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.
 

 

Saturday 9 to Friday 15 May

Just a bit of a catch-up of where we've been, for my own memory-augmenting purposes:

Saturday 9th

Where was Bertie? He spent a night in one of the car parks at Spittal of Glenmuick at a cost of £12 for two days and one night.

Weather: sunny intervals in the morning, snow showers in the afternoon and evening, getting progressively heavier. 

On Friday I learnt that overnight parking of motorhomes is now permitted at Spittal of Glenmuick, thus our plan to attack Lochnagar from Auchallater (to the NW) was modified to doing it from Spittal of Glenmuick to the E - a drive of around an hour. We got an early start from Glenshee, getting out of bed and (almost) straight behind the wheel, arriving in Spittal of Glenmuick around 0715. 

The price of £12 to park there is something of a bargain, given that it costs £6 per day for a car, meaning that the campervan ticket is the same price as two car day tickets - and sure enough, our ticket bought upon arrival was valid until 2359 on Sunday. 

An excellent day was had going over Lochnagar and the nearby Corbett of Conachcraig, and a gloriously quiet night was had. 

Sunday 10th 

Where was Bertie? Ballater Caravan Park at a cost of £33 including electricity and wifi

Weather: Gloriously sunny start to the day, clouding in later (I think there were a few showers too). Jolly cold for the time of year!

After hanging around in Spittal of Glenmuick for the morning, we left at noon, timing ourselves nicely to arrive at the campsite at the earliest check-in time of 1215.

The last time I was at Ballater Campsite was in 2018, some three years after the devastating floods. I'm not sure if my memory is lacking or whether they've done much more work on this Community-owned site since, but I'm struggling to think of a better quality campsite. The grounds and pitches are immaculate and so is the toilet block. The showers were hot and powerful, had a bench, hooks and a shower curtain and it wasn't a push-button affair - everything you want in a campsite shower except the lack of a shelf for soap and shampoo. 

Their wifi was actually usable at all times too, which is a rarity, in our experience (usually campsite wifi grinds to a halt at peak times). 

We went out to the Alexandra Hotel for tea, and had a good meal, even if they did seem to be trying to break speed records in their serving times. 

I didn't want any pudding...
 

Monday 11th 

Where was Bertie? He spent a night in a car park next to Drumtochty Castle

Weather: unreasonably cold for the time of year (a high of 9 degrees)

After packing everything away and making Bertie ready to travel, save for the need to unplug him and remove him from his ramps, off to a local cafe we went for coffee, returning to Bertie in time to still get off the site before the 11.30 latest-departure time. 

Our first call was to a little car park SE of Strachan, so that I could recce the course of a 24-hour race that, unfortunately, I won't be taking part in this year. Part of the course is at an outdoor activity centre and I wasn't sure that the land there fell under Scottish access rights, so we just did the big loop section of the course and peered over a gate at another section. Back at Bertie, Mick didn't join me as I said I was just going to wander down the road a short way to see whether the paths around the loch were visible, so I could see whether they were surfaced or grass. At the entrance to the activity centre there are some grand gates and a security camera, however, there's also a board detailing a number of marked trails that run within the grounds, which, combined with the unlocked pedestrian gate, I took to mean I could go in and explore. 

So, I ended up walking the entire course (albeit not all in the right direction) save for a little bit where it passes in front of the house (and where there didn't appear to be a waymarked trail) and another small section where I was just too lazy to do an out-and-back. It's a good course that looks fairly hard (it's far from flat), and would be harder if midsummer's day fell within a wet spell and the ground was boggy. The recce hasn't put me off; maybe next year?

We might have stayed in that car park for the night, but I suggested that the merit of moving to the start point for my next hill would be that I could leave Mick in bed in the morning and nip up there early. So, down to the south side of the Fetteresso Forest we went. The final distance was on a minor road, and as we started along there Mick told me we were being pursued by another motorhome. We pulled into the empty car park one after the other and I feared how busy the place was going to get. It turned out that it was just freak coincidence that we arrived together, and save for the short stays of a couple of dog walkers' cars, we were the only vehicles in the car park the whole time we were there. 

As it went, I did my hill almost immediately after arriving, and after doing that I suggested that we could move on again, to tomorrow morning's hill. That would have had the benefit of a better mobile phone signal*, but we decided to stay put - a beneficial decision, as just as Mick was closing the curtains, this chap(ess) came to see us and froclicked around in front of us for a short while before disappearing out of sight:

I was just cleaning my teeth when Mick called "Come here!" followed by "Quick! Quick!". As it went, I had plenty of time to grab my phone and get a snap out of the side window. I then just watched as it paraded in front of us and went into full 'meerkat' mode, standing on its back legs and looking around. I don't believe I've ever seen a pine marten in the flesh before.  

(*I made a quick 'how to' video for a TGO Challenger that evening, and even though it was under 100MB, and I positioned the phone up on the roof, it took the best part of an hour to upload to YouTube. The following day I made another video of almost identical size and, on a better mobile signal, it uploaded in a few minutes).  

Tuesday 12th

Where was Bertie: He spent from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning in the car park of the Park Hotel in Montrose. 

There's forestry works going on somewhere behind the car park at Drumtochty Castle, and on Monday afternoon and into the evening, various vans, trucks and timber lorries came and went. All then went quiet, until at 0440 on Tuesday, when another timber lorry came past us. That's an early start, even by HGV standards!

Even with that early morning alarm call, staying in that car park had been the right decision for two reasons: firstly, the pine marten of the previous evening, and secondly, the high winds. The view point car park to which we went next, as the starting point for my next hill, was exposed (as view points tend to be) and it was windy enough that it would have been a disturbed night. 

It had been a cold night, and we were expecting a phone call at 9am, so we didn't hang around for breakfast, but rather got up and moved straight away - both warming Bertie without running his gas heating and achieving a phone signal for the call. The phone call got cancelled, so up my next hill we both went, before heading the few more miles to TGO Challenge Control in Montrose, arriving a day earlier than we needed to (bad planning on my part!). I actually have no need to be there at all this year, but Mick wanted to be there for a few days this week, as TGOC Easters set out, then a few days next week as they arrive on the east coast. 

We have, for years now, spent at least a week in May sleeping in the car park of the Park Hotel whilst working on Challenge Control. This year I felt a bit cheeky and conspicuous, not so much parking in the car park (as Mick has a valid reason to be there), but each time I nipped through reception to use the facilities or wifi. 

Incidentally, during this week our mobile phone count in Bertie has dwindled from five, to a more reasonable three. One has been sent to my sister, who is having traumas getting broadband connected at her new address, so that she can use it as a mobile router (neither she nor her husband use smart phones) and the other is now temporarily a Challenge Control telephone, after one of theirs developed a problem.

I forgot to mention that on our way to Montrose we stopped at Charleton Fruit Farm for second breakfast. The quality of their ingredients really is excellent, and whilst I wouldn't usually give myself half a strawberry with an egg and black pudding bap, I would rate it as one of the most extraordinarily tasty strawberries ever.  

Friday 15th

Where's Bertie? He's at Gardener's Cottage campsite in Fern, where he spent a couple of nights last August. Since then they've had toilet/shower facilities installed (£1 for a 6-minute shower). The price is still £20 including electricity. 

Weather: Sunny, but windy and still unreasonably cold for the location and time of year. 

As we drove into Montrose earlier in the week, I noted 'Montrose Air Station Museum' on the map. It only opens Friday to Sunday, so we couldn't stop by on our way in, but by virtue of still being in town this morning, we could visit on our way out. 

I would share some photos, except I took none. I can only attribute this to how cold it was - even the inside exhibits. After I completely lost the feeling in my fingers, we repaired to Bertie for a cup of tea, before visiting the final two hangars. 

As air museums go (and we've probably been to more than the average person), I wouldn't rate this one as outstanding value for money as it's pretty small with lots of written words, but not a vast number of physical exhibits (entry was £10 for me, £8 for Mick). That said, I would recommend visiting to anyone who has an interest either in the subject or in Montrose; it was interesting and I'm happy to have learnt some stuff, supported them, and heard about their expansion plans. We were there for 3 hours, but it probably would have been four had it been a nice warm day. 

From the museum we came straight to this campsite at Fern, a half-hour drive away. Tomorrow morning we've got another half-hour drive to get to the hills I intend to visit this weekend.  

 

Friday 8 May - Glenshee Ski Centre

Friday 8 May - Glenshee Ski Area

Where's Bertie? He's in the motorhome parking area at Glenshee Ski Area, where it costs £15 including electricity, and use of the toilets/shower during the day.

Weather: Dry with plenty of sunshine. A bit cool, but we are at 650m.

I had identified two hills that I could possibly nip up today, one involving a 13k bike ride, the other being a simple up and down from the A93. My mind was willing, but my body (particularly my lower back) was not so sure. Given that Mick & I have plans to go up a hill together tomorrow, I didn't want to scupper myself with today's activities, so I passed on both possibilities, and we just needed to decide where to go today to position ourselves for tomorrow. 

Glenshee Ski Area fit the bill nicely and got bonus points for having a cafe. The only minor issue was that, from my understanding of their website, we could park in the car park for £6 during the day, or for £8 to include the day and overnight, and we could arrive at any time if we wanted to do that. The other option was to pay £15 for an electric hook up spot in their Aire, but in that case we could only arrive from 5pm (with the fee running from 5pm to 4.30pm the following day). As the website was so specific about times for each option, it looked like we would need to pay £6 for the day, plus £15 for the Aire (even combined, £21 isn't a bad price by current standards), or we would need to just go without electricity.  

No matter what the decision, we were going to the cafe for second breakfast and whilst we were being served, I checked my understanding of the parking charges, with the response that as long as there was a spot free in the Aire (there was), we could pay her and move Bertie straight away. 

The cafe was surprisingly busy. Almost full, in fact, mainly with motorbikers most of the time we were in there. As we left and wandered back over to the main car park to retrieve Bertie, it seemed that their next batch of customers also had their mode of transport in common - there must have been two dozen Porsches parked up. As we slowly made our way into the car park where we are now sitting (slowly because people were milling everywhere and were generally not willing to step out of Bertie's path), there were more Porsches, plus a Ferrari. The ones on this side of the road all had big stickers saying something like 'Grand Tour Scotland 2026' on them; I didn't notice the same on those in the other car park, so it's possible that two unrelated groups happened to have arrived at the same time. 

Manoeuvring Bertie onto his ramps to level him in the gently sloping car park, the next thing we did was to plug him in. "Are you going to check the polarity?" Mick asked. It's not something I ever do in the UK, as I think it highly unlikely that a UK electric hook up would have the polarity reversed (unlike on 2-pin EU connections where it's quite common), but I checked anyway and was so surprised to find that it was wrong that I checked a different socket. That is how we came to discover, after 9.25 years of owning Bertie, that the plug socket that we use to check his polarity (the one nearest the door) has been wired up wrong itself, so every time we have thought that we had reverse polarity and have used our corrective adapter, we have actually been reversing the polarity to the rest of the van (I assume it's the majority that are right and the one that's wrong; I must test when we are at home and I know the polarity to be the correct way around).   

With that sorted, I wouldn't have been adverse to spending some of the rest of the day by nipping up a hill from here. I knew I'd done the Marilyns, but wondered if there was an easily accessible Munro. A check of my blog and hill-bagging gave a surprising result. We did all of the nearby hills in 2013, but I had logged none of them on hill-bagging. That means that my 600th Marilyn at the end of last year wasn't my 600th. It also means that I finished today with my Marilyn count being two higher (and my Munro count 5 higher) without any physical effort at all. 

Aside from spending most of the afternoon typing (phew, I'm finally caught up on my blog posts!), we've also reviewed and modified our plans for tomorrow. More of that in my next post.  

Oh, and we went and used the shower at the Ski Centre, which wouldn't usually be an activity worthy of remark. In Park4Night, there's a turn of phrase often used by French reviewers about sub-standard Aires, which translates as 'It has the merit of existing'. We can say the same about this shower. 'Low pressure' doesn't really do it justice. It did spray, rather than trickle, but the width of the spray was about 3cm and the water dropped straight down about 3cm away from the wall. Added to that, it has a touch sensor on/off switch, and if you get too close to the switch, the water turns off. The only way to get under the water is to stand too close to the switch, which presented something of a challenge. The water temperature was probably warm enough, but there was so little of it that it would have been a wholly unpleasant experience if it wasn't for the underfloor heating keeping the room nice and warm. On the positive side, it was better than no shower at all, and it saved Bertie's gas in heating water for his shower.

 

 View from Bertie's door. What you can't quite see is the piles of rubble and various rubbish just out of shot, or the areas of piste bashers and snow making machines. The surroundings are great, but the car park itself is a bit of a mess.