Upnarth - Monday, a 9-5 tribute to Dolly

Hugo leaves us before we leave Snads. Five hours later he reaches home.

Steve, Ray and I depart (9am). We are in a tight schedule as Ray needs to catch the ferry to be back in time for a family reunion.

We stop to admire the statue of Alice Nutter, the last witch to be hanged in Britain. 

Apparently one of her last descendants lived in Barnoldswick. She used to wash her windows at night while stark naked. Her dog roamed the streets shitting everywhere. When the local council said the dog needed to be on a leash, she obediently attached one. Without a human in the loop the dog no doubt continued to shit indiscriminately! 🤣

No more stops except to empty our tanks. Steve sets a blistering pace on the damp roads, but it's hard not to ignore the magnificent Yorkshire Dales. The roads are awesome and there's not much traffic despite being a bank holiday long weekend.

We arrive at Devils Bridge by 11am, where we say goodbye to Ray. It's a popular bikers stop and there are many other bikes parked up. We have a coffee while there.

I resist the urge to jump.

Then we wend our way though the Dales, but this time stopping more often to take pictures.

We stop for a spot of lunch at the Wensleydale Creamery, where I order a 'South Canadiano coffee' to go with my cheese roll, but my humour is lost on the young server, no fault of theirs. 

Steve has a cheese scone

After that we go cheese tasting, sampling the various cheeses for sale. I manage to leave with an arm full of goodies.

Then more great views.

We reach a series of gates, where we have to stop, open, ride through, and close the gate, each time. Just after the last one I set the bike on its stand so I can close the gate, but I left it in neutral. It doesn't rolls forward, off the stand, and topples over... 🤦🏽 Rookie mistake. 

The gear lever is broken. 

Luckily nothing else is damaged. I ride the next 10km or so, trying change gear, but the sharp edge is damaging my boot and it's especially difficult to change up a gear. We stop and I do a makeshift repair with a scrap of duct tape and a short piece of twig. Surprisingly it makes enough of a difference to allow me to change gear more easily. 👏🏽

Steve asks if we should cut the day short, but I'm good to go. My F800 engine is flexible enough to just about pull away in 3rd gear, which can also reach motorway speeds. But on the longer straights I snick it into 4th. We carry on for about an hour continuing to make good progress.

As soon as we get back (5pm) I set to work fashioning a replacement gear lever, rummaging around in Steve's garage for bits. 

Initially I thought of attaching a small 90 degree angle bracket, but in the end decide that it's simpler just to drill a single hole a fix a bolt in place, then wrap it in duct tape. It's a method I've used before and it works well. Steve has the tools and bolts, so job done. I'm sure that will last for months.

262km today. Almost spoilt by gravity. But we resisted.