Well - its not very often you get one world class sporting event happening in my part of the world - never mind two , and on the same day ……..!!!
Needless to say I went to neither :)
Instead I opted for a trip out in The Dales to watch the bi annual reliability trails for pre 1964 motorcycles , over the wonderful , sun drenched hills and valleys .
I don’t know what it is about this event but its always as I said - warm and sunny , even on the top of the moors , which are so high no trees seem to grow , and a brief stop at a place called Stanhope Ford for an ice cream sets the leisurely pace for the day .
We were early - so took a trip out along a single track road , passing a hoard of model aeroplane enthusiasts flying their planes off the edge as we did so. I’d personally never been along this particular road before which just wound off into the hills , and half expected it to just stop as roads tend to in this part of the world , but eventually we came across a long line of large stone built towers , some ruined , some still
there - stretching off in to the distance .
Now I’m guessing this was an aerial bucket way of some kind , from all the old mines in the area which had lain disused for many , many years , and I looked for any trace of it on the mapping system at work the next day , but there was nothing shown , and the aerial photography from 1940 was unfortunately obscured.
I then noticed all the strange names on the map around that area - like – Dead Friars Bank , Old Man’s Grave , Horseshoe Plain and Tongue - sounds like the twilight zone - which probably explains quiet a lot :)
Well , and as for the main event of the day - this usually entails sitting down on a hillside among the heather on a warm afternoon watching the bikes roll by , beats marathons and cricket - world class or not – hands down :)
