Sunday & Monday 28&29 May: Braithewaite & Shap

Where was Bertie? Sunday - the same minor road by Braithewaite as was used by Erica on 1 May; Monday - the same pull in on a B-road by Shap we've used a number of times before.
Weather: Glorious! 22 degrees on Monday (Sunday got warmer as we drove south, topping out at about 20)

On Friday I looked at where we might go on Sunday for Mick's long run. Options included taking a detour between Montrose and home to go via Braemar (for a circuit of the Lochnagar hills) or Dalwhinnie (to do a circuit we'd wanted to do pre-TGOC, if circumstances hadn't kept us at home).

Then it occurred to me that the detour to the Lakeland 100 route between Braithewaite and Dacre was not only minor* but it's also the only part of the route that is suitable for support to be provided from a vehicle of Bertie's size. Someone then pointed out that it was not only a Bank Holiday weekend, but also school holidays, and thus the Lake District was likely to be a busy place. My concession to this fact was to move Mick's run to Monday; otherwise I decided that the places I wanted to park wouldn't be significantly affected by the holiday.

Having left Arbroath (after going out for breakfast) late on Sunday morning, and with stops for groceries, fuel and a late lunch (the first two almost together; the latter much later), it was about tea time as we arrived in Braithewaite and settled Bertie into the side road for the night.

View from Bertie's front bumper this morning

We're both still in need of more sleep, but in the interests of heat avoidance Mick was up at 6 and out the door at quarter past seven. Not many minutes later I set off too, for a remarkably quick and easy drive along the A66 to some parking on a minor road that lay 17km into Mick's route.

Mick duly came along, ate his sandwich, necked a pint of water, had me top up the food and drink that he was carrying before trotting off again.

My intention had been to stay in that road until Mick was almost done, whereupon I would tootle a few more miles E along the A66 to wait in a layby. Perusing the map whilst I killed time, I explored intermediate places I could park and calculated that if I drove to a parking area on a minor road near Troutbeck and got the Brompton bike out then I may just be able to intercept Mick as he reached the end of the Old Coach Road.

As it turned out, by the time I'd parked, faffed, got the bike out and huffed and puffed up to the high point of the A591 between the A66 and Ullswater, I was cutting it too fine. A message from Mick said that he was 500m away from where I'd wanted to meet him and I was too far away. Not all was lost. The downhill involved in going via Dockray wasn't welcome (for the ascent it would involve on the way back), but it did speed me along to reach that point before Mick did. I met him half way up the minor road to the W of Dockray, about 30 seconds after a cyclist had told me that no, they hadn't recently passed a runner.

Mick, water bottles topped up, half a sandwich added to his food, and back off down the road towards Aria Force

My trusty steed for the day. On 2 May Erica was the only vehicle in this car park; rather more popular a place today!

A bit more toiling uphill, then the amount of whooshing downhill by far outweighed the ups.

There's Bertie, patiently awaiting my return.

I didn't move to the end-of-day pick-up location until just before I expected Mick to get there. A layby on a dual carriageway section of the A66 was never going to be a pleasant place to sit and wait, but I timed it well and wasn't there for more than 10 minutes.

Another 15 minutes had us in this pull-in by Shap to while away the rest of the afternoon and spend the night.

My route on the bike. 14.5km with 250m ascent.

Mick's route on foot, using rather less informative base mapping (I've used a screen grab from Strava for this one). 42.2km, 1200m ascent.

Snaps from Mick's day

There was a much bigger forest there a month ago!


(*It would have been a more minor detour if the driver hadn't been so interested in what was being said on the radio as we left the M6 that, rather than joining the A66 they sailed merrily back onto the M6, resulting in a 20-mile round trip to get back to that roundabout. The navigator did exclaim "Where are you going?!" as the wrong exit was taken, but (thinking that the driver knew which exit to take and thus didn't need direction) but not in sufficient time to prevent the error.)

TGO Challenge 2023

Where was Bertie? 9 May: motorhome parking area in Gretna Green where it costs £5 for a night (no facilities; exact location: 55.0024, -3.04971). 10-18 May: Newtonmore Hostel. 19-26 May: Park Hotel, Montrose. 27 May: motorhome parking area, Arbroath (exact location: 56.55293, -2.58721).

We'd not been free to leave home until mid-afternoon on 9 May, so we made our aiming point for the night somewhere around Carlisle. I'd identified an overnight stop a couple of miles off the M6, but having made and eaten tea there, I was of the opinion that there was too much passing traffic for a good night's sleep. Surveying options, we decided that £5 for a reportedly quiet spot in Gretna was worthwhile.

Nightstop in Gretna

Looking the other way. There were lots of trains, including freight, but I didn't notice them overnight.

Arriving in Newtonmore on 10 May, manoeuvring Bertie through the gates and onto the drive was more straightforward than two years ago, thanks to the obstructive rowan tree being no more. As the rain came down outside, we set up TGO Challenge Control in the dining room, ready for the start of the event on Thursday 11th.

TGO Challenge Control in full swing a couple of days later. That's Ali (joint owner of the event) sitting next to Mick. 

The eight days in Newtonmore passed by swiftly, with long days manning Challenge Control, with me and Mick taking it in turns for early morning runs on the trails between Newtonmore and Loch Gynack, mainly in good weather. Communal meals were shared each evening, hoping that the Challenge Control phone wouldn't ring too much whilst we ate.

Martin & Sue arrived on the Monday, not only providing welcome help with manning the desk, but also providing meals for us - photos of which can be found on Martin's blog.

By Friday 19th, the cumulative effect of the late nights and early mornings was catching up on me, so the 0530 alarm wasn't welcome, but was necessary* as Challenge Control was on the move. By 9am we were all set up in the Kinnaird Room at the Park Hotel in Montrose, ready to welcome the first finishers.

Challenge Control on the move. Note that Bertie is left hand drive, so contrary to initial impressions, this was taken from the passenger seat. 

It's almost unheard of, after the first couple of days of the Challenge (when there are few check-ins), for all Challengers who are scheduled to check in on any given day to remember their obligations, but in a freak incident everyone on the list on that Friday was accounted for by 9.02pm. I don't recall that ever happening on a peak day before! There were no documents to trawl through and no risk assessments to complete. Instead, we counted our blessings and took our weary selves off to bed before 9.30pm.

Time again passed quickly, interspersed on the Monday with another move, but this time just from the Kinnaird Room (on the first floor) to the Garden Room (on the ground floor; it hadn't been available for the first three days we were in Montrose). The downstairs location is more convenient, as Bertie serves not just as sleeping quarters for me & Mick, but also provides self-catering and refrigeration facilities for the team. My attempts at discretion in carrying a pan of lentil stew through the hotel up to the first floor proved to be messy; being able to go straight from Bertie and in through the fire exit of the Garden Room was easier!

At 4.30pm on Friday 26th, the final finishing Challenger came through the door, Challenge Control was taken down and stowed in Co-ordinator Ali's car, and to the final celebratory dinner we went (there are four throughout the week; we only attended the final one, after Challenge Control had closed).

Those helping on Challenge Control get given a gift by way of a thank you. I'm awkward to buy for as the usual bottle of alcohol is no good for me. This year, in addition to a stash of dark chocolate, I got a 'cook the perfect egg' device - a thoughtful gift that I was grateful to receive**

This morning (Saturday 27 May, in case I follow my recent trend and fail to post this for another 4 weeks or months!) there was one final social gathering to attend: Montrose parkrun.

A collection of 2023 TGO Challenge baselayers (a bit warm in today's conditions) at Montrose parkrun. The person in this snap who is not me, Mick or Martin, is a first time Challenger who came along to run in her walking shorts and camp sandals. The latter had fallen apart in the first week and were being held together by glue and duct tape.

A slightly different collection of TGO Challenge branded clothing

With nothing on the agenda for today, when Martin & Sue asked if we were going to Charleton fruit farm after the run, we thought it an excellent idea. We dragged Neil & Sue along too (Sue O = other joint owner of the TGO Challenge).

Five strawberry tarts and a breakfast roll for Neil who broke the Montrose parkrun course record in his age category this morning.

Dropping Neil and Sue back off in Montrose, a decision was then needed: where were we going today? I set the SatNav for Perth to give us time to think. In the event, we made it just 11 miles down the road to Arbroath. Lunchtime was upon us, so we thought we'd just pull into the motorhome parking area for lunch.

Walking back towards town, we spotted the 'no motorhomes beyond this point' sign that we'd missed on our way in. There were probably a dozen vehicles beyond that point, but the sign is there for a reason and we weren't prepared to add to the problem of people ignoring it. A quick check that there was nowhere available within the permitted area, and the decision was made that we would have to drive on. Turning Bertie around was a multi-part manoeuvre in a narrow roadway, with kerbs either side and no turning place, and by the time we got back to the entrance one of the cars parked in the motorhome area had just moved. Score!

We celebrated with a lunch of Arbroath smokies...

...followed by an ice cream on the harbour:

The day has become increasingly clear and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky as I type this, but it's not been that warm, especially with the wind, hence the insulated jackets.

By the time we got back to Bertie we could see no sense in moving on. We shall spend the night here, literally stone's throw from the North Sea.

Looking towards the harbour from Bertie's front bumper. 

Overall, a fairly exhausting but fun two weeks spent in good company. 

A few snaps from runs taken from Newtonmore to Loch Gynack:

(*Officially, Challenge Control is open from 9am to 9pm, but there's usually at least one person working from 8am. At the end of the day the 'Overdue Challenger' process starts at 8.30pm and usually goes on until gone 10pm; at least one night it was 11pm. We take it in turns to take the phones to bed with us. The move to Montrose had to take place outside of the opening hours, and I did wonder whether we would have been better setting out at 10.30pm, rather than 5.30am, which I think would have netted us half an hour more sleep.
**I cooked quite a few successful meals, and prepared a lot of sandwiches, over the course of the two weeks, but the one thing that I seem to have a complete inability to store in my head is the timings for cooking eggs, either soft or hard boiled. This, therefore, was a perfect gift.)

Tuesday 2 May - Braithwaite, Dockray and Wreay

(typed on 3 May; posted on 27 May when I remembered it was still sitting as a draft) 

More flies landed in the ointment over the weekend, scuppering our plan for a week away, including a few days in the Lakes for Mick to recce another section of the Lakeland 100 course. However, the circumstances in question had led us to be in Halifax, and it became apparent on Sunday that we would be free to be absent on Tuesday. As Halifax is much nearer to the Lakes than home is, we swiftly hatched a plan that was to span from Monday evening until Tuesday afternoon.

The plan wasn’t so advanced as to have identified somewhere to stay last night, but I had a few ideas, and just before 7pm we settled into a spot on a minor road (a legacy section of the old A66) that is now effectively an overly long layby, right by Braithwaite.

After an evening spent watching most of the snooker final on a 10" screen, a surprisingly undisturbed night was had (considering that the A66 is a busy road and we weren’t far away from it). The end of the snooker was watched over breakfast, then after a little faffing, it was time for me to wave Mick off down the road.

My job today was incredibly easy, compared to the previous recce trips, with no circuitous 1.5 hour drives on tiny roads to get to somewhere ten miles away as the crow flies. This time it was the L100 route that takes an indirect line, giving me just a 20-minute drive to a little car park at the end of the Old Coach Road, a mile W of Dockray.

Half an hour of faffing saw sandwiches made and a flask filled (so I could have Mick’s lunch on the table* within 30 seconds of his arrival), and me changed into my running gear, ready to head out.

I’d only just joined the ex-railway line just S of Threlkeld when I saw Mick trotting towards me. I turned, then trailed in his wake as he strode up the next hill (in my defence, I did 35km on the Pennine Way on Sunday, so my legs weren’t entirely fresh). However, come the first downhill, having offloaded my excess water into Mick’s bottle and established that he didn’t need more food, I ran away from him, not wanting to interfere with what he was trying to achieve. I felt like I was going at a reasonable clip, but over the course of the last 6km back to Erica, I can’t have gained much more than 60 seconds on him.

A pause in Erica for an early lunch and a cup of tea, then Mick was off again, for a final 10km to Wreay, via Aira Force (busy, he reported, with lots of paths trying to lead him astray). My drive was again short and simple, with just the small detail that I had no idea where I could park when I got there (we had intended to stay at a campsite near Wreay tonight, allowing me to go straight there, and Mick to run in later; we now needed to return to Halifax at the end of the day). I found somewhere just about acceptable, although Erica did object slightly to needing to snuggle up quite so closely to a prickly hedgerow.

Mick duly strode up the road a while later, having had a thoroughly enjoyable day, covering just shy of 37km with 1100m of ascent. It was only as we drove past Dalemain (the next Check Point on the L100 course) a few minutes later that he contemplated that maybe he should have carried on to that point.

Hopefully, we'll manage another recce in June, but first there's to be a trip to Scotland. 

View from Erica's side window on Monday night

View inside Erica on Monday night

Tuesday - chasing Mick uphill

Mick chasing me along the Old Coach Road

Mick's snap taken E of Skiddaw where the route goes up one side of the valley only to turn around and come back down the other side 

Ullswater

Helicopter with a suspended bag of something, providing a bit of distraction

Spot the failure to navigate as I merrily continued down the Old Coach Road for 0.5km after I should have left it. Considering I was just doing an out-and-back, and there was no chance that I’d missed Mick during the deviation, it did no harm.

(*Metaphorically. Erica doesn't have a table. She does, perhaps, need one)