RogueRunners '24 Day 5 - Wensleydale & Tebay

Wet, in fact WET, the forecast showed a swirling mass of rain centred on our hotel for the entire day - & it was right. You may notice from this photo that while some of the cars are less that water proof, Matt's car has no roof at all - or wirdscreen.

But before then, we'd bidden a fond farewell to two of our number, Mark in the Alpine had family duties to attend to & Ken in the MX5. But down to business, we'd decided on the Tebay & Wensleydale route as it would drop Mark onto the M6, but then we realised it would take 4 hours to get there + cake & petrol stops, so he wisely elected to head out to the A1 instead.

The rain started as forecast & we set off, but although the rain wasn't that heavy, the roads were already waterlogged, presumably because the fields were still very wet, we soldiered on (or perhaps sailored on) until the first cake stop. At the very nice Toft Barn café we made the decision to abandon the run & look for an indoor attraction, which turned out to be the Wensleydale Creamery.

However, on retuning to the cars, One of Matt's rear wings was showing some detachment as a result of an influx of water, so him & Richard set off for the hotel. The rest of us had a pleasant luncheon at the creamery after a drive along what would've been a very pleasant road by a river, but after a while a message came through that Richard's car had also succumbed to the puddles, but they had both got back to the hotel.

Those of us at the Creamery had to decide on a plan. The quick route home was via the A1(m), but while it was "easy" the spray would be horrendous & on those roads in those conditions one needs to maintain a good speed, or the lorries will be overtaking & pumping water in through the side of the car, which precluded taking it steady & watching out for deep puddles.

Option two was the A66, but that was little better & there didn't seem to be a direct route due north on a decent road to get onto it.

Option three was to modify the tail end of an earlier route to run on a good, wide moorland road - there would be puddles & it would require concentration, but we could rumble along at a speed of our choosing & keep away from other traffic that might not realise that we weren't sitting in an armchair in air-conditioned comfort like they were.

The principle downside to this for me was having to fill up with super petrol at a tiny rural filling station for 12p/litre more than the usual price for standard petrol.

However, we all got safely if somewhat damply home (the Stylus' driver's side footwell was awash) & after drying out, could sit around & have beer & supper.