Saturday & Sunday 24-25 July - Lakeland 100/50 Weekend

Where was Bertie? On Saturday he was still on the field in Coniston. 

Weather: After weeks and weeks of dry, hot weather, the Lake District finally saw some rain, starting about 1030 on Saturday morning and continuing on and off through the weekend, accompanied by 20-30mph winds (40-50 up high). 

A necessarily early start, as Mick had a bus to catch at 7am. I was up early too, not just to be a good wife and make sure he was properly fed and watered, but because I was going to be heading out at the same time. I intend to take part in a different 50 mile event in the Lakes next year, also starting in Coniston, so it seemed sensible, whilst we were there, for me to go and recce some of the route. I know from past experience that I can't be out and about much whilst Mick is running this race, because the urge to dot-watch on the tracker is too great, but I reckoned I had a window from 7am to noon, which was the earliest time he would arrive at the first Check Point, where I would try to spot him on the live feed webcam, and try to discern from what I saw how he was doing. 

I'd intended to see Mick onto a bus, but that plan changed when I saw the length of the queue (previous years we/he has just walked straight up to a bus and boarded), so I left him to it and headed off into the village. My recce went well, but could have been longer, if I hadn't had a failure of mathematical ability. Common sense was apparently also absent so I didn't pick up the distance calculation error until too late. The silver lining of the error was that whilst I arrived back at Bertie with 1.5 hours to spare, it was 5 minutes after the rain got heavy enough to warrant a waterproof. 

I spent the whole of the rest of the day, and much of the night, dot-watching the race, and having an extensive race-related text chat with a friend (who was also entered in this event, but couldn't take part due to knee surgery a couple of weeks ago). We manged a WhatsApp PB of 263 messages between us over the course of 18 hours.  

As for Mick's race, it turned out to be surprisingly exciting from my point of view. I'd seen when I got back from my outing that he was sitting in second position in his age category, which was a little bit of a concern that maybe he'd set out a bit fast. I was pleased when he dropped down to fourth, which seemed more appropriate. 

It was about half way through the race when I saw he'd climbed back to third, at which point I started paying attention to the other people in his category, which is where it all got a bit exciting from a dot-watching point of view. 

1490 people started the Lakeland 50 this year, with 94% completing. If I ignore the two categories with just one person each (because they would unduly skew the stats) there were 10 age categories (5 male, 5 female), so an average of ~150 people per category. However, this is a hard race and we can surmise that it's unusual for people to still be fit and able to complete it over the age of 70, as in Mick's category there were just 13 starters, of whom only 9 completed (69%).  

So, it was a surprise, when I started to pay attention, to find that in amongst that sea of (relative) youngsters, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the MV70 category were all within a mile of each other. Between Check Points 4 and 5 (7 miles) I reckon there was never more than 400yards between 3rd and 5th.

They all entered the marquee at Check Point 5 within the space of a few minutes and with Mick at the head of that little pack (with lots of other participants in between them - it was busy out on those trails and I would have absolutely hated it ... which is why I no longer take part), and it looked likely that the order in which they left would dictate their positions at the next Check Point, as they'd been so consistent in their moving speeds, with the changes in position coming when they stopped.

It was raining by the time they left that Check Point (not the first rain of the day for them, but the first time waterproofs were definitely needed - it was now the middle of the night), and Mick emerged second, in fourth place in his category. That's where he remained for the rest of the race.

I was willing him to be speedy at the only other manned Check Point, but it was raining so hard at that point that I could only rely on his dot on the map - being able to see anyone on the camera was tricky (see photos at the end of this post). 

The final 3 miles to Coniston saw him a mile behind 3rd, and a mile ahead of 5th, but as he started the descent I saw that his tracker speed had slowed to just 1km/h, with 5th closing on him fast and I had no idea whether he had a problem, was stuck in a queue, or whether it was just the terrain (which I know to be steep, eroded and slow). It turns out it was the latter, with the wind and rain not helping matters, as his headtorch beam was bounced back at him rather than lighting the way. 

Talking of headtorches, it was late in the evening when it suddenly occurred to me that I was sitting on the far side of an unlit field in Coniston and would need to make my way to the school in the middle of the night, and thus would need a torch. I knew I didn't have one in my pack, because Mick had both of the ones that I would usually choose, but we do keep one in Bertie. It's batteries were low and it was barely giving out any light, but no worries, because we also have spare batteries. I changed the batteries and got no light at all. I searched for more batteries ... surely we had 3 AAA somewhere?! Eventually, after I'd dug out the multimeter and checked the voltage of all of the batteries I could find, I sorted out three good ones - phew. I know I could have used my phone torch, but it's hardly ideal for the purpose. 

I was duly out in the street when Mick came down the road. I was next to the finish arch as he ran under it, and I was in the marquee when he was presented for a big cheer (every single finisher gets announced with their name and the number of finishes in their history in this race - the cheers went on the whole night through). The first I got to speak to him was as he queued for his finish photo (yes, another queue - there really were a lot of people in this race this year) and I was pleased to see that he was in a much better state than when he finished in 2022. Indeed, when I said something about next year, he didn't say 'never again' (as he did in 2022, only then to enter the 100 for 2023).

Admittedly, he was probably in a better state thanks to taking longer over the distance than in 2022 (when he'd completed a 'Couch to 80k in 8 weeks' programme due to an injury earlier in the year, then finished sub-16 hours to get a Lakeland 100 qualifying time), but he's also 4 years older. This year he finished in 17:36, 4th in his age category. The latter fact would be completely irrelevant, if it hadn't (probably unbeknownst to the three chaps involved) been such a tight race between them for so much of the distance. 

His biggest frustration this year was his lack of speed uphill, which is usually a strength. He hadn't been helped by a chunk of missed training over the preceding six weeks due to a knee injury, but the real issue was the strong painkillers (for said knee injury) that hampered his speed and made him feel nauseous. This may all sound a bit irresponsible, but his physio had given him the go ahead that taking part was unlikely to lead to permanent injury, and at his age he can't afford to wait another year to give it another go - there's no guarantee that anyone will have the health next year, but in the 70+ age categories, the stats scream loud that it's worth a small gamble with a knee injury. He has, however, sworn off strong painkillers for future such endeavours.

Fingers crossed that next year his knee is well, his health is good, his training has gone well and that he gets a place in this hugely oversubscribed race to give it another go.  

Let's have a game of spot Mick: 

Check Point 1

He made himself easy to spot this year, with calf sleeves and a knee support on his right leg

(He's on the far right, next to the portaloos)  

 Check Point 2

It would have been too easy a game if I'd used the photo I took of my tablet screen, as he's standing in front of the camera on his way in. I didn't take a screenshot until he was on his way out. 

 Check Point 3

Easy one - a few moments earlier he'd been waving at the camera, exactly as I'd instructed, as there was a phone signal here and I was talking to him as he came into view 

 

Check Point 4

Another easy one - younger son was excited to catch sight of him at this one too 

 

 Check Point 7

The weather was foul and being able to pick anyone out was dependent on the random beams of passing headtorches

(I missed him at CP5 as the feed buffered at just the wrong moment; fortunately I got a message saying he'd been seen entering. CP6 is unmanned and doesn't have a camera)

 

Crossing the finish line

 

 

Tuesday 21 to Friday 24 July - Lytham St Annes, Torver & Coniston

Tuesday & Wednesday 21/22 July - Lytham St Annes

Where was Bertie? He spent two nights at the motorhome parking area on the N side of Fairhaven Lake, in Lytham St Annes, at a cost of £7.50 per night. 

Weather: Varying cloud, but warm and almost entirely dry. 

The vague plan had been to head up to the Lakes a few weeks before the Lakeland 100/50 weekend, taking both Bertie (to live in) and Erica (to travel around in), staying on a Temporary Holiday Site (THS) in Kendal, but that plan didn't come to fruition. The big holding factor was waiting for the sale of a rental house to complete, then there were just a couple of other commitments dotted across the following week. Finally on Monday 20th we declared that we were free to leave, Bertie was hastily packed and we left home late Tuesday morning. 

By then the THS in Kendal had closed, but I found one in Lytham St Annes. Even though we'd only been in Lytham last month, we were happy to go again, although we didn't end up staying at the THS, having realised that it was right next door to the motorhome Aire we'd stayed on in June, with the Aire being half the price for a 2-night stay.

Not long after arrival, friends came around for tea and cake, and after a couple of hours of chatting, we adjourned to a local pub, The Fairhaven, for food. It was well after bedtime by the time we got back to Bertie. 

That didn't stop us getting up bright and early on Wednesday morning (just double checked that fact and 'early' is something of an exaggeration) to gently run/walk three laps of Fairhaven Lake. This was Mick's final little jogette before the Lakeland 50. I'm pleased to say that he didn't trip over a manhole cover and do himself some significant harm 3 days out, as he did in 2023, but he wasn't going into the race injured, but more about that in my next post. 

Another quarter lap of the lake followed once we were changed out of our Lycra, as we headed to the lakeside cafe for coffee, cake and crossword. Another quarter lap followed again in the afternoon when we returned to said cafe with AlaNicky for more tea and cake. More chatting back in Bertie finished off the day.

Thursday 23rd

Where was Bertie? At Church House Inn campsite in Torver, at a cost of £20 excluding electricity.

A week later, I have absolutely no recollection as to how we filled our morning, but I do recall that we visited a big Tesco Extra at the Blackpool end of the M55 as we headed off towards Torver. I had the need for another 1-pint mug, and for a pair of short pyjamas, but failed on both counts (they'd sold out of the former, and I didn't like the choice of the latter). That left me then trawling a huge supermarket for the few groceries we needed. Give me an Aldi or a Lidl any day for ease of finding the things you need without having to walk a mile in the process.

An easy journey up to the Lakes was had, and we arrived exactly when we said we would, mid-afternoon. I'm pretty sure that we then spent the rest of the day watching The Hundred cricket, although there was a burst of activity from me as I put 40 litres of water into Bertie via 2x 5 litre carriers and a funnel. 

Friday 24th

Where was Bertie? He spent the weekend on a field off Lake Road in Coniston for the Lakeland 100/50 race weekend.

In previous years, we've aimed to arrive in Coniston on the dot of the earliest arrival time of 9am, to get sited and through registration and kit check as early as possible, before queues built - it has worked well and Mick has never had to queue. However, the kit check process was changed last year such that the mega-queues of recent years were eradicated. That, combined with the desire not to block up the main road through Coniston, as there will always be people who arrive before 9am and are already queuing, meant that we didn't leave Torver until 0915. Our timing worked nicely for us to be able to drive straight onto the field, but by the time we headed over to the school for registration, there was a surprisingly long queue, out of the marquee and down the school driveway, almost to the road. I reckon it took Mick about an hour to get into the marquee and through all the processes, but he said that it was all really efficient - we could only surmise that a surprising number of people arrived early in the day this year.

A chat with our neighbour in the field, and lots of people-watching as the field gradually filled up. By 4pm, the field was surprisingly full.

Just before 6pm we headed into Coniston to see the Lakeland 100 runners head off, less than a quarter of a mile into their 105-mile adventures, then it didn't seem worth going back to Bertie as Mick was going to the race briefing at 7.30pm, so we watched the Lakeland 1 (kids' race), browsed the gear stalls and generally just loitered around until Mick joined another surprisingly large queue to get into the hall for the briefing.

This was the scene in front of us as we made our way back to the school having seen the Lakeland 100 runners head off. There must have been as many people behind us as in front. Everything just seemed busier this year. 

I don't know whether the number of entries had been intentionally increased this year, or whether it was just a freak year of more people turning up. There isn't a standby list for these races, so I know that the organiser oversubscribes, on the basis that they know that on average X% will drop out in advance or not show up on race day - but there's always the danger that fewer people will drop out than expected. It turned out this year did see a bumper turnout both races. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

I was about to hit 'Publish' when I fell down a small rabbit hole looking at figures over the years:

Sunday 14 to Wednesday 17 June - Carsington Water

Where was Bertie? He's just spent three nights at the C&CC Temporary Holiday Site at Hognaston, next to Carsington Water, at a cost of £12 per night.

Weather: Mixed, and not as good or warm as forecast!

Sunday 

Mick was in need of another long training run, and the obvious choice was Cannock Chase. Then it occurred to me that it's the time of year when the Temporary Holiday Site (THS) is on at Carsington Water, and that it would be slightly more novel* for Mick to run a few laps of the reservoir rather than doing our usual route around Cannock Chase. (*Not entirely novel, as he has done the circuit probably three times before, but it's been a few years since he last did it.)

Saturday was spent at home catching up on laundry, and Sunday morning was spent packing before heading off to Carsington around lunchtime. There we were directed to the exact same pitch as we were given when we were there two years ago. 

Our only activity on Sunday afternoon was to wander down to the Visitor Centre, as we'd not previously investigated what was there. We located the 'restaurant' (glorified cafe really) where I promised to take Mick before we went home, took a look at the exhibition (more like a Severn Trent Water propaganda display), and established that the queue out the door of the ice cream shop was too long to tempt us (particularly when we had a tub in Bertie's freezer). 

Monday

Mick sprang out of bed the moment the alarm went off and was soon dressed in his running gear and had breakfast on the table. Given that I'd said that I would join him for his first lap of the water, I had little choice but to follow suit.

Even though I went up quite a few hills over the last month and a half, I'd only been out on one run/walk in the last 6 weeks, and only 2 in the last 3 months. So, clearly the obvious progression on this record was to do 13k on the undulating reservoir circuit! In all honesty, I'd thought that we'd fast walk most of it, with a few runs thrown in here and there. Mick had other ideas, but I managed to keep up until the car park at the S end of the water, where I nipped into the toilets and Mick continued on ahead. There was no value in him waiting for me, as he was continuing straight on for another lap, whereas I only had a couple of kilometres left to go. 

I then took the opportunity to do some housework whilst Mick was out (the amount of debris I swept off the shower floor, from under the duck boards, was impressive. We didn't use the shower at all whilst we were in Scotland (preserving gas, we only used campsite/friends' showers) and lots of wet and dirty gear was dried in there in the latter parts of the trip), before having a cup of tea and some lunch ready for him when he popped in between laps 2 and 3. His final lap was actually a 9k out-and-back, bringing him up to 35km, exactly per plan.

Tuesday

Mick had been planning a lazy day, just involving going out for lunch, but it didn't take much convincing to have him come along to do the Dam Circuit with me. It's only just over 5km, and he'd not done it before. 

The walk was timed nicely to see us arrive at the Visitor Centre cafe at lunchtime, and a leisurely lunch was had. Looking around the place, I realised I was out of place, being about 20 years younger than the average age, ignoring staff.

Lunch was followed by coffee, which was then followed by ice cream from the shop out in the courtyard. Apparently, the ice cream shop is in the top 10 in the UK according to one of the national newspapers. It wasn't cheap and I was disappointed, but that's mainly because I like cheap ice cream that doesn't resemble a dairy product. Mick was happy with his choice.

By the time we made our way back up to Bertie the sky was looking a little ominous and a couple of hours later it started to rain, continuing on and off into the night. 

Wednesday

We awoke to rain, but even so I'd decided it would be a waste not to take advantage of our location and go for another turn around the reservoir before we headed home. I was out the door a few minutes after 8, and managed a faster circuit than on Monday (but still a full 20 minutes slower than my fastest on this route). I wasn't lucky with the rain, with it raining on me for a good chunk of the far side of the water. 

Arriving back at Bertie it was to find that Mick had belatedly remembered that he had a phone call scheduled ten minutes hence, so it wasn't a swift exit homewards. By the time he was off the phone and we were ready to go, I'd decided that a pizza was necessary for lunch, which in turn necessitated a stop in Ashbourne. I couldn't find that there's an Italian restaurant in the town, but I like to have a Dominoes pizza every few years, just to remind me why I usually make my own!

Then back home we went. 

 

 

  

 

 

Monday 1 to Wednesday 10 June - Dufftown to Home

Monday 1 June

Where was Bertie? He spent a night in the parking area for Ben Rinnes, SW of Dufftown

Weather: Decidedly wet morning, drier later

To the best of my recollection (writing this over two weeks later), it was the combined factors of it being a cold morning and knowing that the Tap o’Noth car park is relatively small, that caused me to suggest that we moved immediately on getting up. That gave the advantage of using Bertie’s engine, rather than the gas heating, to warm Bertie up, and being sure that we could manoeuvre easily in our destination car park on arrival. The latter turned out not to be an issue – the weather was foul and the busiest we saw the car park was us plus one car that arrived whilst we breakfasted.

We didn’t tarry once we got back to Bertie after visiting our hill, as the car park was on such a slope that I felt sure the next parking area would be better. It was on our way there that we appreciated the luck of moving before breakfast – the road we were on was now closed, and had we been later we wouldn't have been able to access my hill. Whatever work was taking place must have been on the section we'd already driven, so other than needing to squeeze past the road closure signs to exit the closed section, we weren't impeded in getting to my next hill either. 

Our next parking area was flatter, but being an informal pull-in that wasn’t much bigger than Bertie it wasn’t the sort of place that you’d want to spend much time – particularly as we were now on the diversion route for the closed A-road. I did pause for a cup of tea and a buttery before I went up my hill, but we were off as soon as I got back.

A shopping trip to the Coop in Dufftown, and onto Ben Rinnes we went – not to go up the hill, nor those on the other side of the road, having done all of those before, but just to while away the rest of the day.

Another motorhome joined us late in the afternoon, but soon left – possibly when they discovered a lack of mobile phone signal. We’d known that to be an issue with this spot (having parked there when I did the hills to the NE), but decided it was an acceptable cost of an otherwise excellent overnight spot. 

A low cloud base meant it wasn't the best hill-bagging weather. It rained most of our descent too.

Tuesday 2 June

Where was Bertie? Allanreid car park, at the end of a minor road in Glen Livet.

Weather: Rainy morning and late afternoon, but with a good dry spell in the middle (contrary to the forecast, so I didn’t make use of it!)

Another day of moving before breakfast. I can’t remember whether it was a cold start to the day; it might just have been so we could get a phone signal to look at the weather forecast and make plans.

We’d started the day in Tombae car park, on the same minor road. Glad we hadn’t tried to overnight there, as it was unpleasantly sloping, even for Mick to sit around for a few hours, never mind for sleeping. Allanreid car park was nearer to the only hill I had on my agenda on this day that was forecast to be miserably wet, but it didn’t seem worth driving Bertie an extra 2.5km down a tiny lane just to save me 5k of walking.

Having returned from my hill along the road and established that you could see the next passing place from the previous one, and that there were no low hanging branches, we then moved up to the nicely flat Allanreid car park to spend the night, also positioning me nicely for my hills for the following day (I’d thought we’d spend the night at Tombae and I’d cycle from there – the 2.5k move up the glen gave us a comfortable night and me a shorter bike ride).

We did stir out of doors in the evening, after an afternoon of being cooped up – just a short wander to look at the track I would be taking on my bike in the morning.

The only issue with this parking spot was the complete lack of signal on EE (Mick’s and the spare phone’s network). I had a decent signal on Three, but it meant that I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with Mick whilst I was out for several hours the next day.

Wednesday 3 June

Where was Bertie? He spent the night all alone in a very large car park at The Lecht ski centre (at 650m, at the high point of the road).

Weather: Dry morning, some rain in the afternoon – windy late afternoon.

The day didn’t start entirely well when Mick went to get my bike out of Bertie’s boot and didn’t notice the fresh fox poo right outside the boot’s door. He proceeded to tread it all over the boot. It still reeked even once the matting had been scrubbed and bleached.

Yesterday we’d had the car park at the end of the minor road in Glen Livet all to our selves, which wasn’t surprising given the forecast. Today another car arrived just as I was setting out on my bike. Mick had a chat to the occupant and established that he was going up the same hills, but he was apparently surprised at my intended route (specifically, the bit where I was just going to drop straight off the side of Cook’s Cairn, rather than retracing my steps down the track). I might have seen that chap as I was on my way back to my bike but given that it was raining heavily at the time, I didn’t pause at the junction of paths to await his arrival for a chat.

By the time I got back to Bertie the car park was busy, which is to say there was another motorhome and two cars. We soon freed up our space, heading over to The Lecht, via a very welcome bin in Tomintoul.

Arriving at The Lecht, if we’d driven past the buildings we would have found another large car park, but that one’s reasonably flat. We parked in the sloping one, but we found a tolerable spot. What we hadn’t anticipated when we drove up there (perhaps rather shortsightedly) was the wind speed. We were being fairly battered by it, and we wondered whether we should retreat for a good night’s sleep. Instead we put our faith that the weather forecast would come good and sure enough at sometime around 8pm the wind dropped to almost nothing and a quiet night was had.

Bertie all on his tod at The Lecht Ski Centre
 

Thursday 4 June

Where was Bertie? He spent a night at the campsite in Grantown on Spey at a cost of £36.70.

Weather: Some showers

After nipping up our final hill of the trip first thing, we timed ourselves nicely to arrive in Grantown not long after the earliest check-in time. I’d booked this campsite the evening before and with the advertised price being £37.70 for a standard pitch (£42.xx for a Super Pitch) it was going to be the most expensive campsite we’d stayed at (I don’t think it won this award when we last stayed there around 10 years ago). The price came down a whole £1 during the booking process as I was able to give a C&CC membership number, but it retained it’s ‘most expensive’ crown.

Predictably, the place was almost empty. I do wonder whether, if they charged £30 they would have three times as many visitors? Certainly, at a more reasonable price, we would have stayed for two nights rather than just one.

Our purpose there (other than to make extensive use of their shower facilities) was to meet up with a couple of TGO Challengers and after a retrospectively amusing misunderstanding surrounding ‘meet at reception’ (we were in the reception of the hotel where we were going for a drink; they were at the campsite reception) an excellent night was had. We were the last people in the bar, but we took the hint when the lights started getting turned off around us.

Friday and Saturday 5-6 June

Where was Bertie? In the pull-in on a minor dead-end road in Newtonmore

Weather: Still showery

Since we were last in Newtonmore, Ali & Adrian have sold Newtonmore Hostel, thus removing our handy parking for Bertie. They still live in the village, but their house isn’t accessible to Bertie (rough track with low trees), so we opted for the nearest alternative location we knew of, just a few minutes walk across a couple of fields.

Most of the time was spent at their house, with Bertie just used for sleeping.

Sunday 7 June

Where was Bertie? He spent another night at Perth’s Broxden Park & Ride.

After brunch in Kingussie with Ali & Adrian, followed by pudding in Newtonmore (Ali makes an incredible carrot cake), we made the 2-hour hop down to Perth for the night where, surprisingly, we were the only motorhome in the large car park. I don’t think that’s happened before (unless we were alone on our emergency stay in late December 2023, but that was in Erica).

Monday 8 June

Where was Bertie? He spent a night in one of the motorhome parking areas at Lytham St Annes at a cost of £10.

An earlyish start for a lunchtime rendezvous with Conrad at Café Ambio. Arriving in good time, we took the negligible detour to Canal Garage where we were able to fill up with both LPG and diesel. We’d rationed the former so well whilst we were in Scotland (where we didn’t pass a single LPG-selling station), that we still had about 20 days-worth left. We didn’t particularly need diesel, but it was the cheapest we’ve seen in quite a while, so topped up.

We spent longer in Café Ambio than the average customer, and they were sweeping up around us by the time we left, opting to head down to Lytham St Annes, positioning ourselves nicely for the following day.

Previously we’ve stayed in the car park next to the Toby Carvery, which (I think) was the original motorhome parking in the town. They’ve since extended the scheme to various other seafront car parks, most of which seem to cost £15 for one night and £25 for two. The reason we chose the Fairhaven Lake one this time was because it’s £10 (or £15 for two nights), and for our purposes it was just as good a location as any of the others.

We nipped out for a strollette only a few minutes after arriving, but didn’t last long. The wind was strong and biting, and it looked like it was about to rain.

Tuesday 9 June

Where was Bertie? He spent a night on Al & Nicky’s drive.

I’d intended to join Mick for a run in the morning, but with the rain drumming down, my enthusiasm waned. As it went, the rain stopped as Mick went out and didn’t start again until he was back.

Late morning, we headed over to AlaNicky’s house, where we chatted away the afternoon, before heading out for dinner at The Eagle, a pub I last visited in 2006 or 7 after a meeting at BAE Systems that has only stuck in my memory due to the impressive rant that my boss directed at the customer’s legal team.

Despite being offered a bed, we opted to sleep on their drive. It was level enough and it saved us having to think about what we would need to pack for a night indoors, with it being almost guaranteed that something would have been forgotten and not noticed until it was needed at bedtime. Plus, why cause someone a need to do laundry when we have our own bed with us?

Wednesday 10 June

Our final leg of the journey started late in the morning. The date of our return was based on needing to do some gardening (not at our house) by Friday lunchtime, but we got home to realise that the forecast for Thursday was heavy rain all day. The forecast came true too, so it was an early start on Friday to get everything done by the deadline … or not quite everything as I managed to mistake an extension lead for the lawnmower lead, so we had a lawnmower but no means to power it. Fortunately, the bulk of the work needed was weeding.

We then managed to stay at home for a whole 2 days before heading out in Bertie again, but that’s a subject for a different post.

Monday 25 to Saturday 30 May - Montrose to A Random Car Park on the A97

Another delayed typed-it-but-didn't-publish-it post. It's really just for my own records, so I'd recommend going and reading something more interesting elsewhere!

Monday 25^th

Where was Bertie? He spent a night at the Back of Hill of Fare car park

Weather: Mainly sunny and suddenly warm

After availing ourselves of the shower facilities again, we announced our intention to leave the Temporary Holiday Site at Montrose – a necessary part of the process as there’s a height barrier at the end of the access road, and one of the wardens needs to go and open and close it for every arrival and departure.

A quick supermarket trip, then north-westwards we headed, with our afternoon’s objective being Hill of Fare. For future reference, I should note that in Fettercairn there’s an arch that spans the B road with a width restriction of 2.3m and a sign saying ‘cars only’. As Bertie is more slender than that and could easily fit through, we decided that for these purposes he is a car (he is, after all, a Class M vehicle), but in future I’d try to remember to go another way.

Our destination car park was empty, bar a chap in a works truck who sat around for an hour or so before leaving, and proved to be suitable for a night-stop. A good thing, as I didn’t have a Plan B and, having now decided that I had a cold, I wasn’t really in the market for rushing through multiple hills so that we could find somewhere to spend the night that wouldn’t require a backtrack.

Tuesday 26^th and Wednesday 27^th

Where was Bertie: He spent two nights at Tarland Camping & Caravanning Club Site at a cost of £27 per night.

Weather: Lots of sun and warm

Whilst looking to see what the parking opportunities were in Tarland, I found the C&CC Club Site. To my surprise, even though it was a school holiday week, the price was reasonable, so I booked two nights, allowing us to go and walk a circuit, taking in the summit of Pressendye, on Wednesday.

First, though, I had two hills on the way to Tarland, and having done those we were still a bit too early to arrive at the campsite, so we parked up in The Square, and would have gone to the café, except it’s closed on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arriving at the campsite a few minutes after the earliest arrival time, I was asked if we wanted a pitch in the sunshine or the shade. With hindsight the correct answer was ‘near the toilet block’, as needing to do laundy, have a shower, and do dishes, it was a lot of walking back and forth from the sunny pitches, right at the far end of the site, to the amenities near the entrance.

Buying a laundry token a while later, the warden commented that I wouldn’t need a dryer token today. So it seemed with the warm sunshine, but by the time the washing cycle finished, the sky had clouded over and it was looking threatening. The forecast confirmed a high chance of showers, but I optimistically pegged it out anyway – a good call as it never did rain.

Wednesday morning we spent out walking, then Wednesday afternoon I set about processing the first batch of TGO Challenge 2026 All-Routes images. That was something of a trial, as phone signal at the campsite (and in Tarland in general) was non-existent on my network, weak on Mick’s, and the campsite wifi was also really slow (I think due to the quality of connection in this area, rather than the campsite not buying enough bandwidth).

I often hear people lauding places that don’t have phone signal or wifi, saying that holidays are for getting away from it all. I say if you want to get away from it all, then don’t turn your device on, but in our case, we need connectivity most of the time (I would also make the distinction that we are living on the road, rather than on holiday). It was for the lack of internet that we didn’t stay another night.

An example of the All-Routes images that I produce. The green lines are all of the gpx files received from TGO Challengers for the 2026 event, with the lighter line being Janet Jones's route (actually, it was my submitted route, but all samples go in the imaginative names of Janet Jones & John Smith).  
 

Thursday 28 ^th and Friday 29 ^th

Where was Bertie? He spent two nights at Black Bull Byre Motorhome Aire at a cost of £15 per night including electricity (it’s £10 without)

Weather: Sunny and warm, but windy on Friday.

We started our day by walking into Tarland to the café that had been closed when we’d arrived on Tuesday. There we received the warmest of welcomes. The scones weren’t out of the oven yet, but we were happy to wait, so we ordered drinks (“Just ask if you want more water in your teapot” is such a simple thing to say to every tea-drinking customer, most of whom probably don’t take them up on it, as the teapots are amply sized, but it just gives a good impression (I am slightly scarred by twice in recent weeks having ordered tea and been served a cup the approximate size of a thimble)).

Walking back to the campsite in good time to be off our pitch by noon, we did the last few chores, visited the service point, then wondered what to do with ourselves as our next intended night stop hadn’t answered the phone nor yet returned our call. We opted to drive back into the village to contemplate our options, whereupon we got the call back from the Aire, confirming they had a space, but I thought it felt a bit impolitely early to head straight there (we were only 4 miles away). “We could go back to the café for lunch?” one of us suggested, so that’s what we did. The staff were amused to see us back so soon.

Then onto Black Bull Byre, a stopover chosen for being conveniently positioned for a hill that was on my hit list. The most recent review of this Aire on Park4Night gave it one star, citing sloping grass and an access track more holed than a golf course; every other reviewer had given it five stars. We are with the majority. Yes, the access track was potholed when we drove in, but it’s a farm access track and I think rather unrealistic to expect it to be smooth, and it was fine when taken slowly. By the time we drove out it was a lot less potholed, as they’d started repairing it whilst we were there. As for the parking, we were on perfectly level hardstanding, which did require us to run our hook-up cable across the track, but as that track was only access for one or two holiday lets, that wasn’t a problem.

The location itself was rather nice too, being peaceful outside of farm working hours (and there wasn’t that much disturbance even when machinery was working), and with the highlight being the birdlife. In particular, we had two fledgling wagtails sharing the hardstanding with us (young wagtails don’t half blend in well with a grey stone background), with a parent coming back and forth.  

Cafe visit no. 1. I had the Scone of the Day, which was rhubarb and ginger. Mick had a cheese scone. 

Cafe visit no. 2, about an hour later. The soup was pea and apple and was excellent. 
 

Saturday 30 May

Where was Bertie? He spent another night at Tarland C&CC site at a cost of £27.42

I’d spent half the morning sending out Personalised TGOC26 All-Routes Images, then another chunk of time contemplating the big question: to take the shortest route to Newtonmore via the unbagged Marilyns that lay in our way, or to go and do a 50-mile loop to take in some not-in-our-way hills. The main argument for the latter was that its unlikely we’ll be this close again, so it made sense to do a smaller detour now rather than a bigger detour when we go up to Elgin next year. The deal was sealed by the fact that the weather forecast wasn’t great, and the not-in-our-way hills were smaller than the in-our-way ones.

With that planned, we might have gone straight off to the first hill on the list, but I suggested that first we should nip back to Tarland, to make another visit to the café, and to stock up on a few things in the little village store. I then suggested that we could spend another night at the Tarland campsite, deferring more hills until Sunday – and that’s what we decided to do. Yes, this was a plan based almost entirely on wanting another scone!

Today’s Scone of the Day was lemon and poppy seed, and that’s what I had whilst Mick had a full breakfast. On the one hand, if I’d known how long the breakfast would take to arrive, I would have ordered the soup for myself (it had felt a bit early for soup when we arrived at just gone 11am), but on the other hand, the breakfast was so huge that Mick barely noticed the loss when I helped him with bits of it. As for the wait, everything was cooked fresh, and very well, and I reckon they even make their own hash browns.

This is another café on this trip where we would spend a lot of time if it was local to us.

We left, assuring the staff that this really was the last they would be seeing of us (they greeted us with “I thought you were on your way home?” when we walked in this time, I told them that we’d doubled back just because I couldn’t resist another of their scones).

Aside from availing ourselves of the campsite facilities, we did nothing for the rest of the day.

A huge breakfast of excellent quality

The lemon and poppyseed Scone of the Day was perfectly pleasant but a bit underlemoned, in my opinion. 
 

Sunday 31 May

Where’s Bertie? He’s in a car park off the A97 in between Alford and Rhynie.

Weather: Some showers first thing, one of which was violent and prolonged and caught me good and proper as I returned from a hill, then sunny intervals for the rest of the day.

We were away relatively early from the campsite, and I spent the morning visiting two hills. It was early afternoon by the time we pulled into this car park and after lunch I did give thought to going on to another hill, but it didn’t make logistical sense to do that, so we just stayed put. (post blog note: It was several days later that I realised that I had left just one unbagged hill in this entire area, and it was easily reachable by bike from this car park. How annoying!)

The reason for the exitence of this car park has bamboozled us. As far as we could make out it isn’t close to any attraction, and isn’t the start point for any walks. Yet, for some reason the local authority had decided to construct a car park for 20-odd cars, with spaces marked with inset bricks, and with drainage. It has a bit of an abandoned look to it, but it suits our purposes nicely.

Saturday 16 to Sunday 24 May

Another catch-up post for my own benefit. I'm now going to have to think hard about where we've been and what we've been doing.

Saturday 16th May - Freuchies & Nethercraig Holiday Park 

Where was Bertie? He spent a night at Nethercraig Holiday Park near Alyth at a cost of £36

After a day pootling around the forest at Freuchies, it was something like a 5-mile drive out of our way to get to this holiday park. I think the reason for opting to spend this much money on somewhere to park for the night was based mainly on there being a lack of obvious free options nearby (well, I knew of a few possibilities, but most had the potential to annoy locals), combined with the benefit of having electricity and saving gas in the ongoing cold weather. And surely something that has 'Holiday Park' in the name and charges that much is going to have good facilities?

The first surprise was how out-in-the-sticks the place was, with no village, cafe or hotel within walking distance - although wasn't a concern for us as we were purely using it as a night-stop and had no need to go out once we'd arrived. Next came the disappointments, starting with the showers, which were tiny (the entire room was the size of a small toilet cubicle), didn't have a shower curtain, lacked hooks and a shelf, were push-button and, worst of all, having run hot for two presses of the button, then became luke warm. Accordingly my shower lasted approximately 2 minutes, as I hurried out to get warm.  

Also on the 'this isn't very good' list was the slightly stingy 10amp electricity supply (not a problem for us, but at the price not as high as you'd expect), lack of a motorhome service point, the fact that the chemical toilet point was right in the far corner of the site (rather than by the central toilet block), and amongst the full page of rules that they gave me on checking in, was a prohibition on using any sort of a washing line, and a prohibition on attaching a hose to any of their taps, so if we had wanted to fill Bertie's tank, we would have had to have done it via a water carrier and a funnel.  Oh, and the wifi didn't work at any time that we were there, not even before 7am (when even the worst campsite wifi usually works). 

The only positive I can give is that their laundry facilities are as stuck in the past as the rest of the place. I had to go to reception to get some old-style pound coins to operate them and didn't need many as both washer and dryer were uncommonly cheap (£3 and £1 respectively).  

The most expensive campsite of the trip so far (and, I think, of any trip, ever), and the worst facilities.

Sunday 17th

Where was Bertie? He spent the night in a small car park at Bridge of Craigisla

Weather: Largely dry until late morning, then increasingly heavy showers, some prolonged.

The previous afternoon I'd stood on a hill overlooking Backwater Reservoir, from where I could see that the parking area I'd intended to use this morning was full. So, rather than lounge around on the campsite all morning to maximise value, we left early and drove into Glen Damff. There we found: a) nobody in any of the car parks; and b) that the car park I'd been looking at the previous day wasn't the one I'd earmarked us to use, although it is where we ended up. 

We stayed there for most of the day as, being so rainy, demand for parking was almost non-existent, plus we had no idea where we were going to spend the night. One option was the middle car park of the three in the glen as, unlike the other two, it didn't have any overnight prohibition signs. Another option was a pull-in much further down the glen, but it was a bit close to a house. We eventually decided on the Bridge of Craigisla car park, even though it was out of our way, and moved there late in the afternoon, by which time we thought it would be quiet. It proved to be surprisingly popular. We watched many people arrive, go out for a walk (presumably to the waterfall that we negligently failed to visit), then return like drowned rats as another shower drenched them. 

Monday 18th

Where was Bertie? He spent the night back at Gardener's Cottage campsite (£20)

Plan A for this day was that Mick would drive us to Peel Farm, where he would make use of the cafe whilst I cycled off to my target hill of the day. Plan B, based on a lack of energy and motivation for the bike ride, involved him driving me much closer and coming with me, at least on the friendly-terrain portion of the outing. 

We drove past a small motorhome on its way out as we drove in, then passed an obvious parking area, just before getting to the place I'd found on StreetView. It proved not to be suitable for a Bertie-sized vehicle, in that we wouldn't be able to park without blocking one of the gateways, and thus we wouldn't both be able to go out at the same time. The answer was obvious, and back to the parking area we went, deciding as we got there that the small motorhome must have spent the night there (fresh tyre tracks plus the tell-tale trickle of water that had come from his waste water pipe), and if we'd known about the place, we would have made the same choice.

As I came back from my hill a couple of hours later, I passed that motorhome again, now parked in the track end we had dismissed, and I thought about knocking on his door to tell him we would be vacating his spot within ten minutes. About eight minutes later he came and manouevred in front of us, just a few moments before we drove off, freeing up the best spot. In my mind, he'd just popped out for milk and got back to find we'd moved in - I doubt the layby sees many vehicles. 

The cafe at Peel Farm was excellent, and worth the detour to reach (a longer detour than would have been necessary in drier ground conditions, but we'd driven the direct, but tiny, lane on our outbound leg and the danger of meeting an oncoming vehicle and getting bogged down on a verge was too great for us to repeat that route). 

Then it was back to Gardener's Cottage for another night enjoying their excellent facilities that put  almost-twice-the-price Nethercraig Holiday Park to shame. 

Tuesday 19th to Friday 22nd  

Where was Bertie? He spent another four nights in the car park of the Park Hotel in Montrose.

There was only really one highlight of this week for me: we went for a meal with Martin & Sue, and Ali at a very well hidden Thai Restaurant. I did also attend the TGO Challenge celebratory dinner on the Friday.

Saturday 23rd

Where's Bertie? He's at a C&CC Temporary Holiday Site on the north links at Montrose, at a cost of £8 per night, including toilet/shower facilities.

When we'd arrived back in Montrose, I looked to see if the Temporary Holiday Site was on again this year, as it usually is, but there was no sign of it on the C&CC App. It wasn't until we arrived for parkrun on Saturday morning that we discovered it to be in full swing. I updated the App (which I thought I'd done earlier in the week) and finally it showed up. 

So, after a post-parkrun breakfast at Charleton Fruit Farm, in the company of Martin, Sue, Alethea & Madge, we called the holiday site and drove the mile or so back to it. The last couple of years, we've left Montrose, heading south, and have only made it to Arbroath (about 12 miles away) before stopping for the night. This time we didn't even make it out of town! Even without being personally involved with Challenge Control this year, it's still a tiring week - it was gone midnight by the time we got to bed after Thursday night's meal (that Mick attended and I just loitered in a corner), and we were up till gone 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning. 

Being after an early night, when the warden came to tell us that there would be live music starting soon, I wasn't in the market to go along. Unfortunately for those who did, almost as soon as it started (we're talking a couple of people with instruments in a gazebo here, not a big stage and amplifier set-up - we could barely hear it from where we're parked), rain started and got progressively heavier.  

Sunday 24th

Where's Bertie? He's opted for a second night at the Temporary Holiday Site.     

Unusually, in our limited experience of Temporary Holiday Sites, this one has shower and toilet facilities, in the adjacent football club building. The showers are in the changing rooms, so you get a room with four communal shower heads, for which reason we were advised to shower together, and not to forget to lock the door!  I thought there would be a bit of a scramble for the showers, given how many units are here, but it turns out there are three separate changing rooms, and only two were in use when we arrived. The warden wasn't wrong when she said the facilities were good - a decent flow of hot (not just warm) water.

By the time Mick wandered over to the breakfast tent to buy a breakfast roll (I can't remember what cause they said the proceeds were going to, but with the site being so ridiculously cheap there was no question of not throwing a bit more money at them), we had decided that we're not in a rush to continue our travels, so decided to stay here another night. That would also give the opportunity to go to the town museum, where I had intended to visit on Thursday, except I got embroiled in some correspondence with a solicitor, and had then intended to visit on Friday, except I got sidetracked reading a book that has been written by a TGO Challenger and gifted to Mick (I knew that Mick appeared in the book under a pseudonym, and I spotted him immediately on what proved to be his first of many appearances). It's not often these days that I spend a whole day reading!

The museum was small but interesting, filling a good hour, plus the time taken to walk the 2km each way. Our intention of then continuing to the Pavilion Cafe (which had been full when we'd popped by on Tuesday), but we found it to be closed on a Sunday. Back to Bertie we came. 

 

 

Thai meal - a little non-standard that the 'Set Menu' was a choice of anything on the menu, and it came all on one plate. It was good and we'll happily go back next time we're in Montrose.

Post parkrun breakfast at Charleton Farm - apologies to Martin that I only managed to capture his hand. (What's not pictured is that Mick and I subsequently ordered a strawberry tart for our post-breakfast pudding)

Talking of puddings, one of the serving staff at the Thursday night celebratory dinner, for 130 Challengers and Volunteers, brought three spare servings over to the Control desk. I felt undeserving as I wasn't part of Control and it was just a convenient seat for me to take ... but I also wasn't going to let it go to waste!

Okay, bit of an odd photo! We bought the right hand ice cream first, in Germany in the summer of 2018, and swiftly decided that it was a good size of tub for our cold porridge breakfasts, so next time we were at a Lidl we picked up the one on the left (memorable as, having bought it, we realised we didn't have space in the freezer, so we had to eat the contents immediately, at 9am). As single-use plastics go, they've done pretty well, having been used almost every single day of all of our stays in Bertie over the course of 8 years. They'd finally degraded to the point that last week I bought replacement tubs and these have been retired.