Tuesday 15 June to Friday 25 June

June 15&16

Where was Bertie? 15^th On a dead-end section of old road adjacent to the A713 at Green Well of Scotland (not the same dead-end section of old road adjacent to the A713 we’d slept on the night before – that one was at Polharrow Bridge); 16^th: Blair Castle Campsite (£25).

Weather: 15^th: Overcast but largely dry, save for a couple or three relatively short-lived showers. 16^th: wet!

Last week I started writing a blog post about these days, and couldn’t shake the feeling that I was repeating myself. I wrote a bit, deleted it, wrote it again and deleted it again. Finally I remembered the detail of the post I’d already written*. I’ve searched everywhere I can think where I may have put those words, but I seem to have lost them.

In brief: On the Monday we went up a couple of hills. On the Tuesday, a decidedly wet day, we drove from Dumfries and Galloway to Blair Atholl, via diesel and supermarket stops in Perth. Our night at Blair Castle campsite (one of our least favourite campsites ever, yet one to which we keep returning because it’s so conveniently located) can be summarised as spending £25 purely because we fancied long, hot showers (we did also take the opportunity to fill water, but we could have achieved that elsewhere, had we been so minded).

(*That original draft focussed on the fact that we’d left home with a total of 62.5 litres of water on board and that by 16 June we were getting desperate for water and feeling glad we’d economised by not having a single shower in the preceding week. Apparently, the average daily per capita usage of water in the UK is 142 litres.)

June 17- 25

Where was Bertie? He managed to squeeze between the narrow gateposts, avoid the satellite dish, and didn’t quite manage to duck under some trees, to access the parking area at Newtonmore Hostel.

Weather: Mainly forecast good, then materialising disappointingly wet. Ridiculously cool for the time of year. One night got down to 3 degrees, and even daytime temperatures were more early spring that summer.

Thursday was the day we were scheduled to travel to Newtonmore, but I managed to convince Mick that, rather than trying to get our money’s worth by staying on Blair Atholl campsite until noon, we should leave early and visit a round of four hills on our way (quite literally on our way; they required no detour at all from the A9). It was a fine day in very decent weather.

The next eight days fundamentally looked like this:

This year, TGO Challenge Control spent its first week in Newtonmore, in the hostel, which gave a the massive benefit of being three steps away from a very well equipped kitchen, allowing us to self-cater whilst still manning the phones. Having Bertie a dozen paces away outside also worked out well*.

With the Challenge being a much smaller event this year, there was leeway for one of us at a time to take time off. I thus managed to fit in a 50km run on the Sunday morning. I chose Sunday based on the forecast; in reality the cloud was low and failing to hold onto its moisture. Fortunately, it didn't start raining in earnest until about ten or fifteen minutes before I finished my outing. I found it incredible that after that I was still in a fit state to string sentences together, answer phones and do my duties until gone 9pm. 

(*TGO Challenge Control is usually located at the Park Hotel in Montrose for the full two weeks of the event. On the face of it, Bertie is also conveniently located there, in the car park, but I concluded over the course of last week that the big difference isn’t the need to go up and down stairs and through reception to access him from the Control room at the hotel, but the fact that every time we need to nip into him for something, we have to unset/set his alarm and undo two sets of locks, whereas in Newtonmore we could comfortably leave him unlocked as: 1) he was within our sight; 2) he was tucked away from the road behind a house; and 3) there was no way someone could nick off with him at speed (note my comments about tight gate posts and trees!) or without us noticing.)

Loch Gynack during a calm period

At the point that I squeezed between these cows I was unaware that they'd nearly killed someone last year. 

 

Thursday - Monday 10-14 June

Thursday
Where was Bertie? In the car park at Black Loch (SW of Clatteringshaws, Dumfries & Galloway)
Weather: Disappointing! Fog, fog and more fog, with some rain thrown in.

The pull-in by Shap is an exposed spot (which we already knew from past experience) and the wind picked up considerably overnight. The resultant buffetting disturbed Mick's slumber more than mine, but we were both awake early (although not as early as our neighbours, who had already left by the time we opened our blinds).

Fog was the theme of the day, as we drove to our destination, held up considerably on the Dumfries bypass by four way temporary traffic lights at some roadworks on a roundabout.

Taken just west of Dumfries, just before the road climbed into even worse visibility.

The cloud was down at 150m when we parked at Black Loch, from where I intended a circuit of two hills. In the event, we did one on Thursday and I did the other on Friday morning (as reported in full on t'other blog).

Friday to Sunday
Where was Bertie? in Glen Trool
Weather: Friday afternoon and Saturday were okay. Sunday started fine but became grey and wet.

Not long after we settled Bertie in the car park at the end of Glen Trool, two cyclists came along. One of them, who nearly ran into Bertie as he failed to unclip from his pedal in an elegant manner, loudly exclaimed, whilst nodding towards Bertie: "How did they get that up here?!". I resisted the urge to pop my head out and tell him that we drove up the public road.

We had, however, had to breathe in and duck to achieve that, with trees overgrowing the road for the last few hundred metres.

Between Friday afternoon and Sunday lunchtime, I managed to do all of the hills I wanted to visit from there (again, reported on the other blog, if you're interested). I even got a view from most of them.

A random selection of snaps from the hills. 

We could then have left the glen, except that given the number of cars we'd witnessed coming and going, even into the evenings, and knowing that our progress along the road would be slow due to the overhanging trees, and certainly not wanting to meet an oncoming vehicle, it seemed that the best time for us to leave would be 6am. So, we opted to stay for one more night (whilst once again the midges held a midge-fest outside). 

Monday
Where's Bertie? He's been in lots of places today: a car park in Newton Stewart; an official 'Stay the Night' location at Clatteringshaws Loch; a car park in St John's Town of Dalry; and, finally, a pull in off the A713 a few miles north of Dalry.
Weather: Some sunshine, some cloud and a small amount of light rain. Quite cool.

Up at 0550, and on the road at 0600, we didn't meet any vehicles either on the skinny section of road, nor indeed anywhere in Glen Trool, as we bobbed and rattled our way out of the glen on a road of quite awful quality.

I'd commented to Mick last night that there were two more hills I'd like to visit just a few miles north, but accessing them would involve a drive along a tiny road and I'd not checked it out on StreetView. It was only after we arrived in Newton Stewart that it occurred to me that we had turned onto that road between two large logging trucks who had just come down from the direction of those hills, suggesting that we could easily have driven up there.

We were in Newton Stewart by 0630 and, in need of supplies, we intended to have breakfast in Aldi's car park, whilst waiting for the store to open at 8. We were slightly waylaid just a few yards short when I spotted a public toilet. I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to empty our cassette, even though our next intended stop was a service point.

As odd as it might seem, I wish I'd taken a photo as it must be the smallest public toilet I've ever come across. In a building about the size you would expect for such a facility, the door to the only open toilet was about half the width of a normal door and opened (outwards - no room for it to open inwards) to a space considerably smaller than your average cubicle in a multi-toileted set of public toilets. There was no room for a sink and thus whilst I was able to empty the cassette, I wasn't able to rinse it. Or so I thought at the time. We're obviously out of practice at this motorhoming malarkey, as what we usually do in such a situation is drain some water from the grey tank and use that to flush the cassette, but that didn't occur to me until later (when the smell emanating from the now-empty cassette was, ummmm, what's an appropriate word? Powerful?).

Around to Aldi we then went, to find it in the middle of a 1-week refurb closure. What bad luck! Fortunately, there was a Sainsbury's across the road, so it was in their car park that we breakfasted and in their store that I shopped.

Next to Clatteringshaw's Loch, which is the location for one of Forestry Scotland's 'Stay the Night' official motorhome overnight parking areas. We didn't want to stay, but we were hoping the service point there would have a tap. It didn't, but we did take the opportunity to belately use our grey water to flush the cassette into their toilet emptying point. We stayed there an hour, paying for a ticket to do so, in return for their provision of the facility.

Next onto St John's Town of Dalry, where we stayed a night (in the Inn) whilst walking the Southern Upland Way a few years ago. Today we just wanted somewhere to sit for a few hours, having decided that today was a rest day from the hills.

After four days of being parked with no phone reception, we made good use of the signal we had there and we also gave some custom to the snack wagon outside one of the Inns (discovered whilst walking a circuit of this 'Town' that is more of a small village), opting for burger (Mick) and chips (both) for lunch.

Finally, at tea time, we moved on again, coming to the foot of the road up which we want to drive in the morning, to access tomorrow's hill. It may be that the car park at the top of the road would be suitable for a night-stop, but we didn't want to drive up there to find that it isn't, so this spot, just off the main road will do for tonight, even if it's not the most level spot we've ever pitched in.

Wednesday 9 June - to Shap

Where's Bertie? He's in a roadside pull-in (layby would be too grand a description) not far from Shap. He's been here more than once before.
Weather: Gloriously sunny and low 20s as we left home. Fog upon arrival.

Back in the days when we both had office jobs, we would have thought nothing of starting a trip in an evening, but these days it's a highly non-standard thing for us to do. Our original plan had been to set out tomorrow morning, but that would have given us a whole day of driving and no time to do anything else. So, I pondered, why not drive half of the journey tonight, after my late-afternoon dentist's appointment was over? We'd leave once rush hour had subsided and with the long hours of daylight at this time of year, would arrive before the sun set.

Delayed by overnight road works (but fortunately making it through just before the complete closure and associated diversion came into effect), our journey was prolonged, but eventually we pulled off the M6 in the gloaming, with fingers crossed that our intended halt would be vacant. It was semi-vacant, with plenty of room for us. We've even managed to find a spot that's almost level.

That we are in fog doesn't bode well for cloud free summits on tomorrow's hills!

Snippets from May - Part 2

15 May

I finished the cardigan I'd been knitting, it being a replacement, to the same pattern, as one made for me by Ma-in-Law around 18-20 years ago:

New on the left; Ma-in-Law original on the right. The zip insertion was sufficiently traumatic that I may never knit a zipped garment again.

16 May

We went out for breakfast, although not in the most conventional manner nor in the most salubrious surroundings. We ran into town and sat on the patio at McDonald's (indoor eating in England didn't restart until the following day), which is sandwiched between roads, had a McMuffin breakfast, then ran home. Good eating-mid-run training! 

17 May

I began to question the wisdom of my latest crochet project, when it took me over 4 hours to make the first square (of very many). 

(I've since got to grips with the pattern a bit better and as of today (3 June) I've made 6, the latest of which is reasonably neat. I've currently got the time for a square down to around an hour and a half, but I'm hoping I'll eventually get nearer to an hour.) 

18-20 May

Our impromptu trip to Carsington Water, about which I blogged separately.

22 May

Another breakfast date. This time we ran a longer route into town, sat inside McDonald's whilst it teemed down outside... 

...then ran home in slightly damp conditions (particularly underfoot where the canal had overflowed, inundating the towpath):

23 May

Erica was packed for her longest trip to date and...

...we took our first ever Covid Lateral Flow Tests, as it seemed like a polite thing to do before going into somebody else's house.

24 May

No photos, but up to the Lakes via lunch with friends in Lancashire. Oh the novelty of being inside someone else's house!

27 May

I failed to write a post about the last day of our Lakes trip. Mick had a 2-hour walk on the agenda and I thought I'd join him for the first 5km, before returning to Erica to ready her for the homeward journey. I then got a bit carried away and after the allotted distance decided to add on another few kilometres, mitigating the time impact by bursting into a trot. Mick managed to continue at a walk for another kilometre after I left him, whereupon he also couldn't resist a bit more speed, which meant that he finished up having done a lap and a half of the Torver-Coniston circuit. 

We were still off the campsite well before noon, which was a good thing as a road closure had us taking a slower route to Conrad's house for our 1pm date for tea, cake and a good catch up. 

 

Snaps from the morning's run. I should have taken a pic of the array of cakes and pastries at Conrad's house!

29 May

I had a bit of time free so thought I'd see if I could make myself look like Eminem:

30 May

A hot forecast with wall-to-wall sunshine from 6am, combined with a 42km run on my schedule, had me up and out of bed early. The immediate reality was murky conditions with dew-drenched grass. 

Having squelched the first half-marathon circuit I returned home to replenish my water and snacks, and to change to my road shoes for the next circuit, which wasn't on road, but was mainly on tracks and paths rather than through long grass. The weather finally came good during the second half-marathon circuit.

Snippets from May - Part 1

 1 May

The canal was like a millpond. So much more attractive than when it's choppy or when high water is giving it too much flow. 

2-7 May

The Coniston Trip, which got its own series of posts. Here's the most random photo from my camera reel from those days:

A photo of my feet. Why?!

 9 May

The ford was running high, which I'm sure can't be normal at this time of year:

Tracks were puddly:

Fields had been ploughed:

And I planted out the first batch of runner beans:

10 May

Is it possible to buy a set of levelling ramps that will fit in Erica's under-floor storage area? Having gone out to Erica to take measurements, but failed to take a pen and paper with me (and being too lazy to walk the few steps back to get those items), I employed the camera instead.

Answer: I've found some that will fit in the spaces under Erica's floor, but they're not wide enough for her tyres. 

11 May

More cross-country running. Of particular note here was the amount of yellow in the meadow, from the dandelions.

12 May

I've a whole set of videos from this day, but no still photos. Finally we got around to tinting Erica's windows, for which I've since posted a video.

13 May

A busy day! It started with an early (and slightly unenthusiastic) run across the estate, where I was taken aback to find the sea of yellow from 2 days ago to now be a sea of white, with the dandelion heads having gone to seed.  

Then came my second Covid jab. No idea why I got it only 6 weeks after my first, but who am I to argue?

Then we went into town! We browsed real shops! We bought things! In the circumstances, I argue that all of those exclamation marks are appropriate.

One of the purchases (although not requiring browsing as I'd already sent the shop the list of colours that I wanted and they had them ready for me)

Then we went home and did some more window tinting and videoing. 

Gosh, when was the last time we had that productive a day?!