Uk summer 2024 Landcrab 60th, Gaydon, Brackley, Bletchley, Warwick , Cirencester, Mundesly , Bressingham

 

The weather varied between nippy and tropical, but it was another great roadtrip of the Mid-East of the UK. We took the Wolseley to the 60th birthday celebrations of the Landcrab at Gaydon, explored the Cotscwolds, Warwick, Cirencester, Peak District and Norfolk.   

See all photos here

Bletchley park

The Cotswolds

Warwick

Cirencester

Great British Car Journey

Crich Tramway museum

Mundesley Norfolk

Thursford

Bressingham

2007 trip to Queensland video re-edited

 

 

In 2007 we traveled to Queensland and made a roundtrip, driving paved and unpaved roads. Visiting places like Cairns, Cooktown, Cape Tribulation, Chilligoe, Dimbulah. Laura, Etty Bay, Irvinebank and Kuranda

Australia outback roads highlights re-edited video (2005)

I re-edited some video highlights of our 2005 trip to Australia. Amazing nature and beautiful desert and tropical forest tracks. It was an unforgettable adventure.

 

 

Australian Landcrab meeting video (2005)

 

In 2005 we made a trip to Australia. There we attended a meeting of the Australian Landcrab club. Here's a re-edit of the video I made back then.

An old and dusty story

They were rattling along on a trail in some forgotten part of the country in a pickup truck without air conditioning. It was dry and hot. Desolate and dusty. Before turning off the tarmac they had driven for hours on straight roads, where the few lorries they encountered appeared as flying mirages in the distance and the low hills created the impression the road had melted and curled up slightly .  The distances were something else too: That mirage could easily be ten miles away. It took a long time for landmarks to drift past.  His companions called the tarmac “ Black top”.  The black top was extremely wide, about the size of a major motorway at home.  Four wide lanes to nowhere. No median barrier. If you wanted to make a u-turn, you just did it. If you felt like a stop, you just stopped.  They called it a “farm road”, but it could take a landing Jumbo jet without stopping traffic. Once in a while they saw a farmhouse.  Nothing much else. Cruising along at 75 the old truck rocked  softly. Every driver in an oncoming vehicle waved. The heat made him drowsy, but he kept looking out through the cracked and dusty windscreen. Here they called it a wind “ shield”. To some the landscape might seem boring, but he found it mesmerizing. 

At first they had seen large whitewashed silo's. Landmarks in the distance. They'd passed a silo about every half hour for a while, with a few houses clustered around it. The silos were mostly empty and the houses abandoned. Now they saw no silo's. Just a plain dry valley hemmed in by far away mountains.  Distorting all sense of distance.  What looked like tufts of grass were actually shrubby trees in the distance. No more houses.  

Willie was driving the old truck. Willie  was a wiry little guy wearing a big old black hat and a brushy short beard. He even wore black cowboy boots and a big shiny belt buckle.  The buckle had come free with some cheap beer, but it looked convincing. It even had a bottle opener attached.  Willie never used it though.  His plastic spring water bottle had a red screw top.

The track was not bad. Someone had made a good job of grading it fairly recently, so there was not so much washboarding. Just enough to make the rear axle tramp away slightly. Willie had told them he'd found this place in the desert filled with old cars. Willie 'd said there were some interesting cars amongst the usual Chevies and Fords.  Even the Fords would be interesting though. Willie liked Fords. The truck they were in now was a Ford too. Willie knew all about them.

He was wedged in between Willie and Mo. Mo was big and dirty looking with his tattoos and black Mohawk hair, but actually he was a sensitive guy. Mo didn't like Fords and he was always complaining about Willies truck. His mum always called him Mortimer. But Mo thought the name Mortimer sounded too prissy.  Willie thought Mo was a prissy anyway, but still they were old friends. Mo liked Jeeps and said they were stupid to go out here in Willie's  two wheel drive Ford with that dumb “Twin Traction Beam” excuse for an independent front suspension.  They should have taken Mo's four wheel drive Jeep truck with proper solid axles and thirty-five inch high clearance tires! But Mo's truck hadn't run for a while  as Mo couldn't get the new carburettor to work.  Willie and Mo were always bickering about their trucks, but they were fast friends and Willie even helped Mo fixing his truck. Even Willie couldn't get that carb fixed. Mo didn' t really need the truck anyway as he drove a Prius to work. Willie  always drove his Ford. The Jeep just stood in Mo's drive and every day when Mo saw it he was proud to own such a glorious chunk of American steel! 

It was noon when they arrived at the gate. There was a big sign “No trespassing”  but Willie said he knew the owner, so they'd be all right.  The sign was accentuated with bullet holes. Willie said the holes were old as the owner never came to the place anyway so they got out of the car and opened the gate.  There was a chain on the gate, but the chain had rusted through. 

Just as they were walking through the gate they heard a truck drive down the track, so they waited. To see who was coming. When the dust cleared they saw an old dodge D100 lumbering up to them.  

There was a rifle poking from the passenger window and they could clearly see two more guns in a rack in the cab. They just waited as a tall man wearing a green John Deere cap exited the cab and slowly walked up to them. A strong smell of cherry flavored candy reached them first. Although he casually waved a long rifle in their general direction he didn't seem too threatening. He was actually beaming a bright pinkish smile at them. “ You boys lost now?” 

A shot rang out from the cab and the three  “Boys” did their best not to flinch or run. When they saw no one hurt and the tall guy still smiling, Willie said: “Nope.”

“ That' s good” Tall guy said: “ Me and my son are just out here to shoot some squirrels. We hate those animals. They' re just bummin' around and that just annoys me”. He spat out something ugly :  “We saw your dust and we thought we'd see who's there. No one hardly comes up here except spotter guys looking for old car wrecks. You city boys take care now!” Tall guy walked back to his truck and left them in a cloud of hot dust. 

It took a while for them to find the wrecks as most of them were overgrown by tough mesquite and fuzzy Cholla cactus. But when they finally saw them it looked like a strange museum of large rusty dinosaurs. “ Here's a La Salle. I'd like to take that one home” Willie said. “ I bet it would start with some new fuel and oil”. Mo found a Willys Wagon and was thinking how he could lift it and cruise to the drive-in with a 360V8 stuffed under the hood. 

The sun was beating on his thinning hair and he was sweating, but the dry heat evaporated his sweat immediately, just leaving white stains on his shirt. He was glad he wore  sturdy hiking boots.  He didn't get Mo who trekked the desert in flip flops and shorts. He had to walk right through a patch of Prickly Pear to get to the shape that had caught his attention.  This car looked different from all the other vehicles strewn around the desert floor. “ Hey guys, look at this” he called. Willie walked over and looked at the flat looking thing.” What's that? It looks weird man!”. “ Yeah” Mo said sauntering over:” A short nose and tiny boot. Must be some foreign compact. Is it Japanese? Let s' trample it if it is!” Willie just stood there and thought about it: “ No it's not Japanese. It looks like something else. there’s a badge on the trunk. “Austin” it says”. So it's an Austin? What kind of a name is that for a foreign car? Austin' s in Texas, man!

He adjusted his cap and wiped some dust from his face “Yes”, he said. “At home we call it an Austin 1800, a Landcrab.”

In the distance the call of an eagle pierced the shimmering hot air.

Chris  Linford 

Summer Breaking away to the UK

This summer we thought we'd stay close to home as the weather was very nice again, but a week to the UK seemed like a good thing to break away and stock up on our supplies of Yorkshire tea, Chocolate Caramel shortbread and Austin Seven spares.

In stead of camping we booked a nice B&B in the little village of Prior's Hardwick not far from Rugby. Very nice indeed.  Our Wolseley seemed right at home at our B&B. 

 The scenery around  the village is beautiful and the lawns and gardens are very much you'd expect in ye Olde Britain. The Wolseley was enjoying the trip as much as we were.

 This picture could have been straight from a faded copy of "Country life".

 On the way we visited several larger towns like Rugby

 This pub looks nice from a distance, but it could use a new coat of paint.

 In contrast this shed full of airplanes at Old Warden looked pristine and newly painted.

 The Shuttleworth collection has planes and cars.

I always say that each time we're at Old Warden, there is something interesting being started up. Usually it is an old plane, but this time there was this 1913 De Dion-Bouton lorry.

I'd never seen a rope used for starting, but it makes sense and seems much safer than just hand cranking such a big engine.

Driving back to our B&B we were greeted by some "red at night".

 Of course we had to go back to the British Motoring museum in Gaydon. This time we got a totally different tour of the colection. With an entertaining bias towards film car trivia.

 This crumply mini will not be restored as it was the last Mini to leave the Longbridge tunnels. 

 The "The car, the Future" exhibition was very interesting. Especially this 1892 London Electric car.

Still I prefer looking into the workshop. Appropriately smelling of oil, grease and the occasional whiff of petrol. 

If we thought the museum was busy, the old town of Stratford upon Avon was crowded with visitors to old William. I can see why he wasn't available.

 There were people everywhere poking their umbrellas in each others faces. 

 The old buildings are still pretty though.

 Fine dining is available in several historic hotels and restaurants.

 But we stopped at our favourite dining room, the "Fourteas".

Tasty food and friendly service in a Forties ambiance. Minus the famous  cabbage smell of course. People were queuing genially to get a table.  

 Out in the country it had been dry for a spell, so many fields had lost their green hue.

  But after some rain the flowers recovered well.

Upton house was brought to our attention as housing an interesting art collection. 

So we joined several tours of the house.

 And it was an amazing collection.

 How about this portrait by a follower of the school of Rembrandt.

 Or this  triptych by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. It is a copy of the famous "Adoration of the Magi"in Madrid.

 I suppose this portrait by Jean-Bapiste Greuze was not meant for the Masters study.

 The new and old sandstone match nicely. It is hard to tell when  the extensions were built to Upton house.

 Meanwhile the farmers were trying to get the hay into their barns.

 Driving along the lanes past charmingly named places.

 Ely with more old buildings and famous Cathedral.

 Medieval streets leading to the Cathedral.

 Back at the ferry we were friendly but conscientiously searched and frisked before boarding the ferry. When I asked they told me they were Harbour security:"Not as scary as Border Force, Sir."
Well you never know who'd try to escape Britain just before Brexit.

 After a few days at home we decided it was time for a few more daytrips in Starbuck the Wagoneer. Xanten was our first stop.

 For lunch we tried this wonderful cake. Up to par with any British pastry I must admit.

 Then off to the North of Groningen. Starbuck enjoyed the trip, though it was raining quite a bit by now.

We were very close to the sea. Here we saw plenty of pretty Sea-lavender, though the Latin name sounds more enticing: Limonium Vulgare.

 Fishermen from several ports stay here in Lauwersoog as their home ports often are locked in by dikes now or farther from their fishing grounds.

 Glad to find old rusty engines up here too.

 And then there's a truly Dutch windmill at Usquert. (try to pronounce this)

 The same town has this very interesting town hall by Berlage.

 A little later we were back in Xanten

 This must be the most extraordinary Zabaglione we ever had. A fitting finish to a great and very different summer holiday.