Arriving at the location where we had arranged to meet Louise and David (and their campervan, Ellie) on Friday, it was like being thrown back to a time before the late 1990s. I'm sure all readers of this blog remember the days before most people had mobile phones, when the time and place to meet someone couldn't be changed at the last minute, nor updates of progress or delays given. It's an unusual scenario these days, and thus it felt rather odd to find ourselves in a phoneless situation (i.e. no mobile phone signal) awaiting the arrival of Ellie.
The lack of modern comms mattered not in the event. Exactly in the middle of the ETA window given days in advance, at 9.15pm, in the pitch dark, Ellie slipped into the space next to Bertie. It might have been a different matter if Bertie hadn't been the only white-box-on-wheels in the car park, as Louise confessed that she probably wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line-up.
Refreshments and chatting ensued whilst rain pattered down on Bertie's roof. A jolly good time, and a late night, was had.
Saturday dawned a fine day! Yay! After a week of rain, we had a good forecast for two consecutive days!
We don't get to see Louise and David very often (on account of living 500 miles apart), and we'd not yet met their van Ellie, so Saturday morning was taken up with a tour (and much admiration) of Ellie. We might then have gone out for a walk, except it was time for elevenses. It was gone 1pm (but pre-lunch) by the time we got ourselves out the door for the walk that I've written about on t'other blog, here
Action Selfie
Back at Bertie/Ellie, the rest of the day passed away with tea/beer/wine (according to who was doing the drinking), curry and some spectacularly good cake.
I caught some unfortunate facial expressions in this snap of us eating spectacularly good cake, baked by Louise
A relocation to Kingussie took place on Sunday morning as a run was on the agenda and it had been agreed that the cycle path between Kingussie and Newtonmore (the very one we'd run with Martin and Sue a week previously) met the elevation and distance brief nicely. This week the weather was far more amenable to the activity and another lovely chatty run was had. It's been so enjoyable to have two consecutive chatty Sunday runs. I shall miss that in future weeks.
There was an inversion on Sunday morning (just 1 degree as we drove along the valley) which gave an atmospheric view as we passed Ruthven Barracks.
In hindsight we could have gone out for a stroll on Sunday afternoon, but I think the main reason that no-one suggested that was because in a bizarre disruption to the usual linearity of time, one minute it was half past eleven and we were having a post-run elevenses and the next minute it was approaching 5pm and it was time for us to head in opposite directions.
Louise, David and van Ellie were waved off northwards as Bertie's nose was pointed south. A quick look at the weather forecast and a map had led me to choose a hill to climb on Monday, the location of which suggested the use of an overnighting spot we've used before, just to the north of Dalwhinnie.
I can't remember exactly when, but at some point after dark (but well before bedtime) it started to rain. At least it had stayed stopped for the weekend and we crossed our fingers that the forecast would come good for a fine day on Monday.
The lack of modern comms mattered not in the event. Exactly in the middle of the ETA window given days in advance, at 9.15pm, in the pitch dark, Ellie slipped into the space next to Bertie. It might have been a different matter if Bertie hadn't been the only white-box-on-wheels in the car park, as Louise confessed that she probably wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line-up.
Refreshments and chatting ensued whilst rain pattered down on Bertie's roof. A jolly good time, and a late night, was had.
Saturday dawned a fine day! Yay! After a week of rain, we had a good forecast for two consecutive days!
We don't get to see Louise and David very often (on account of living 500 miles apart), and we'd not yet met their van Ellie, so Saturday morning was taken up with a tour (and much admiration) of Ellie. We might then have gone out for a walk, except it was time for elevenses. It was gone 1pm (but pre-lunch) by the time we got ourselves out the door for the walk that I've written about on t'other blog, here
Back at Bertie/Ellie, the rest of the day passed away with tea/beer/wine (according to who was doing the drinking), curry and some spectacularly good cake.
A relocation to Kingussie took place on Sunday morning as a run was on the agenda and it had been agreed that the cycle path between Kingussie and Newtonmore (the very one we'd run with Martin and Sue a week previously) met the elevation and distance brief nicely. This week the weather was far more amenable to the activity and another lovely chatty run was had. It's been so enjoyable to have two consecutive chatty Sunday runs. I shall miss that in future weeks.
In hindsight we could have gone out for a stroll on Sunday afternoon, but I think the main reason that no-one suggested that was because in a bizarre disruption to the usual linearity of time, one minute it was half past eleven and we were having a post-run elevenses and the next minute it was approaching 5pm and it was time for us to head in opposite directions.
Louise, David and van Ellie were waved off northwards as Bertie's nose was pointed south. A quick look at the weather forecast and a map had led me to choose a hill to climb on Monday, the location of which suggested the use of an overnighting spot we've used before, just to the north of Dalwhinnie.
I can't remember exactly when, but at some point after dark (but well before bedtime) it started to rain. At least it had stayed stopped for the weekend and we crossed our fingers that the forecast would come good for a fine day on Monday.
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