December 2010
1 post
Getting back on track
We’re back.
When we started planning this trip, the recession was just a twinkle in Gordon Brown’s eye and we couldn’t have imagined how much harder everything would become to complete the visit of every county town in England, Wales and Scotland.
The primary issue facing us is cost. The arrival of 2011 will add 0.76 pence of fuel duty tax to every litre followed by increase of...
April 2009
7 posts
3 tags
Trip on hold until we're 23
Unfortunately due to problems with car insurance we’re going to have to put our trip on hold until we both turn 23.
Andy Squire could drive the whole trip himself, with me navigating, but due to safety concerns we’ve decided to abandon this method as Squire may crash into something - due to not being able to keep his eyes open. Plus we’d rather share the driving.
We wanted to...
Insurance policy adds difficulty
With the intention to take the Golf and split the driving, I called my insurance company to question the technicalities of my policy. Two things were on my mind:
1. Can I add Ed to my policy without affecting my no-claims discount if his driving results in a claim?
2. If not, can Ed take out another policy on my vehicle?
This isn’t really the fun part of the trip, but as I’m in my...
6 tags
Official list of county towns is confirmed
Peter Boyce, chairman of the Association of British Counties, got back to me about the list of British county towns that is on Wikipedia. ABC are the authority, so we’ll be taking their word for it. The ABC have also put a link to this blog on their site, massive win for that!
If you’ve got a query and think we’re missing somewhere, let us know via twitter - ed_walker86 or...
6 tags
Map of County Towns in England, Scotland & Wales →
Google Map to show all the places we’ll be visiting on our trip. Will be adding a ‘Passing through’ date and time once we’ve worked them out.
5 tags
3,500 miles, 95 hours
We’ve been working on our route, this involved sticking pins in a map and then studying it to see what was the fastest route. It’s a long, long, way. According to Google maps we have 3,500 miles to go and it will take us 95 hours if we drove it in one go.
To be safe I think we should double the hours. We have 10 days, that’s 240 hours.
It’s possible. It’ll be a...
4 tags
“I think Scotland is going to be our ‘Road of Bones’”
– Andy Squire, on seeing how far we have to go in Scotland
6 tags
Clutch fixed and cheap insurance
The clutch has been fixed in the Ford Ka. A stray piece of metal in the gearbox apparently managed to puncture a hydraulic cylinder - causing all kinds of mayhem.
Just over £300 later and the Ford Ka is patched up and driving like a dream. But, safety first, we’re going to be taking Squire’s Golf on the trip instead. 1.9litre turbo is going to be in order if we’re to make it in...
March 2009
4 posts
6 tags
Clutch control: A re-think on the choice of car
Today was not fun. While trundling along on a sunny Sunday morning to collect the key to my new house - the clutch went on my Ford Ka!
Trying to go from second to third gear on North Road, it decided to give up. Stuck in neutral I had no choice by to hit the hazards and dive left down the slope towards the B&Q car park. Freewheeling down the hill, shouting at a silly woman who tried to pull...
4 tags
Not capitals but county towns
Thanks to our friends on Twitter, the list is becoming populated. crowsond was on hand to link off to Wikipedia that has a list of all the counties and their ‘county town’. I knew that capitals was the wrong word, bloody Americans, the county town is what we’re after.
So if the Association of British Counties confirms that the Wikipedia is correct then we have our starting...
7 tags
A list of counties in England, Scotland and Wales
God bless Google. Here is a full list of counties but is the first place in each the ‘capital’?
There’s 86 counties altogether, we’re going to be hard pushed to do this. I have a feeling this is going to turn into a bizarre top gear challenge.
I’m going to drop an email to the Association of British Counties - I had no idea that existed either - and see if they can...
4 tags
Our mission...
…is to drive from one end of England, Scotland and Wales to another (we can’t be arsed with Northern Ireland). In a Ford Ka (1.3 litre) Golf (1.9 litre turbo). However there are some rules to this road trip:
1. We cannot use motorways.
2. We have to visit every administrative capital of the counties of these three countries, and take a picture outside their town hall.
3. We have to...