My last post on this blog had us abandoning Bertie at a secure storage location to the south of Edinburgh on 9 May. From there a lift from A Very Nice Man, a series of trains and a bus had us reach Dornie, on the west coast of Scotland, by 7.30pm. The following morning we set out eastwards on foot and we arrived at Montrose, on the east coast, early on Tuesday 21 May. (The full blog of our walk across Scotland can be read on our walking blog, starting with this post TGO Challenge Day 0 - to Dornie)
Once in Montrose I temporarily abandoned Mick to spend the best part of six hours travelling southwards on trains then driving back north in Bertie, pausing only to restock his fridge and his fuel tank en-route.
Four nights were then spent kipping on a quiet (see footnote 1) non-residential side-street in Montrose, with Bertie demonstrating his value in providing our transport to and from Scotland for the TGO Challenge. In previous years when arriving on the east coast earlier than planned, we have spent multiple nights on the campsite (a backpacking tent is fine when backpacking, but is a bit limited as accommodation when knocking around a town for days) or splashed out on a series of nights in a B&B. This year we had our own bed, a fridge/cupboards full of food to be able to self-cater, plus a whole selection of non-backpacking clothing/shoes at our disposal.
TGO Challenge Control closed at 5pm on Friday 24 May, but we didn't immediately point Bertie's nose southwards, opting to stick around for Montrose parkrun on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Mick had to sit it out, with a poorly ankle (now recovered), but Martin, Sue and I took part, coincidentally in matching t-shirts:
After some outrageously rich cake at the local fruit farm...
...we did finally head homewards, via a night on a moor, a quick visit to Ma-in-Law in Halifax and an hour and a half spent sitting on a closed section of the M1 (an accident about half a mile ahead closed the motorway from the junction about a mile behind us).
This year we gave ourselves a reasonable length of time at home before our summer trip so nothing was a rush.
Thus we found ourselves with a full-packed, sparkling-clean Bertie with a whole day to spare before our next departure. That gave us time to take him to the local weighbridge, which is excellent value, being free as long as you don't want a printed certificate. He came in at 3240kg (just over half of which was on the back axle - see footnote 2) with a full tank of fuel, but without any water and without Mick (who was in the office writing down the numbers). That tells us that even if we had fridge, larder, fuel tank, water tank and toilet all full to capacity (and it's unlikely that'd happen simultaneously), we'd still be within his 3500kg max weight.
Bertie then sat patiently, all fully loaded, for another night, until early on Saturday morning we headed off south again.
(Footnote 1: the street was not busy even in the daytime, but I did wake up on the first night with the knowledge that a vehicle had just passed within feet of my head. After the initial panic of 'Where am I? Am I safe?', I realised I was in Bertie, not in a backpacking tent (cars passing close to your head being far more alarming in the latter, particularly after a couple of weeks mainly spent in the wilds). It then took me a few more moments to work out where Bertie was sitting, before concluding it was acceptable for a car to be passing and going back to sleep.
Footnote 2: for my future reference, we packed table, chairs and Brompton for this trip as well as all of the usual gubbins. We had fully loaded the fridge/freezer before weighing.)
Once in Montrose I temporarily abandoned Mick to spend the best part of six hours travelling southwards on trains then driving back north in Bertie, pausing only to restock his fridge and his fuel tank en-route.
Four nights were then spent kipping on a quiet (see footnote 1) non-residential side-street in Montrose, with Bertie demonstrating his value in providing our transport to and from Scotland for the TGO Challenge. In previous years when arriving on the east coast earlier than planned, we have spent multiple nights on the campsite (a backpacking tent is fine when backpacking, but is a bit limited as accommodation when knocking around a town for days) or splashed out on a series of nights in a B&B. This year we had our own bed, a fridge/cupboards full of food to be able to self-cater, plus a whole selection of non-backpacking clothing/shoes at our disposal.
TGO Challenge Control closed at 5pm on Friday 24 May, but we didn't immediately point Bertie's nose southwards, opting to stick around for Montrose parkrun on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Mick had to sit it out, with a poorly ankle (now recovered), but Martin, Sue and I took part, coincidentally in matching t-shirts:
After some outrageously rich cake at the local fruit farm...
...we did finally head homewards, via a night on a moor, a quick visit to Ma-in-Law in Halifax and an hour and a half spent sitting on a closed section of the M1 (an accident about half a mile ahead closed the motorway from the junction about a mile behind us).
This year we gave ourselves a reasonable length of time at home before our summer trip so nothing was a rush.
Thus we found ourselves with a full-packed, sparkling-clean Bertie with a whole day to spare before our next departure. That gave us time to take him to the local weighbridge, which is excellent value, being free as long as you don't want a printed certificate. He came in at 3240kg (just over half of which was on the back axle - see footnote 2) with a full tank of fuel, but without any water and without Mick (who was in the office writing down the numbers). That tells us that even if we had fridge, larder, fuel tank, water tank and toilet all full to capacity (and it's unlikely that'd happen simultaneously), we'd still be within his 3500kg max weight.
Bertie then sat patiently, all fully loaded, for another night, until early on Saturday morning we headed off south again.
(Footnote 1: the street was not busy even in the daytime, but I did wake up on the first night with the knowledge that a vehicle had just passed within feet of my head. After the initial panic of 'Where am I? Am I safe?', I realised I was in Bertie, not in a backpacking tent (cars passing close to your head being far more alarming in the latter, particularly after a couple of weeks mainly spent in the wilds). It then took me a few more moments to work out where Bertie was sitting, before concluding it was acceptable for a car to be passing and going back to sleep.
Footnote 2: for my future reference, we packed table, chairs and Brompton for this trip as well as all of the usual gubbins. We had fully loaded the fridge/freezer before weighing.)
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