Sunday, March 25, 2007

adventures with a satnav....


we had a good day in york, once we eventually set off. saw the yorkcastlemuseum part 2 (the ticked we bought last march 28th was valid for a year.....) and pottered about. on the way back, we thought we'd go over the tops - north york moors - so set course for helmsley. that was fine. went a new route as directed by the satnav, through Ampleforth where I'd never been and here's a nice view of Ampleforth College from the other side of the hill (it's a famous Roman Catholic abbey & private school)

got to helmsley fine, so the next thing was the helmsley/stokesley road over the top of the moors.

not far out of Helmsely,the police had closed it, there must have been an accident further along. so being clever and having a satnav, we turned off left at a junction that happened to be there, and followed the satnav.

Bit of an error. It was going to take us over the top of a moor, yes there was said to be a road, but the sign said "not suitable for motor vehicles". we thought, well it looks suitable (tarmaced, don't you know) ... went up quite steeply, became untarmaced, got to a gate, sheep on the other side, went through gate, got to another gate ... there'd clearly been other traffic through, but the potholes were looking interesting and we couldn't see how deep they were, so had to turn round and go back, which involved me reversing back aways (happily, it was level, and a gorgeous sunny day) through the second gate, then turning on the field ...

The satnav wanted to take us to kepwick from hawnby, which is fair enough and the track is in fact marked on the ordnance survey as an unfenced single lane road which should in fact have been passable.

should have ignored the last instruction from the satnav where it said turn left, as when we got back to that point, there was a signpost for osmotherley and we went much more confidently that way.

Have just looked it up on the ordnance survey online map to see, and we didn't in fact have too far to go (but for the scary looking pothole!). so one day possibly on our holiday or over easter, we're going to go to kepwick and walk to where we had been and see.

so i rang from the top of that moor to have molly brought in; plan had of course been to get back and do it myself! but i clearly wasn't going to make it....

1 comment:

Jean said...

Now that's the kind of adventure you just can't have here in New Jersey! Mind you, I have found a few unpaved roads, but not many and now cow gates.

I love the satnav story. Apparently they do have their limits. Sure, there was a road, but could you actually drive on it, or sink to the bottom of the earth in that pothole?

Then again, my friend navigated perfectly to my back door using his for a drive from Massachusetts, some 4-5 hours away. Someday I will get one and promptly set off to find my way to some obscure location just to test it out.