immediate vicinity, so an absolute delight.

Your hero 'crabbing' with two of his grandsons (the crabs kept dropping off!)

Staying in an extended fisherman's terraced cottage in the centre of town, we were ideally situated just five minutes from the High Street and the harbour.

Flying paper planes on the beach.

It was a lovely holiday and we're looking forward to visiting the place again, it does have an irresistable appeal.

'The Street'. a feature that appears on the shoreline at low tide.

Incidentally, we didn't travel in the Morgan on this occasion but in our newly acquired Volvo V70 which performed beautifully and despite its powerful, gorgeous 5 cylinder175 bhp diesel engine returned 50 mpg, calculated by me and not taken from the onboard computer reading. The big Volvos are very economical and this performance compares very favourably with our previous V70.

PS Make sure that you read Graham Tapper's story about his latest journey in his 4/4 through France to Italy on his blog 'Morgan travels with Graham and Helen' moggo-blog.blogspot.co.uk, lovely photographs and a great story.

Cheeky chap!!!

In recent correspondence, my learned friend who enjoyed his recent drive in a 4/4 at the factory and who was the subject of my prevoius post, questioned my long-held opinion that a spare wheel should be supplied on all Morgans instead of the silly puncture repair kit that is provided and which necessitates the costly replacement of the punctured tyre.

The paragraph in his letter that referred to this matter is as follows:-

  "......I would like to see an update on your bizarre idea that Morgans should have a full spare wheel. To wit: exactly how many punctures have you had in all your years of ownership? And how many Morgan owners, not known to be life's spring chickens, could actually change the wheel? Might it not be better to use the spare wheel space to store something useful? A defibrilator?"

On the basis that there is perhaps some truth in his comments, I do not intend to respond....cheeky devil!!!

Another Morgan Experience.

An old friend of ours has once again enjoyed a Morgan Experience at the factory, but this time in a 4/4.
There follows his account of the event.......


.........."I have been out Morganeering again, so this morning I peeked at your blog.
Good lord Chris.
Seems you are spending much time trying to avoid the clutches of the grim reaper!

This year my boss Mark gave me a Virgin voucher for a balloon flight over the Peak District.

It didn't take me long to exchange the voucher for another run in a Morgan at Malvern.

This time a red 4/4 - brand new - with the Ford Sigma 1.6 engine. Please see pics. First pic (green car) points up how much better a Morgan looks than the fast-depreciating tin boxes pictured behind. More importantly it shows how hard the rain was bucketing during my one-hour trundle. I was quite happy about this as I have often worried about your tale, Gleave, of wrapping your leg in a towel in wet weather and I wondered if all Morgans suffer ...

The Looks - I would not have chosen red - but on this car with the black wheels and chrome spinners I have to say the colour looks rather natty. I like the over-riders too - they suit the super-slim 4/4 body. Rear hi-level brake light still looks most odd. Bonnet strap detracts from the cars best feature - the long louvred bonnet. Tsk tsk - like putting a nose ring on Audrey Hepburn. Full marks though for the "correct" round door mirrors. I have noticed over the years that many fine sports cars (notably MX-5) retain a slight girly image. Mercedes SLK too. What I mean is that a man driving those cars doesn't always look quite right. I don't know why. But with even this slimmest of Morgans (they are very small cars), there is nothing pansy looking about a man behind the wheel. And also (the school secretary when I was a boy had a Morgan) a woman behind the wheel of a Morgan looks absolutely right too. Though you don't see that often enough.

Features - heated seats - love them! Though I can sense your lip curling Chris "because they didn't have them in 1930". No Chris, they didn't have heated seats in 1930. They had diptheria and rickets and cold bottoms. Heated seats, like antibiotics, are a godsend I assure you. If it were a toss-up I would rather have heated seats in a Morgan than a steering wheel. That way I could keep warm - admittedly while not really going anywhere. Also a heated windscreen. Worryingly - "it might have a loose wire" - this was not working even though the car only had 1,300 miles on the clock. Leather quality, fit & finish all a great improvement over the 1986 model I last hired. The binnacle dial directly in front, through the steering wheel, is the rev counter. The speedo is way over to my left on the passenger side. So the passenger can report back what speed you are doing, I suppose. Make up your own mind on that one. I was told this arrangement is reversed on the Plus 4 "because it has a different ECU". Huh? Steering wheel was a thin wooden affair with drilled metal spokes. Looked the business but very uncomfortable to hold - cold and too thin (I have hands like spades) I would much rather something thick & leathery. The handbrake I would like to claim is further away than in earlier models. But in truth as I get older it just seems more of a stretch. Getting in & out of the car with the roof up is most inelegant. I regarded it as a triumph when I managed to emerge without putting my hand on the road. Followed by a little stagger along the pavement as I tried to straighten back up.

This was the demonstration car.

Performance - I am told this does 0-60 in around 8 seconds. It was peppy enough and remarkably is supposed to give 50mpg. On paper the performance is not much down on the Plus 4. I could  live with this little engine, I think. Just. It endeared itself to me by starting without any churning AT ALL. The very moment I turned the key the engine started running. I have never experienced that before in any car. The engine though is typical of other Fords I have driven, in that their engineers always strive for a linear power delivery - it pulls with the same strength throughout the rev range (ok to 6,000rpm). I don't know why Ford do this - its was the same in a 2.5 litre Mondeo I had - very smooth put there is no point in the rev range where the power kicks in. In most cars you learn at which rpm you will get most boost, and select the gear to get that point for overtaking. But in this thing, no. I would guess that the torque curve looks very flat throughout. Sad face.

Ride. Jolly good. All felt solid & well built. Relative to the 3 wheeler the ride was very smooth, comfortable. Exhaust boomy under hard acceleration. Not raspy, or rorty, or howling. Just boomy. MX-5 gearbox could not be bettered.

The Rain. Aha. A pleasant surprise. Very heavy rain on test. Nothing coming in to the footwells at all. Only slight spots coming through the tops on the windows, but only on one side depending on which way the sideways rain was attacking the car. Nothing to worry about. Impressed that the easy-up hood allowed nothing through its seal. Less impressed with the 3 wipers, which struggled.

Sum up. A time machine, but not just back in time. It warps time. This is still the only car in the world where a one hour journey passes in 10 minutes."

He finishes his letter by describing me as 'a decrepit old git'!!!  Fair comment I suppose!

A 'right picnic' at Donington and a proper picnic with the Morgan!

Some weeks ago we were looking forward to a week on the Norfolk Broads with a couple of friends on a 42 foot motor cruiser. Sadly this was not to be!

Helen and myself only reached the Donington Service area on the A50, about half way to meeting up with our friends in Thetford for the night, prior to taking over the boat.

We had stopped for a comfort break and the next thing I knew, I was underneath the right hand urinal in the Service's loos with a concerned lorry driver encouraging me to get up and live!
What a way for a man of my calibre to go!!!!

Anyway, to cut a very long story short, I ended up in the Royal Derby Hospital, where I spent two nights, having blood tests and scans that revealed a pulmonary embolism and a couple of other non life threatening issues.

The reason for my collapse has been referred to as postural change and micturition, which to the uninitiated means sitting down too long in a car and then peeing. Apparently it is quite common amongst old gits like me and as a result I am now going to be a slow laner and stop for a walk around every hour on long journeys.

As I bruised my coccyx when I collapsed it has meant that sadly, lowering myself into the Morgan's cockpit was out of the question for what has been weeks.....but today I managed it!

Morecambe Bay and Heysham Nuclear Power Station in the distance on the right

The prospect of a lovely day today encouraged us to once again drive into the Trough of Bowland where we spent two or three hours on the Duke of Westminster's estate, with a very pleasant Sicilian White and other 'goodies'.

The open road beckons.

As you will notice in the photographs we were sitting by a small tributary of the River Wyre, the gorse was in bloom, Marsh Marigolds bordered the river and we spotted a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail and a good number of Lapwings, supposedly an endangered species, but thankfully not here. Not a bad way to spend a few hours, but you know, it ain't Summer yet in the UK, especially in the north, there was still a sneaky breeze which was very noticeable when the sun disappeared behind a cloud and amazingly, we noticed that many of the trees were still only just in bud.

Coffee at our first stop.

Let's hope that the effects of 'El Nino' will not be too severe and we can enjoy many more sorties in the Morgan.

A very pleasant Sicilian White in a lovely spot.

Incidentally, another vehicle has joined the Morgan in the garage, a 2009 Volvo V70 2.4D SE LUX to replace our ageing 2002 V70 with 134000 on the clock. The new one has a lot to live up to though, but I must say that after 12 years, the acquisition of another car has been quite therapeutic.......

.......and another thing while I think about it!

All my readers know that I have been highly critical of 'Top Gear' and was hoping that I would enjoy 'The Classic Car Show' on Channel 5..... Well I don't!..... It is too precious by half, with presenters almost as annoying as those on 'Top Gear'. Who is interested in Jodie Kidd driving down Route 66 in a Camaro and Bruno Senna charging around the Mercedes Test Track at Brooklands etc.,etc.,etc. Obviously some people might be, but I am not.

I am interested in vintage and post vintage classics. Cars that ordinary people owned, expensive or otherwise, such as, Morris, Riley, Lagonda, MG, Morgan, Vauxhall, Ford, Bentley and Austin, plus other fascinating marques, a subject that could fill a TV series ten times over... why does it have to be all about speed and supercars?

God help us if Jodie Kidd fronts the proposed new 'Top Gear'!!!!!!