Taking on a mountain pass, towing a caravan
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Towing is easy as long as you've matched your towcar correctly. All the fear, all the worries, all the uncertainty – it all disappears when you hitch up and get behind the wheel, motoring towards your holiday’s peace and quiet. Still, just as with driving a car on its own, we all find towing challenging at some point.
Easy and difficult? What?
This contradiction is likely to not even be your fault, but there always comes a point where the unexpected happens and you have to overcome it, however prepared you are. Sometimes it’s terrain, or a diversion, or other vehicles making your trip testing.How great does it feel when you pull off that perfect U-turn? Or when you take on a challenging campsite gatepost corner and get through unscathed? Or even when you simply reverse on to a tight pitch, proving yourself to be the master of manoeuvres?
So why not challenge yourself on purpose?
On our Sightseers Tour, we took on Cumbria’s Kirkstone Pass – the Lake District’s highest pass open to motor traffic, connecting Ullswater and Windermere.A lot of the difficulty with this route depends on your own worries and other traffic. If you attempt it in the middle of summer, the busiest time in the Lakes known to man, you’re probably going to get in trouble. Or you’ll just annoy other motorists at best. Tight roads mean that there’s little room for error, and sometimes you need a little bit of that.
How did our trip go?
With the sun hanging low in the sky, we started ascending the 454m altitude of the pass. As we head up, the road thins out in places and we’re surrounded by a quaint-but-jagged dry stone wall on one side and a natural rock wall on the other. Pretty sure that explaining: “But it was such a picturesque spot,” will get us nowhere with the insurance company if we let the caravan get too close.At one of the few passing points large enough for a car and caravan, we briefly park up to get some pics. As I find the biting point to carry on up the 13% incline, I thought for a second that we’d be pulled back down by the caravan (like in this video). The car filled with the acrid smell of clutch but we were on our way again.
Shortly after this, we meet oncoming traffic on a bend in the road. Slowly – oh so slowly – we thought ourselves thin and kept our eyes on our towing mirrors, ensuring that the caravan wasn’t going to kick out and into the wall at any point. With a mere few inches between shiny tourer wall and scratchy natural rock wall, I could do with a bit more of that room for error we talked about.
A great view down to Windermere
At the top of the pass, there’s the ideal place to pull over and enjoy your achievement by The Kirkstone Pass Inn – the third highest public house in England. Again, this is bound to be rammed in peak season so avoid giving it a go unless the challenge above isn’t enough for you.As you head past the inn, you’ll see “The Struggle” branching off to your right, down towards Ambleside. AVOID THIS ROAD. Do not attempt it in either direction with a caravan. The Struggle is not just a clever name.
If you're going to avoid taking on a tight road or mountain pass, good luck. Do your road research, take advice and be careful. Of course, we take no responsibility for anything unless we're the ones driving. Enjoy!
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