Tiger Travels.

A few days leave brought the chance of short trip to the Lake district.  This was livened up no end by the tail end of storm Ashley which caused a fair amount of damage around the UK.  It left Cumbria's roads covered in debris.  All the roads through wooded areas were covered in thick leaf debris, the passing cars cleared wheel tracks but left a long line of slippery mess down the centre of the lane.   The plan was for a steady ride to Langdale and to spend the next day riding the Lake District's  mountain passes.  Being October the lakes were fairly quite and the traffic was very light.  In summer the lake district is choked with traffic  The first pass on the list is Wrynose, this starts in Little Langdale and runs to the Duddon valley and is closely followed by the Hardknott pass.  The road is steep with tight hairpins and on this occasion many of the bends were running in water.  The hairpins are tight and steep enough to need ...

The first weekend in October was an opportunity for a trip to North Yorkshire with an overnight stop at Grinton youth hostel. When booked the weather forecast was less than ideal however, the outlook improved, and the weekend was bright if cool.  The journey started with a trek up the A1, before turning off to go cross-country. Within a few miles the roads and scenery improved dramatically. The route passed through Otley before a coffee stop at Skipton both lovely towns but both with multiple roadwork and horrendous traffic. The cars must have been stuck for an age, but it didn't take too long to filter to past the standing traffic. Leaving Skipton on the A65 I Travelled for another few miles before heading north on minor roads passing through Bell Busk and Airton before stopping again at Settle. It looked like every biker in the north of England had had similar ideas and Settle marketplace was packed with bikes and the roads over the next few miles was similarly busy with mo...