Sunday 20th November '16
I have titled this number 3 although the last actual walk was titled number 1. Back in January 2013, I walked the first part with Gimmer - see post here CLICK, so today's effort is actually the third section walked.
After several days of bad weather and being messed about with the repair to Yeti expecting it to be ready on a daily basis from last Saturday I was suffering acute cabin fever on Sunday, so I was off and away. I am still waiting to hear about Yeti as I write this on Monday morning; I dread to think what the cost of the EGR valve replacement is going to come to - it seems they have to dismantle many parts of the engine to get to it.
I have a basic 1.6 diesel Skoda Rapid courtesy car, and I have to say it is quite impressive with acceleration better than Yeti, and with truly sporty direct steering - I am back in boy-racer mode.
Weather forecasts have been remarkably accurate for more than a year now, but today rain forecast from 2:00pm onwards never arrived and I had blue sky and sunshine all the way, but the predominant ingredient was mud featuring squelchy paths through woods and waterlogged fields, but I am proud to say that my feet were still dry at the end even though I was only wearing trail shoes.
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| Click to enlarge - Wyre Way from north to south in green first, and return route in purple. The Wyre Way in green continues north and south before and after my start and finish today |
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| The Wyre looking north from Street Bridge at the start of this walk |
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| These two were threatening each other energetically without actually coming to blows, the guy in the background was moving int to see what all the fuss was about - better than watching tele? |
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| I was off route here - this dump, come scrapyard, come gravel extraction site was about four times bigger than the area seen here. I managed to avoid the barking dogs and eventually found the hidden footpath sign and stile leading into an adjacent feild |
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| One of two M6 crossings. You will see from the map that I was never far away from the motorway and I could hear the roar throughout the whole of the walk |
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From the M6 bridge with snow covered Bowland Hills.
At about 70m above sea level this was probably as far as I got in terms of "going high" |
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Out of Scorton.
The WW folows this road for a couple of kilometres, but just by the distant tree a raised footpath on banking above the river has been constructed as a Milennium project making for pleasant walking despite the road. |
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| Zoom - Nicky Nook - a popular walk ascends this little fell from Scorton - we did it many times when living in Preston - great views |
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| Water pipe bridge (1927) over the Wyre near Garstang - carries water from Barnacre Reservoir to Blackpool - there is a similar one crossing the Lancaster canal a kilometre or so to the west. The unique architecture seems to be out of place in these surroundings |
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| What can you say? |
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| Grizedale Fell |
Lots of failed egr on the skoda forums. It seems a pretty easy job to replace and parts seem readily available. Cannot understand why yours is taking so long.
ReplyDeleteJohn Betjeman, in outdoor aesthetic mode, observed way way back: It is almost impossible to build an ugly bridge but those who have designed bridges for the (then) almost new motorways have managed it. You may be moving towards that which I envisage as your ultimate destiny: a subscription to The Spectator. Once I had a subscription which may surprise you; you will be less surprised when I tell you Dad bought it for me.
ReplyDeleteRR - you are lucky - he never bought me anything. Oh! now I remember, I was given a silver mounted hare's paw with my name and date of "the kill" inscribed arising from his strange enthusiasm for chasing those poor animals across the countryside. In retrospect it was probably the kudos of being secretary of the Airedale Beagles and hobnobbing with other prosperous and influential business people that was the attraction.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have yet become a rabid tory, but I'm perhaps not as far to the left as you, (always a fence sitter).
Alan Rayner - Just picked up the Yeti this morning. The total bill was £778.48. Because my Yetis is a 4 x 4 they have to remove the sub frame to access the EGR. They told me they have spent about 15 hours on the job but only charged me £325 + VAT for labour. The EGR was £274.62 less 5% because I have a service plan with them, and the rest is in other bits and bats after 5% discount. The length of time taken has been due to work overload in the workshop so my job has been done on and off. The mechanic came in specially on Saturday morning to finish the job off, but found he couldn't lift the sub frame on his own.
ReplyDeleteMy God. 15 hours! In a modern dealership with ramps, jacks, air tools etc that sounds outrageous to me. Just checked out your egr price and for a dealership it's expensive but not ridiculously so. I would have loved to watch how they did it because if I couldn't do it in an 8 hours shift I would be very surprised. I think the designers located it in a stupid position and considering how many fail I am surprised they have not made some sort of compensation.
ReplyDeleteHow many miles on the Yeti if you don't mind me asking Conrad?
ReplyDeleteAR - I suppose they realise that this is not reasonable, hence their much reduced labour cost. I agree with you about the stupidity of the design.
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Afoot - hi Gibson. The Yeti has just done 68000 miles. It will be 7 years old next April.
My Apple iMac has just packed up. The graphics card has stopped working. I might have the know how to fix an egr but I don't have the knowledge to repair a graphics card that is no longer available. Apple won't fix it because it's older than 6 years old. An Apple approved repairer will repair it for £300. Luckily I found a man who can for £145. New cards are very scarce and none in the UK, it's laughable. To replace my iMac would be close to £2000! Gutted.
ReplyDeleteAlan R. - Sorry to hear about that.
ReplyDeleteMy iMac is also about 7 years old so I'm keeping my fingers crossed - I can't afford another large bill at the moment on top of the car thing. I am still running on OSX Yosemite - did you upgrade to Sierra? I was too frightened to do so after hearing many horror stories.
Yes I do. No problems occurred until the graphics card quit. Maybe this upgrade pushed the card over the edge. Just a guess.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that ERGs can fail around this mileage. Dual Mass Flywheels and Diesel Particulate Filters are all costly to replace so I doubt we'll keep our Yeti much beyond the four year mark.
ReplyDeletei'm curious about how and why the references to The Spectator appeared in a comment about your Wyre Way walk post , in which I can divine no content remotely, specifically or reasonably related to that a 'typical' Spectator subscriber might have made - and which therefore might have identified you as a 'sceptical observer of public affairs with a libertarian stamp': can you enlighten me - and us? Not that you weren't that already, of course, but not related to this post.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the Yeti costs - think of it as being less than the depreciation on the new one you didn't buy.
Gimmer -I too was puzzled, except that I think Betjeman was a contributor to the Spectator as well as being an Establishment figure. Maybe RR will enlighten us? I don't see commenting on the architecture of a bridge would indicate leanings to the right.
ReplyDeleteI'm amused by that definition of a Spectator reader; I take it wasn't also meant to apply to the magazine's former editors. In fact the allusion (to the subscription) was meant to be half-complimentary, a natural eventuality for someone whose harrumphing tendencies seemed to be growing by the month. The natural forum for harrumphers was for many years the Telegraph but in recent months (judging from its main headline which I note as a I pick up a certain wishy-washy pinko scruff-sheet which shall remain nameless) it seems to have adopted a quite honest, entirely commendable sense of confusion. That leaves the quite unconfused Daily Mail and you are, after all, my brother and I wouldn't have wished that on you. Hence a subscription to The Spectator which I would characterise as a publication which supports views I don't necessarily share but which is redeemed in part by its encouragement of good writing.
ReplyDeleteJB had a column in The Spectator back in the fifties and it was there he expressed that view of motorway bridges. But that fact is coincidental.