Wasn’t my intention to go anywhere today. A few hours in the workshop followed by F1 Qualifying from China – then the Grand National from Aintree and the last few rounds of the Melrose Sevens should have been enough for any normal bloke.
Well I never claimed to be ‘normal’ and with sporadic bursts of sunshine through the threatening clouds I got the notion to do the two hundred miles round trip to Kielder. Some of us do things the easy way and some don’t. I started off with what I thought was enough fuel in the tank for sixty miles or so.
Eighty miles later I was high in the Border Hills with the ‘low fuel’ warning light flashing.
I was heading for Hermitage Castle although I already knew that there were no petrol pumps in that remote spot.
I had hoped there was still a petrol station in Newcastleton – the nearest town of any description. No such luck and although there was an extremely helpful young lady who did her best for me – Newcastleton remained a ‘dry’ town.
It was strange to hear the distances to the three nearest petrol stations estimated in ‘minutes travelled in her car’ – rather than miles from each place. We were standing right on the Border with England so maybe that’s the way they do things over there 🙂
No worries – Kielder wasn’t the closest but it was where I wanted to go so I took a chance on the ‘thirty minute’ trip and whispered over to the Forest Park using high gears on a smidgeon of throttle. There in Kielder Village I found an unmanned pump accepting cards only. It wasn’t the cheapest petrol I ever bought but I was grateful it was there and that the pump was working because I don’t think I could push that big Honda far.
It was trying to snow and managing hail by the time I reached the biker’s tearoom on the lake shores but sitting on tha Pan Euro, now with full tank in these conditions is as good as it get’s so I wasn’t too bothered and the well worn tyres did everything asked of them..
The ride back turned even rougher with nasty crosswinds to contend with as well but that bike and I are beginning to gel and I found myself singing into my helmet all the way home.
I hope this estimate doesn’t come back to bite me in the bum but I now reckon that Pan Euro will do around three hundred miles on a tankful of gas 🙂
from-a-distance 