Land's End to Ness Point, Midsummers Evening 2021
Discussion
How many hours do you have between dusk to dawn?
And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
A few years back a friend and I did something similar, but started from the most Westerly point in Wales.
Going straight across seemed more logical, less well known, and made it possible to avoid Motorways.
The idea of spending a night mostly on the M5 and M25 didn’t appeal, so we stuck to A and B-roads.
Going straight across seemed more logical, less well known, and made it possible to avoid Motorways.
The idea of spending a night mostly on the M5 and M25 didn’t appeal, so we stuck to A and B-roads.
vikingaero said:
How many hours do you have between dusk to dawn?
And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
Duusk 'till dawn is about 21.45 to about 04.30.And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
In 2018 we did it with 30 mins to spare, the only place we went a bit too fast was the A12, Bentwood to Ipswich section, topping out at 85mph.
Best with 2 drivers, although 1 guy did it none stop on a bike with auxiliary fuel tank, he reckoned he had about 12 miles in the tank when he got to Ness point
We had a fuel stop at Andover, but there are enough 24hr fuel stops on the route
Last time it was in a Boxster, this time, if it goes ahead, it'll be in my SL500
Edited by Johner on Tuesday 23 February 15:45
S. Gonzales Esq. said:
A few years back a friend and I did something similar, but started from the most Westerly point in Wales.
Going straight across seemed more logical, less well known, and made it possible to avoid Motorways.
The idea of spending a night mostly on the M5 and M25 didn’t appeal, so we stuck to A and B-roads.
Didn't use the M5 and wouldn't.Going straight across seemed more logical, less well known, and made it possible to avoid Motorways.
The idea of spending a night mostly on the M5 and M25 didn’t appeal, so we stuck to A and B-roads.
We did A30, A303, M3.
Not so much motorway, but yes, a lot of high speed dual carriage way, but then, the idea is to average about 68mph.
Solstice is 0332 GMT (0432 BST) on the Monday morning, so I would suppose that the "official" time to chase the sun would be setting off Sunday evening around 2135 and target arrival 0430.
There does not look to be much different in distance for a few routes.
Lands end to the M25 is 271 miles.
The 3 options I have looked at....
South around the M25 and up the A12 - 433m
North around M25 and up the A12 - 430m
North around M25 to St Albans and then crossing to Royston and then cross country from Bury St Edmunds - 424m
I can see some pleasure in driving through London, (across tower bridge, for example), but personally, I don't know a route through.
Edit - It looks like North Circular then up the A12 would be 419m
I am aiming to do the Saturday night (got to work on Monday !), and hotel at Stonehenge on the Friday evening, and scope out the A303 / A30 in daylight.
There does not look to be much different in distance for a few routes.
Lands end to the M25 is 271 miles.
The 3 options I have looked at....
South around the M25 and up the A12 - 433m
North around M25 and up the A12 - 430m
North around M25 to St Albans and then crossing to Royston and then cross country from Bury St Edmunds - 424m
I can see some pleasure in driving through London, (across tower bridge, for example), but personally, I don't know a route through.
Edit - It looks like North Circular then up the A12 would be 419m
I am aiming to do the Saturday night (got to work on Monday !), and hotel at Stonehenge on the Friday evening, and scope out the A303 / A30 in daylight.
Edited by Stevep4 on Tuesday 2nd March 22:44
I'll answer several points here...
It's a real headache about what day is best to do it. I've picked to leave on the 21st as that's when a load of people did it in 2014 (there's a post on this site about it somewhere). There's is only about 1 second difference between 20/21 and 21/22
Sunset is 21:36 at lands end. Sunrise is 04:30 at Ness Point.
When I did it previously I went A30, A303, South M25, A12.
I have thought about a route through London but a lot of it's 20MPH with speed cameras everywhere, I doubt you'll complete it in time
It's a real headache about what day is best to do it. I've picked to leave on the 21st as that's when a load of people did it in 2014 (there's a post on this site about it somewhere). There's is only about 1 second difference between 20/21 and 21/22
Sunset is 21:36 at lands end. Sunrise is 04:30 at Ness Point.
When I did it previously I went A30, A303, South M25, A12.
I have thought about a route through London but a lot of it's 20MPH with speed cameras everywhere, I doubt you'll complete it in time
Johner said:
Yep, I'll be doing it over the night of the 21st.
Just make sure that yiu arrive at the Lands End car park after 17.00hrs.
There's a charge (£5 or £7 I think) if you arrive before 17.00.
We will drive down to Plymouth on Sunday and have a leisurely tourist type trip to LE on the 21st.
Sounds good, see you there!Just make sure that yiu arrive at the Lands End car park after 17.00hrs.
There's a charge (£5 or £7 I think) if you arrive before 17.00.
We will drive down to Plymouth on Sunday and have a leisurely tourist type trip to LE on the 21st.
I've also just found this post from 2017 from "No Ideas For A Name"
"I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread for discussion on this year's potential run.
I have considered it for a while but maybe this year is the year to give it a go. As the years go on, I expect this will become less possible legally, due to lower limits on roads, roadworks etc.
I am making the assumption that technically, the shortest night is on the evening of 21 June through the morning of 22 June. So the optimum night is the 21st/22nd. As far as I can tell, there isn't much in it in terms of time for a few days either side of that.
From other threads I pickup that some people want to do this on the 24th which I assume is just because it is a weekend. I think my preferred night is that 'proper' one.. hotels are cheaper mid week and traffic is probably lighter.
Again from other threads I see that a variety of routes have been tried, though I haven't drawn a conclusion as to the 'best'.
A303 will probably be full of Druids on the morning of the 21st, but should have dispersed well before the evening.
A30/M5/M4/M25 is a boring but safe route, but a little longer.
It also depends how many people are up for this - I don't think a large convoy/group would go down too well and would probably be attracting the attention of the authorities - though as I understand it, it can be completed fully legally.
Motorway route is around 450 miles, sunset 21:36, sunrise 4:30 giving a 6h 54m time window (6.9 hours) giving a required average of 65.2mph
I will need a fuel stop as I don't have a 450 mile range, so that eats in to the time."
"I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread for discussion on this year's potential run.
I have considered it for a while but maybe this year is the year to give it a go. As the years go on, I expect this will become less possible legally, due to lower limits on roads, roadworks etc.
I am making the assumption that technically, the shortest night is on the evening of 21 June through the morning of 22 June. So the optimum night is the 21st/22nd. As far as I can tell, there isn't much in it in terms of time for a few days either side of that.
From other threads I pickup that some people want to do this on the 24th which I assume is just because it is a weekend. I think my preferred night is that 'proper' one.. hotels are cheaper mid week and traffic is probably lighter.
Again from other threads I see that a variety of routes have been tried, though I haven't drawn a conclusion as to the 'best'.
A303 will probably be full of Druids on the morning of the 21st, but should have dispersed well before the evening.
A30/M5/M4/M25 is a boring but safe route, but a little longer.
It also depends how many people are up for this - I don't think a large convoy/group would go down too well and would probably be attracting the attention of the authorities - though as I understand it, it can be completed fully legally.
Motorway route is around 450 miles, sunset 21:36, sunrise 4:30 giving a 6h 54m time window (6.9 hours) giving a required average of 65.2mph
I will need a fuel stop as I don't have a 450 mile range, so that eats in to the time."
vikingaero said:
How many hours do you have between dusk to dawn?
And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
I've got an Astra GTC, did it comfortably with 1 fuel stop somewhere near Andover on the A303And what cars are you doing it in? At the moment I don't have anything PH - just 2 diesel cars which would be fun but a little boring. My fun/wackjob car of choice would be Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-Car - all 660cc Turbocharged with max speed of 84 mph!
cycysputnik said:
I'll answer several points here...
It's a real headache about what day is best to do it. I've picked to leave on the 21st as that's when a load of people did it in 2014 (there's a post on this site about it somewhere). There's is only about 1 second difference between 20/21 and 21/22
Sunset is 21:36 at lands end. Sunrise is 04:30 at Ness Point.
When I did it previously I went A30, A303, South M25, A12.
I have thought about a route through London but a lot of it's 20MPH with speed cameras everywhere, I doubt you'll complete it in time
This whole Solstice lark is a lot more complicated than I thought.It's a real headache about what day is best to do it. I've picked to leave on the 21st as that's when a load of people did it in 2014 (there's a post on this site about it somewhere). There's is only about 1 second difference between 20/21 and 21/22
Sunset is 21:36 at lands end. Sunrise is 04:30 at Ness Point.
When I did it previously I went A30, A303, South M25, A12.
I have thought about a route through London but a lot of it's 20MPH with speed cameras everywhere, I doubt you'll complete it in time
In 2021 the Solstice is at 4:32 BST on Monday 21st June
In 2022 the Solstice is at 10:13 BST on 21st June
So - it's not dawn that marks the Solstice, it's "The moment when whichever hemisphere you're in is most tilted towards the Sun."
So I do have to agree with you that 20/21 and 21/22 are equally valid - which I didn't think they were until I started to dig deeper.
As for the route through London, I think it would be do-able if you have Waze or some other speed camera warnings. The A3, A316 and A4 are all fairly fast roads (A3 is fast until Wandsworth at least). The A11, A12 and A13 are also decent roads. You just need to find the right route between either Wandsworth or Hyde Park Corner and Tower Bridge. Popping south of the river (or staying south of the river) is probably the best bet - maybe turn off the A4 at Earls Court and follow the river round to Lambeth bridge and then head over that.
Definitely seriously thinking about doing this in 2021.
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