My search for Akito Desert Adventure Pants was finally successful with Dave Milling Motorcycles in Whitehaven being able to provide me a pair in short leg length ….my hero! Dave is a retired nuclear power plant operator, TT race winner and all round good guy (although he can be cheeky when it comes to ladies sizes and where to change LOL). Kitted out in my pristine new dacks …Vince was intent on making sure they got dirty as soon as possible! Our original plan for the day was to tackle the Honister Pass and the Winlatter Pass (which we ran out of time for the day before). However, Dave suggested we try a local route which took us down the coast along some nice twisty roads and then inland to Newby Bridge where we stopped off at the Lakeland Motor Museum which features Sir Malcolm and Donald Campbell’s Blue Bird. We then went through the Lake District and Fells to Little Longdale and Greater Longdale. It was scary with some of the hills being 30% gradients. To try to solve the problem of my controller for my electric vest unplugging Vince suggested I use his as it had a longer lead. I was uncertain if it would work as it was a different brand…but he insisted it would. So we set off and he asked if it was heating up…which it wasn’t so we pulled over to check only to discover it too had unplugged but had also whipped along the ground breaking the controller and wrapping it around the foot peg. I had then plugged in my original controller only to to discover with all the ups and downs of the fells it was missing completely!!!! I dismount and Vince road off looking for it…..he wasn’t happy…..I wondered if he would ever come back…..but he did having found it….it is now cable tied within an inch of its life and going nowhere!!!! Our rudimentary printed map and GPS didn’t get us onto the track that Dave had described….which is probably quite fortunate…..as we may still be stuck out there now. As it was Vince had a bit of difficulty negotiating some very steep inclines with tight switchbacks and deciding that discretion is the better part of valour, I chose to walk up a short, steep section of the fell to lighten the load. I am now officially a Fell Walker….minus the poles and in hindsight I could have taken off the helmet and jacket which made the climb a lot more difficult! It was getting dark, so again we forewent the Passes to take a direct route back to Cockermouth via Keswick.
ps – Vince has inserted a short video of riding through the Lakes District on the A595 at the bottom of this page – <a href=”https://upadventures.com/images/video”>https://upadventures.com/images/video</a> 🙂