Offgrid living on UK waterways
Through the National Park, which turned out to be extremely hilly.
Climbed the same height as Ben Nevis during the course of the day.
I must admit, I did some of it walking.
This particular road took me up a steep embankment from the River Teign.
It was never ending.
Google kept trying to turn me back from this route, (through the national park), and send me round the A30, (around the edge of the park). Continue reading “Day 54 – Exeter to Tavistock”
That’s right!
The Bonnie Journey is to be revived. And finished!
All the way to Lands End.
Not from here in Aldermaston. But from where I left off, Exeter where I sustained my knee injury.
I’ll take the train down there. Pretty pleased the weather has deteriorated slightly.
Cycling at 30 degrees isn’t always that comfortable. Especially for upwards of 5 hours a day.
Gets a bit grating.
Journey begins tomorrow, when I will begin bringing you more tales from the road.
An outing with the new waterpump.
Works fine.
The problem now appears to be fuel leaking from the bottom of the fuel governor, a mechanism that acts similarly to the carburetor on a petrol car.
Anyhow, that’s not fixable by me at present, and I have to make the boat down to Aldermaston marina for an annual service.
So that’s what I did.
Here’s some photo’s from along the way.
Problem.
Just resting in bed one morning, engine running. Suddenly it started making a crunching noise. Sounded ominous.
Ran out and immediately turned the engine off.
This happened twice or three times. A loud metallic crunching sound.
Next day when I started it up, it began overheating quite badly.
Most of the coolant ended up squirted all over the engine compartment floor.
When I started the engine, after about an hour, it started ‘boiling out’. The coolant was just boiling off the top of the cylinder heads and being forced out.
This can point to a badly bled system, or a more serious problem with your cooling system.
After talking to a couple of people, I was fairly convinced that the problem was with the waterpump.
Symptoms including:-
The waterpump resides behind the engine. The fan belt rotates around it, along with the alternator and the drive-shaft.
You should be left holding your old and broken waterpump in your hand.
You may want to dispose of this in the best way you see fit. Continue reading “BMC 1800 waterpump”
A star-studded weekend it would seem.
Even saw a dead hare.
Or Highclere Castle, I was not allowed to cycle through the grounds, even though it was open to the public and there was traffic driving through to participate in the ‘country fare’.
Was told to get off my bike at least twice. To walk through the park is 2 miles or so.
Doesn’t really make sense when there are cars driving past then you have to walk.
I was told it was because it was ‘a footpath’.
I know footpaths are not public rights of ways for cars, they should have had to get out and push their cars!
I was so off-put by the rule that I only took one picture.
Continue reading “Downton Abbey (Highclere Castle) and Watership Down”
