Le Carrera Caledonia & The Yorkshire Dales

As in the previous two years I entered this great driving event. While ‘t Kreng didn’t sound very reassuring when I got her out of hibernation after the winter months, I decided to take the DHC instead this time. But when I took ‘t Kreng out for a spin, before swapping places with the DHC in the shed, she took revenge on my decision. She sounded, behaved and performed quite impeccably. I took the DHC nevertheless!

Day 1: Leaving for England

As with previous trips to Britain I took the night-time ferry from IJmuiden to Newcastle. From there I would drive down to Kelbrook to meet up with Martin Randle, my navigator for the event. And some of the other CT crews taking part in the event. With the meeting point, as usual, being the Old Stone Trough in Kelbrook. A photographic report from a driver’s point of view (well … not entirely!)

In good company, cueing to board the Princess of Norway, at the IJmuiden ferry terminal

Fishing vessel KW-34 Rosemarie (a beam trawler from Katwijk aan Zee) in the harbour of IJmuiden

The ferry terminal building seen from the Princess of Norway

The infamous Tata Steel blast furnace complex in IJmuiden, seen from the harbour mouth

Day 2: Touring the Dales

I came of the ferry in Newcastle early on the Friday morning, which gave me all day to play around in the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. The fun started just before the ford in Stanhope, were a rather large lorry turned onto the B6278 just in front of me. My first thoughts were rather unprintable! But it turned out that my worries were unfounded. As the lorry was empty and the driver clearly knew the roads very well, I made rather good progress, reaching my chosen lunch halt in the small market town of Richmond well before noon.

Lunch break at the Buck Inn in Richmond

After lunch I did my own version of the Dales Bramble, touring some of the very roads to be found in the Yorkshires Dales. The weather could have been slightly better. But luckily it remained dry all day, making for some rather good driving conditions and some nice pictures.

Just above the Surrender Bridge,

on the lonely moor road between Feetham and Arkengarthdale

Buttertubs Pass

Sowry Head

Sowry Head

View over the Ure Dale from the Cliff Gate Road near Sowry Head

After a few hours of fun in the Dales I arrived at the Old Stone Trough in Kelbrook, were most of the CT entrants for LCC would meet up.

The P&P P&S and BarBQ

Or the Pendle and Pennine Polish and Shine and BarBQ. It was (again I dare say) a good evening. With some socialising, some meat from Burnerboy’s BBQ and lots of beer. As a few pictures say so much more then my ramblings;

Paul (Burnerboy) Darbyshire enjoying himself behind the BBQ

Cueing for the BBQ

Le Carrera Caledonia

To reach the start in Gretna in time, we had to leave Kelbrook quite early. Which meant we had to skip breakfast. Together with some rather nasty weather on our way up north, this meant that our spirits could have been better when we arrived at the start in Gretna. But luckily McJim was in favour with the Caledonian Weather Gods! The sun came out and the weather remained rather nice for the rest of the weekend.

As for LCC itself. The driving again was so much fun that I forgot to stop to take some more pictures during the event. There were some rather strange folk around at the start though. And as usually there was some spannering going on during the planned breaks!

McJim, ready to flag of the teams

McHelm's TR2

Man at work and a whole lot of supervisors.

A nice variety of cars taking part

My DHC during the lunch break in Carronbridge

It was again a top event, which was over far too soon. Needless to say that the socializing in the evenings was good fun too. And there were a few memorable encounters that did stick out during the event;

The “Ossie” coach driver

On the road along the northern shore of Loch Tay we encountered a rather large coach from the (former East) German town of Dresden. It soon became clear that the driver didn’t know what his rear view mirrors were for, as he refused point blank to pull over and let the cars queuing up behind him pass. Even when he had to stop to give way to oncoming traffic, he immediately pulled back into the middle of the road.

But in the end I did manage to squeeze past him. At the lights for the (narrow) bridge over the river Tay in Kenmore to be precise. This was also the point where the Ossie coach driver (at last I dare say) found some use for his rear view mirrors. While I overtook him, when the light changed to green, he clearly saw me coming in his mirrors and tried to push me into the nearby wall. But even that he couldn’t do properly. Shame I didn’t have a Dutch flag on the antenna of the car. But at least I now fully understand why the ”West” Germans have a tendency not to like the Ossies!

Me concentrating on the driving, somewhere on the B709

The quad

A few miles after leaving the “Ossie” coach behind we turned onto the A826 in Aberfeldy. But this time it was me being chased over Glen Cochill and Sma’ Glen. Not by a car or a motorbike, but by a quad! Despite me not hanging around (...) it managed to more or less keep up with me. And when it overtook us when we had to turn left into a minor country lane, we could clearly see that it was standing on knobbly off-road tyres! The chap surely knew the road and he must have been slightly mad too!

The wildlife of Scotland

Judging by the amount off road kill scattered all over the roads, it looked as if there was still plenty of wildlife left in Scotland! But I am glad to mention that, safe for a few thousand insects that found an early end on the front of the car, I managed not to hit any other of god’s creatures. I only managed to clip a tail feather from a pheasant sitting on the side of a road (in mid corner and its tail sticking into the road of course ...) And there was this (rather stupid) sheep sleeping in the apex of a rather tight and fast left hand corner. I was surprised I didn’t find any parts of its woolly fur on the car afterwards. Luckily the sheep wasn’t hurt in the encounter!

Day 5: Heading down South

On the Monday morning, again in glorious weather, we set off for the long haul south. From Aviemore to Barnoldswick to be precise.

Lunch break in Lauder

And after a full days driving I dropped off Martin at his home, and I returned to the OST in Kelbrook. Here I stayed for a few more days, using the OST as a base to do some hiking in the Dales;

Day 6: Swaledale

The first day of walking took me on a round trip from Gunnerside along the northern slopes of the Swaledale towards Keld. And from there back along the opposite side via Muker towards the starting point in Gunnerside.

View on Muker from Ramps Holme

View from Ivelet Wood

East Stonesdale falls

Dry stone wall on Birk Hill

View over the Swaledale from Kisdon Hill

Derelict farm building on the meadows outside Muker

The bridge over the river Swale near Ivelet

Day 7: Wharfedale

The second days walking took me from Buckden into the Wharfedale. Mostly following public footpaths via Cray towards Yockenthwaite and back through Hubberholme to Buckden.

View from Buckden Rake over Hay Close and Cray

Buckden Rake

Buckden Rake

Hay Close

Farm building at Hay close

View over Wharfedale Todd’s Wood towards Buckden

Strans Wood

Yockentwaithe

The George Inn in Hubberholme

Letter box in Hubberholme

Day 8: Leaving England

And all to soon this holiday was over and I was heading towards the ferry in Newcastle. But not before a nice de-tour through the Dales. And after boarding the ferry with the English coastline disappearing on the horizon;

Birkdale Common , Yorkshire Dales

Birkdale Common , Yorkshire Dales

Birkdale Common , Yorkshire Dales

Port of Tyne

South Shields harbour

Souter Lighthouse and The Leas, seen from the Tynemouth

Day 9: Going Home

And the next morning I was greeted by a lovely sunny day when arriving back in Dutch waters.

Waiting for IJmuiden roadsteads

Entering the mouth of the North Sea Canal, IJmuiden

Edited on the 5th of June 2023: 15 Years after I set of for the 2008 edition of Club Triumph’s “Le Carrera Caledonia” it was time to freshen up the pictures I took at the time. I also added some extra pictures, including a few from a short walking break after the event. And of course the text was edited were necessary.

An in fond memory of Martin Randle († 08-06-2017) and Paul Darbyshire († 19-02-2022) who both passed away far too early. You are both sorely missed!

Tarting up for Le Carrera

As the DHC will be the car of choice for this year’s Le Carrera Caledonia I started servicing it today. After an oil + filter change, checking all fluid levels and lubricating the door hinges and the carburettor linkage it was time for more cosmetic work ...

Some 15 years ago I won a fancy wooden Nardi steering wheel, with matching gear knob, in a competition from a mayor Dutch car magazine. Even then they couldn’t supply a boss for a TR7, so I opted for one for my then daily drive, a Mini Cooper. But as I thought it didn’t look quite right in the Mini, I trial fitted it in my 1st TR7 and it was a perfect fit. Some five years later when I laid up the TR7 I removed the wheel and knob and stored them in the attic. There they lingered till today.

This wheel has a slightly smaller diameter and also a thicker rim, giving a better feel than the original item. Should be ideal for a blast through the North of England and Scotland.

Nachtrit 2007, now with the views!

As it was mother’s day and Whitsuntide today and the weather was rather sunny we decided to take out the road books from last year’s “Nachtrit’ and drive it by daylight. The idea behind it is, of course to enjoy the scenery that you won’t see in the dark. Originally we had planned to do this in the Easter weekend, but the weather didn’t cooperate then, so it was postponed till today. And as we are a rather environmental friendly bunch Rob and I teamed up, to do a spot of car pooling in his Mk1 Escort RS2000.

So no Triumph stories for me today, but they were a majority nevertheless (GT6, TR6 and Stag). And we were hardly across the border into Belgium when we encountered our biggest setback for the day. Due to a local Moto cross our route was closed, so we had to find an alternative to get back on the route behind the closure. Another problem that arose at the same time was some coolant trying desperately to escape from Roger’s GT6. Luckily it turned out to be caused by the slow start of our little tour (read loads of tourist clogging the roads) robbing his cooling system from the all important air flow. After topping up no more problems were encountered.

But as a result we lost quite a lot of time so after a late lunch and an even later beer at the midway halt in Büllingen we decided to head home from there. As we didn’t fancy driving all the way back over the motorway this turned out to be probably the best bit of the day.

As Ron (TR6) and Leon (Stag) decided on the larger through roads, the GT6 and Escort were left behind to play. As Roger was leading the way now, I was relieved from my navigating duties, enabling me to take a few snap shots;

In the forests of the Hautes Fagnes.

Rob concentrating on the driving (or in full attack mode).

Escort chasing GT6 on a typical country lane near La Clouse.

More GT6 chasing on the hill climb near Teuven.

Oh, completely forgot about the views, we went out to enjoy the scenery.

Well Rob and Roger look like they did enjoy the driving!

All in all it was a rather enjoyable motoring day!

Found a water pump today ...

Somewhere early this year I started on reconditioning the water pump that I took out of ‘t Kreng in late summer last year. After I had the impeller’s seal mating face machined on a lathe I put the impeller in an oil filled tin to get rid of the last bits of rust. After that I forgot all about it until early this week.

In a fit of spring fever I decided it a good idea to clean up a bit. That’s when I found all the bits back. I decided to put the pump back together so I could store it in the attic with the rest of the TR7’s spare parts. So after everything was cleaned thoroughly, it was just a matter of putting everything back in place in the correct order;

For the anoraks; the water thrower and oil seal have changed places in this picture 😉

First thing to go back on the pumps shaft was the oil thrower and bearing. As I don’t have the special tools required to do this job I used the drill column’s platform and a copper hammer instead;

If you have the correct tools putting the circlip in place is rather easy. Just make sure you don’t open up the circlip to far, otherwise it may lose its strength;

After that it was easy to put the oil seal and water thrower on the shaft. I only forget that it would be a far better idea to first put the brass “cage” over the bearing. Luckily the water thrower came off without problems!

The brass cage proved to be quite a challenge to put back on without damaging anything. Problem was that I couldn’t find anything to support it properly. In the end I put it in the vice and, with a drift on the bearing's outer ring, tapped the bearing gently into the cage. With that job done, putting the rest of the pump together was easy;

Have made a mental note to make a special tool in the near future to dismantle and reassemble these pumps. Should make life quite a bit easier.