Monday to Wednesday 19-21 June – Cannock Chase

Where’s Bertie? He’s spending two nights at Tackeroo Campsite on Cannock Chase, where it costs £20 per night, unless you manage to get one of the 5-per-day ‘early bird’ pitches, which we did on Tuesday, so our stay came to £35.

Weather: Monday – sunny and warm; Tuesday – heavy rain until about 1030, giving way to drizzle then finally coming sunny in the late afternoon; Wednesday – Sunny intervals and warm.

Monday

We’re having a little holiday, in a location so close to home that it’s not just ‘day trip’ territory, but ‘We’ll just nip there for a 10k run’ territory, staying at the campsite opposite the car park we usually use, and through which our usual circuit around the Chase runs.

So close to home are we that even with a need to nip to a supermarket en-route, we left home at gone noon and arrived two minutes after the earliest arrival time of 1300. Leaving home we had a brief discussion as to route, and opted to go the way we would usually travel, even though it involves a short narrow section of road – no problem unless you meet a lorry or bus coming the other way. With weight limits on surrounding roads, it’s not often these days that lorries use that road and I reasoned that with the bus service only running one per hour, the chances of meeting a bus were, oooh, around 99% certain.

We duly met the bus at the narrowest bit of road.

With some water put into Bertie’s tank (something we would have done before leaving home, except that if we were going to pay £20 just to park somewhere for a  night, then I was jolly well going to use their water supply), it only took us a few moments to choose where to plonk Bertie. There are no marked pitches, and capacity for around 70 units. With seven units there on Monday and five on Tuesday, there was no need to consider best use of space; instead we just chose to put Bertie in the biggest patch of sunshine we could see.

Bertie in a nice big clearing, allowing the sun to reach his solar panel

Not much to report from the rest of the day. Our activity only extended to a late afternoon circuit via the Visitor Centre.

Tuesday

Today was the reason for taking a holiday so close to home. Last week we travelled to the Lakes for Mick to do a couple of long runs, but due to the high temperatures/lack of water, we postponed for a week. This week, rather than driving all the way back to the Lakes, we went for the logistically easy option of Cannock Chase: even if the temperature had been just as hot as last week, Mick could run circuits of whatever size seemed appropriate for the frequency of water refills he wanted. Clearly, we could have driven over just for the day, as we have uncountable times before, but by staying over we could call it a holiday and have an extra half an hour in bed whilst still achieving an early start.

I’d planned to join Mick for his first lap, but when I heard the rain drumming down, postponing my run seemed like a much better idea, so it was just Mick who headed out at 0715.

I then planned to join Mick for his second lap, but the rain was still drumming down when he popped by for second breakfast, so I postponed again. It’s not entirely that I’m a fair-weather runner, more the thought of how much wet stuff we would have lying around if we both got soaked.

By the time Mick was an hour through his next lap, my feet were itchy and the rain had slowed to a drizzle, so I headed out to intercept him. I only stayed with him for a couple of kilometres, cutting back to Bertie when we reached the Visitor Centre so that I could have his next set of food and drink waiting for him.

As he headed out for his final lap, I followed a minute later, but in a different direction. Figuring that our paces wouldn’t be well-matched, I opted for a different (and shorter) route. The drizzle finally stopped just as I was on my way back to Bertie. By the time Mick got back the sun was coming out.

Rain has nearly, but not quite, stopped

That's not Bertie, but some of Bertie is visible in the distance. There really is a lot of room on this site when there are only four vehicles there (as was the case when I took this snap)

It had been a successful day, with Mick covering just over 51km. Understandably, after showers, we’ve sat around for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

A gloriously sunny day and a ‘please vacate your pitch by 11am’ request, so we were up and out again by 0730, Mick for a gentle 2 hours, me for a little longer.

We set out together, but soon lost each other

I managed to take a wrong turn somewhere along the way, which is quite impressive considering how many times I’ve done this route and where I went awry (had it been in the area to the north of Penkridge Bank, I could have used the excuse that the paths currently look completely different from what we’re used to due to the bracken, but I was on the forest tracks on the south side, which look exactly as they always do), but other than adding in a bit of extra ascent, it made no difference to my objectives.

Sunshine!

Water's low 

Back at Bertie, it would have been nice to spend the rest of the day lazing around in the pleasant forest setting, but we weren’t at liberty to do that*, so everything got packed away and back home we came.  

We clearly mistimed our journey, as this time we met the once-per-hour bus a couple of hundred metres before the narrow bit of road.

A surprisingly good time was had, not so much with our circuits of the Chase (which we do quite regularly anyway and are always lovely), but staying over on site. So, whilst the campsite is undoubtedly well overpriced for what it is (facilities = tap (not for exclusive use of paying campsite guests), chemical disposal point and bin; and it’s not at all private with walkers, runners, mountain bikers and horse riders coming through at all times), we would go back, provided we could get an ‘early bird’ pitch.

(*I’m beginning to think that the NHS has invested in a ‘they’ve gone away for a week’ sensor, as it’s becoming uncanny how many times lately we’ve gone away, intending the trip to last a week, only to receive a phone call from appointments that requires us to return home. For this trip we’d packed for a week, albeit without a plan as to where we were going after Cannock Chase.)

 

Sunday - Wednesday 11-14 June - Coniston

Saturday

Everything started per plan. After witnessing the smashing of a course record at parkrun, we headed off to Halifax to see Ma-in-Law.

Sunday

We continued per plan. Bearing cakes, we travelled via Conrad in Arnside, where we’d intended to just pop by for tea and cake on our way to Coniston. “Just popping by” turned into four hours of most enjoyable chatting.

A constant stream of traffic was exiting south from the Lakes as we headed in, and we arrived in Coniston to find our desired parking spot to be free. Didn’t end up sleeping in that exact spot, mind, due to a drunk driver and fear for Erica’s body work. The spot just down the road turned out to be where we would spend the next three nights.

Monday

This is where we veered off plan, and away from the very reason for this trip to the Lakes. The plan for Monday had been that Mick was going to travel from Coniston to Braithwaite on foot, whilst I drove around, meeting him in Boot and Buttermere on the way. The forecast when we left home had been a bit on the warm side (24 degrees), but manageable. When I checked the forecasts again at bedtime on Sunday night the prediction was 30 degrees (with an overnight low of 20, so even the 5am alarm wasn’t going to give cool conditions), and whilst heat acclimatisation would be beneficial, getting heat stroke would not be. We ran through various options before deciding to take advantage of the fact that Mick has time in hand in his training plan. If he didn’t need to do silly-long distances in silly-hot heat, then he shouldn’t.

So, instead of a long linear route, Mick did two shorter routes, the first an out-and-back, the second a circuit, broken by a refreshment break in Erica. As I now didn't need to drive anywhere, I joined Mick for the first outing. During his second I nipped into Coniston and treated Erica to a new kettle, to replace her remarkably poor quality, and too small*, Regatta one.

Later there was a successful quest for ice cream, which was followed by a spell of people-watching from a bench.  

Our parking spot proved to be perfect in the weather. Under heavy tree cover, and with Erica’s sliding door discreetly open against a dry stone wall (rather than facing the road), it never got unbearably hot inside her. We even had a view of the river.

Hot day = not much clothing needed

View from Erica's sliding door

Late afternoon situation. 

Tuesday

The plan for Tuesday had been for Mick to travel from Braithwaite to Dockray on foot, and the logistics of that one would have worked out fine in the weather, save for the fact that we weren’t in Braithwaite and it made no sense to drive there. Instead we went for a circuit of The Old Man of Coniston and Dow Crags.

We were back by eleven, and gave momentary contemplation to moving to a campsite for the benefit of a shower and a service point, but the place where we were parked was so comfortable in the hot weather that we decided that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

We started with one of the village’s café’s, where it was almost unbearably hot, but the food was plentiful and good:

Look at those ridiculous doorsteps of toast in the back right corner. The teapot supplied three mugs apiece too. 

As for our evening meal, we’d left home with Erica’s cool box full to the brim, and it just about coped with keeping everything cool enough through Sunday and Monday. I’d planned to buy something in Booths in Keswick for Tuesday night, but in view of our continued residence in Coniston, their little shops had to provide instead.

The quiche was disappointing. The rest was simple but good. The accompanying alcohol-free Doom Bar and Thatcher’s cider were ice cold.

Wednesday

Mick almost got a lie-in. I’d tried to be really organised on Tuesday evening and get out everything that I’d need before going out on Wednesday morning, only to realise once the bed was out that I’d not got the teabags. To access the teabag cupboard, the bed needed to be moved. If we were to rebuild Erica there are definitely practical improvements (albeit aesthetic degradations) that we could make to her kitchen unit.

I did, however, leave Mick resting on the sofa as I headed out nice and early for a circuit of Wetherlam and Swirl How (plus a couple of little out-and-back add-ons, as it was such a fabulous day to be up there). I sent Mick a summit snap:

In return, Mick sent me a café snap:

His bacon sandwich had been much bigger some time before he took the snap. 

I got back to Erica to find that Mick had ended his café visit by buying me a piece of cake, that I failed to photograph until I’d taken my first bite:

 

With cake consumed, a quick body wash and delightful hair wash in Erica’s sink preceded our final foray into Coniston, this time to sample the Yewdale Inn’s pizza offerings.

It was a bit too hot on the heels of Mick’s brunch, but between us we managed to polish it off. 

Then it was home time. Such a shame to have to drive away from the hills in such fantastic weather conditions, but an appointment called.

Conclusion

Whilst we didn’t fulfil the original objective of the trip, we had a far nicer and much more relaxed time with how things panned out. Surprising how enjoyable it can be to park in a side road and kip in your car for three days straight!

(*Can a kettle reasonably be advertised as having a volume of 1 litre when that volume is only achieved by filling it to the lid, which is an impossibility due to the position of the spout? The new kettle advertises itself as 1.4 litres and I’m confident that we’ll be able to fit two mugs of water in it. It’s not been tried yet, as it needed water boiling and discarding prior to first use, and we didn’t have the water to spare for that.)

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)