UK meeting

Who will go to England in may 2010 and more important how ?
Ferry or shuttle ?
At what time ?
Do we use a meeting point in Calais before crossing the sea ?
When ?
Have you some cars to take some other members with you ?

Qui va en Angleterre en mai 2010 et surtout comment ?
Ferry ou Shuttle ?
A quelle heure ?
Fixons-nous un rendez-vous à Calais avant la traversée de la mer ?
Avez-vous une voiture permettant le transport d'autres membres avec vous ?

The school just gave me our holidays for the coming year and ok; I can come in the whole meeting.
I'll work at school until the wednesday at midday. Afterwards, 250km to Calais, 2 hours ferry and more than 500 km motorway to Ambleside.
I use a renting car and will have a personal management during the meeting because I've already done plenty of the BIGs there but I've also still many other BIGs to climb in the country and in Scotland.
I would like to meet the other members crossing the Channel in Calais in the afternoon (around 3PM)
Perhaps will I arrive at midnight.
Personnally, I've already climbed Wrynose, Kirkstone, Hard Knott, Honister Pass the 1st day. Hartside and Westernhope the 2nd day. Cow & Calf and Oxenhope the 3rd day. Holme Moss, Snake Pass and Mam Tor the 4th day.
My personal programm will probably be :
13.05 : all with the group (president's job) and I'll win the Whinlatter (not already done)
14.05 : I'll climb the Great Dun Fell with the group but afterwards, I'll go with my car (renting car certainly to give our car to my wife) to Scotland for Lowther Hill and Carter Bar.
15.05 : I'll climb Cow & Calf with the group but afterwards, I'll go to the east to reach Rodedale Head with my car.
16.05 : the magnificent Holme Moss with the group but afterwards I'll go back home to the south and will try to climb Devil's staircase, Gospel Pass, Chineway Hill and Cheddar Gorge. Then ferry and back home late in the night ot the morning after just before going to teach. Poor pupils

My idea is to fly from Girona to Liverpool in a low cost plane and afterwards take a taxi or something to Ambleside. If more spanish people is arriving then cost would be less... I think it will not be necessary to rent a car...
As for the stages, my plan is to do all the program, but if some BIGs can be added it would be great!

you can rent a car by easy car (as easy jet)
cheap cheap
and good cars

Take the train:
Liverpool Lime Street [LIV]
Windermere [WDM]
takes ca. 2 hours
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/
Bus from Windermere to Ambleside takes ca. 20 minutes:
http://jplanner.travelinenortheast.info/jpclient.exe

/Jerry

Bonjour,

Je viendrai au meeting avec ma voiture personnelle. Etant seul, j'ai moyen de convoyer avec moi 2 personnes et leurs vélos. Des gens plutôt motivés car comme Daniel j'ai repéré une opportunité pour le 15.05. 15 c'est mieux que 14 !

I will come to the meeting with my personal car, I will be able to drive 2 biggers with their bikes if necessary.

François Candau

Si mon emploi du temps professionnel le permet, si je n'exclue pas comme Daniel de prolonger la chasse aux BIGs au delà du meeting.
Job permitted, I would visit Wales and Cornwall for some more BIGs after the meeting, .........if someone is interrested ?!

François Candau

Be careful, since 01.10.2009 Ryanair has a limitation of 20kg for all sports equipement. If your bike is heavier, you have to pay 20 euros by excess kilo.

Etienne Mayeur wrote:

Be careful, since 01.10.2009 Ryanair has a limitation of 20kg for all sports equipement. If your bike is heavier, you have to pay 20 euros by excess kilo.

Yes, in practise you cannot use Ryanair any longer for getting to a destination with a bicycle (lucky that did not happen to me when I was going to the Liguria meeting). I had problems going down there as they had started to demand that one open one's case and let people at the airport inspect everything (unless they have a big enough scanner, that most airports have). The 20 kg restriction hit me when flying home with KLM/Air France from the Ötztaler radmarathon via Amsterdam. They wanted me to pay 80 euro extra for the trip home, but luckily my friend could take some luggage for me and I carried hammer like objects as hand baggage, which is apparently more in line with security requirements these days ... .

The single trip home with Ryanair from Genua would have costed me 340 euro extra on top of my flight tickets and other costs. It would be cheaper taking a taxi through Europe ... (almost). So now it looks like Ryainair will be the most expensive alternative for flying in Europe. (But other companies might have raised prices similarly, so maybe no more going abroad will be possible (affordable) any longer if you want to transport your things safely.) Seems like everyone is hell bent on trying to stop all kind of air travel these days.

The single fare extra charge for your bicycle has also been doubled since earlier even if you get under the 20 kg requirement ... .

Hello,
Luciano Cattaneo and me will start from Bergamo sunday 9 may with Ryanair to East Midlands (near Notthingham) with our bike bags less than 20 kg.
Then we'll rent a car.
Then we'll climb some BIGS in Wales and Soth England before join the meeting Wed evening.
We'll do the entire program until sunday 16.
We'll sleep in Castleton Hotel the night of 16 and we'll start from Liverpool the 17 afternoon.
I think it will be hard not to rent a car for the meeting, because many Bigs are really far.....
The 15 my son Alessandro (photograph) and Johanna Kovacs wil ljoin the meeting.
ciao
Mauro Repetti