Rusty Doors

Katy has some bimetallic corrosion on the doors and I wondered what the state of the frames was so I took the cards off and had a look today

Actually they are in pretty good shape for LR doors so I applied some rust killer to the few spots that were rusty, put lithium grease on the winder and handle mechanism and put them all back together again

Not a big job, but every bit helps keep her going

Chatsworth

With a few days off after the SWLRC 2014 road run we headed north to Derbyshire for a few days to wind down from a period of very hard work for us both 

The first nice thing that happened to us was when we pulled in to the car park of our first stop and found this Locomotors 127 parked in the car park. if you look carefully you can just see Katy on the left hand side of the picture with the back door open. 

It was according to the sticker on it's back door sold/converted by foley, but from the brief chat with the current owner it's had a series of ongoing changes and has just had a wood-burner removed to make it a bit more child friendly. This one also has a 300Tdi replacing the original V8 petrol engine

I left that note on the windscreen and the owner called me when we were wandering around the gardens .. so you are wondering where we were... This famous fountain was one of the reasons for going.

The fountain is powered by the pressure of the water dropping 122 metres, through a 40 centimetre iron pipe made from a man-made lake. The fountain can reach a height of 90 metres although it is usually to half that height to conserve water (as in the picture)

So for those who don't know it's the Emperor fountain in the grounds of Chatsworth House

And just to prove we were really there in Katy

The interior is just as wonderful as the gardens with many works of art. One of my favourites is the Crouching Lion (by Francesco Benaglia) in the Sculpture Gallery. It is a copy of the one by Canova, which forms part of the Rezzonico Monument in St. Peter's, Rome. It weighs 3.5 tons which is just a bit more than Katy fully laden and probably just as tough if you run into it.

Crystal Skies

We spend the afternoon fitting a new crystal clear skylight to replace the cracked and yellowed plastic one we've been looking at each morning we wake up

It should be a lot more starry from now on

True Colours

The SWLRC Road Run this year was for St John's Ambulance

So the theme of the run was Medical and therefore there was only one real option - put Katy back to her Bosnian military colours. We know these from the pictures we found http://landroverkaty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/its-official.html

A full respray was out of the question for a single day out so some rather amateurish printing took place late on Friday night and we left with a collection of symbols and letters to be put in appropriate places once the bodywork had dried out from the overnight rain

Saturday morning was a bit of a rush as I decided to fit the CB I bought some time ago. It was just jury rigged in time and we grabbed some fuel and and headed out to meet the team just in time for the 11:00 meeting time.

The inevitable faffing around took place which gave me time to put the signs on.

The first part of the trip was through the coast road from Cardiff to Ogmore which meant a keeping an eye out for pedestrians as we went through the villages. It did generate some looks and some comments, and one couple who were waiting for a bus came up as we stopped for the lights and had a right natter with the nurse in the passenger seat of the rather strange ambulance to try and find out what was going on

Ogmore on sea was our lunch stop and it was an opportunity at last to have a wander around with a camera and take a look at some of the old timers. This shot includes a Lightweight, a Series 1 (1952) and a Series 2A (abeit with a 200TDI engine)

Then on with the route that took us through a very small lane (spied out by the series drivers !)

The reason for taking this route became very clear however when we reached this very photogenic ford. A perfect place for getting a few action shots.

If you want to see all the water spraying type shots then head over to SWLRC where those who had sealed vehicles and were not planning to sleep in them had some right fun, but for us it was a more sedate and "proper overlanding style" approach

With success as we rejoined the rest of the convoy.

With fantastic directions coming from "Dave at the front" via the CB we had fitted, we had no problems keeping up and enjoying the drive. Finally arriving at Happy Jakes Campsite just before 5pm.

We finished the day with a final gathering of the cars in the campsite

Which we had to have 2 goes at because we missed a vehicle (mind you we lost 2 more in this version)

The organizers had done a wonderful job and we all had a great day out. Katy and "Sister Jones" (Rhian in her Mom's old uniform) included