Hardknott Pass anyone?

[MarthasGinYard]

Drove over here today what an amazing drive....remember doing it years ago but had forgotten those hairpin bends.

Dd reckons I'd make a fab rally driver

Dp kept giving me 'tips'

Am so intrigued by people who live in these areas who have to use these routes daily.

Any MN'etters up here

Don't worry I won't pop by for tea and cakes....

Unless I get an invite

And I hope it's not attempted in the dark.

If I look at Google Earth will it show cars now?

I've done a few passes in my time.
Hardknott is a good one one a motorbike.. coming down.
Winnats Pass in the peaks is also good, short and steep. Snake Pass in the peaks is a great motorcycling road.

I miss my bike.. damn this growing up bull honky. :(

Google Earth will it show cars now?

Google earth isn't "live"

There’s a great YouTube video of a full size coach trying to get up Hardknott.

I’ve done honister multiple times over the last 25 years and love it. Did hardknott and wrynose earlier on in the year for the first time and nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.

Black Sail, is in Ennerdale. So you can walk to it past Ennerdale Water, it’s 7 miles in from the car park but flat track. Or you can walk to it from Buttermere side, so over Scarth Gap and down to Ennerdale. Guess you can also walk it from Wastwater side but would be a long trek.

Thanks Klutzy

Thanks Nico

A coach

Jesus Wept I'll have a view of that

Nico I've just viewed it

Remind me never to book a 'Pride of the Clyde' coach

How Frightening

God knows what the driver was thinking!

No way on this earth he would have gotten around the single track hairpins on Hardknott

My Honda CRV felt like a scania

Love reading everyone's stories on here.

Thought I'd get about 2 posts

Haha, DH got directed along Hardknott and Wrynose Pass from Windermere to Boot (? There was a narrow gauge railway that went to Ravenglass) thanks to the satnav- ‘ooh that doesn’t look far’- it didn’t warn him about the gradients and twisty bends! He did really well considering he was in a hire car and 90% of his driving is in London suburbs where the biggest ‘hill’ is the puny hill in Richmond Park (not that I’d like to go up that on my bike).

There’s a great YouTube video of a full size coach trying to get up Hardknott.

That's the kind of thing that makes life in the Lakes a bit tedious - you're in a hurry to get to work and some idiot has got a bloody lorry wedged across a road the width of a footpath so you end up having to make a ten mile detour

It happened so many times on the Red Bank road between Grasmere and Langdale that there's now a sign at the bottom saying DO NOT FOLLOW SAT NAV

Ah, been over those two a few times in the past.

It's a family tradition to joke about the thoughts of the Roman soldiers posted to the fort! 'I could have gone to Bath with the hot springs and civilization but no, I end up here ...'

Dad drive us over years ago. He was showing us where he'd stayed for Outward Bound. Pretty scary.

He then wanted us to see where he'd been for Outward Bound at Applecross and that included a trip over the Bealach-na-ba. www.dangerousroads.org/europe/scotland/60-bealach-na-ba-scotland.html

Lakes

I've seen a few square blue DO NOT FOLLOW SAT NAV signs with lorries I'm around here.

I was thinking there must be some history behind those

Knowing how difficult it is to get road signage established

I managed to stall my C-reg fiesta driving downhill on Hardknott while on honeymoon 31 years ago - that was fun.

MarthasGinYard - I think years of bitter experience led to some fairly forceful lobbying from Parish Councils for better signage!

I've done it with a CRV, not too bad when the bonnet wasn't obscuring the drop. Gorge du Version was scarier.

Love the Lakes and love Hardknott and Wrynose Pass. Not as steep but at least Kirkstone Pass has a pub at the top (or atleast it always used to???)

I've always wanted to live in the Lakes.

It is beautiful here although I couldn't stand to live in the touristy areas, forgot how heaving it gets.

Car ferry from Bowness not working at moment either so everything seems such a massive drive

I've just been reading some of those Trip Advisor reviews. Moral: lose the bloody satnav, get a decent OS map and learn to read it. Then steep hills and hairpin bends won't take you by surprise. (I love maps)

I think it was Hardknott I went over in a minibus when I was a student on a field trip, back in the '80s.

Loving the 'pass' memories. We've driven the Hardnott and the mention of the Kirkstone pass has reminded me of 'The Struggle' which is the road that goes from near the pub that Catquest refers to, to Ambleside. I remember getting to the bottom, just outside Ambleside and being able to smell our brakes, which had had an extremely tough workout.

Must look up the 'Thickos of tripadvisor' steep and twisty road section and yes, can't imagine the disruption to other road users while large vehicles have got stuck on narrow bends.

In the south Pennines around Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge, Marsden sort of area, I can think of at least one narrow and twisty road that sat navs sometimes pick to go south from the main Pennine routes that cannot accommodate large vehicles and is suitably signposted to tell lorries and coaches to avoid.

My legend of a father completed this cycling challenge a couple of years ago when he was in his late fifties www.fredwhittonchallenge.co.uk/

112 miles, including cycling over Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott and Wrynose passes. Lunacy!

Tilly
'Legend' absolutely
Just reading about that challenge has made me