THE DRIVE UP:

Prepare for longer posts, from now on we're going to have plenty to write about, so here goes!

THE DRIVE UP:


After finally getting all the pre-ride preparations done on Saturday night I went to bed with my alarm set for 5am - we were aiming for a 6:30-7:00am departure from Birmingham.

The alarm went off all to early, but I needed no 'snoozes' this morning - my brain switched straight onto the tasks ahead and after fitting the bike rack to the Moggy and my bike to that, I had a teary farewell with Helen and we set off in opposite directions.

I arrived in Redditch to find Lee chomping at the bit waiting outside so we were loaded and on our way before 7am.

So we this was it: we were soon pulling onto the motorway (having only driven the car for the first time yesterday!). I think we were both harbouring a fair amount of anxiety about the drive, but we'd cast the die a long while back. So off we went, at what we thought was a steady 55mph.


It wasn't long before we began to question the accuracy of the car's speedometer as trucks and even caravans started to pass us regularly. With the use of the sat nav we confirmed our suspicions: the speedo was overly optimistic by 5-7mph, nevertheless, we decided to stick with our comfortable 50mph progress.

We had started out with a full tank of fuel (guessing about 25 litres), and by the time we were approaching Manchester we were down to a quarter of a tank. Based on the precision of the speedo we decided to err on the side of caution as far as the fuel gauge was concerned, and from here on in to fill up once we hit the quarter tank mark. So we stopped to fill up (but not before dispatching a bacon sandwich).

We set off again, with our 120-mile range limit (we were getting around 29mpg) north along the M6 to the sound of the 50+ year old engine which, while novel, got a little hard on the ears by the time we hit Scotland (did I mention there is no radio in the car?). However, all these 'quirks' were not going to dampen our spirit as we had enough mileage behind us now for our anxieties to have abated and we could feel confident of making our destination - and indeed the rest of the trip.

We finally stopped around 1pm just north of Gretna Green where we decided to take a lengthy break for lunch to allow the feeling in our bums to return and for Granville (our mechanic) and Marie to catch up with us (which they did surprisingly quickly - our earlier calculations led us to believe they wouldn't catch us until mid-afternoon).

After a bite to eat and a walk around for little Nero (Granville and Marie's pug) to stretch his legs, we got under the bonnet to check oil etc. and headed off to the fuel pump once more, before pushing on towards Glasgow. Did i mention that within about 30ft of passing the 'welcome to Scotland' sign the rain started?

I attempted to take a picture of this landmark sign, but even at 50mph my phone couldn't sort its focus/flash out quickly enough to capture it but as i'd gone to the effort you may as well see it.

Once we'd cleared Glasgow and hit Loch Lomond we joined what will be our cycle route (following it in reverse) so could see what we've let ourselves in for (well, we would have been able to see, were it not for rain which was now falling very steadily). We trundled on alongside the Loch for what seemed an age - the roads had become hilly and the wind had picked up considerably at this point so our progress slowed down somewhat. We were so engaged in our journey at this point that it escaped our notice that the fuel tank was heading rapidly towards a quarter of a tank and we couldn't imagine there was any chance of a petrol station presenting itself to us any time soon! Our earlier anxiety about the journey started to creep back in as we weren't sure a quarter of a tank would take us the final 50 or so miles. So we switched on the sat nav, which informed us that there was fuel to be had in Tyndrum - we headed there and were relieved to find that indeed there was. Waterproofs were needed for refueling at this point - the rain was getting heavier the further north we went.

Happy to be full of fuel again, we left the Loch safely behind us and headed into the hilly bit towards Glencoe. From the little we could see, the scenery around here was stunning - though with rain now falling so hard all we could really make out were the white torrents of water cascading down from the hills and mountains in every direction. Our full attention was now required in the car as its little wipers were really struggling to keep up and the windows were starting to steam. The only effective way of dealing with this was to keep the windows open, but this turned out to be a very damp pastime, so the final stretch of the journey involved a cycle of winding up and winding down the windows.

'Every cloud has a silver lining' so the saying goes, but we couldn't see any clouds - just a wall of rain. However, the rain did help us identify two leaks in the windscreen seals - not that we can do anything about that now, but it will save me a lot of time trying to find them in the future.

With Lee now at the wheel, we were in for a hair raising journey due to his determination to get to the end of the day's 12-hour drive as quickly as possible. He was seemingly now so comfortable in the car that he'd forgotten exactly what he was driving - but despite efforts that brought Stirling Moss to mind (all of this in a car with no seatbelts, I might add), we were once more overtaken by a truck. Shortly afterwards, we turned off the A82 to find the Clachaig Inn.

Feeling very truimphant we unloaded the car (still in the pouring rain), locked the bikes in the storage shed and changed into dry clothes before heading to the bar to find Mum, Jean and Dave (neighbours and close friends of the family). We donned our CMA t-shirts and went for a well earned pint. The t-shirts promptly earnt us a £5 donation from a kind stranger on the table next to us.

Once Granville, Marie, and of course Nero arrived, we ordered dinner. I opted for a venison burger (when in Rome) and three pints of 'Fourth of July' from the Alloa brewery (an American-style IPA full of hoppy goodness, which was a great pint).

We retired fairly early and set about getting organised for the morning's events which involve a 9am meeting in Glencoe for photos and the first sprinkling of Dad's ashes before we wave goodbye to our send-off party and head off into a wet and windy morning.

NEXT STOP BALLOCH: 68 miles of what the BBC weather man assured me would be wet weather.