Catch Up from Yesterday

The coverage has been dipping in and out whilst we were in Scotland so thought it was worth doing a full catch up.

We left Carlisle at around 9.30 and had a quick breakfast of Almond Croissants, apples and Capri Sun as we drove towards the borders.

Despite the little issues getting started the car continued to run really well and on the faster roads we were on we averaged around 50 miles an hour.

I have to hand it to the Scottish they know how to make a good road- all the roads were excellent fast A roads with non of this namby pamby English 40 mph speed limits och noo we could barrel along at close to 60 with nae bother.

The journey was pretty much uneventful, the car ran nicely and we only stopped for natural breaks or to fill up with fuel.

Things started to get exciting when we saw our first sign with John O Groats listed on it and as the miles clicked by I started to feel a sense of achievement.

The weather was beautiful, the other drivers friendly and supportive and we were only a short distance from our second objective. The scenery along the A99 was amazing, we took lots of photos whilst zooming along which we will publish in a gallery once we get home.

We decided to stop at Wick and check in to our hotel before doing the final 16 miles to John O Groats.

Unfortunately when we got back into the car the ignition warning light was on- it had been fluttering at low revs for a while but I was confident it was just a loose fan belt so we sped off to John O Groats and to hell with the consequences.

We got there and I have to say it is a massive anti climax. The place is an utter $%&** hole- even the sign showing how far it is to Lands End has been taken down because it keeps getting vandalised!



We got a few pictures taken, got the hotel to stamp our end to end form to prove we had been there and zoomed back to the hotel for some food.

Whilst at the hotel we decided that my original plan of trying to get home in one day from Wick to Thatcham ( well over 600 miles) was a bit ambitious. Instead we decided to stop over in Carlisle again.

So this morning we were up early (having charged the car battery overnight at the hotel) and I got the spanners out to tighten the fan belt and hopefully cure the red warning light.

Unfortunately with the belt tightened it still refused to go out which I diagnosed as a kaputt dynamo- however the weather was good and I surmised that with a charged battery we should be able to get to Halfords in Inverness to get a second charged spare to get us home (no chance of getting a dynamo!).

So that's exactly what we did. The car kept on trucking and the bonnet up photo below is simply me swapping between one old battery and a freshly charged new one.

Also bought the kids some small souvenirs at the gift shop and had a coffee to keep me awake.

The final highlight for me before we left Scotland was to see 2 Morris Minors chugging towards us- that's the first sightings since Cornwall

We arrived at our hotel in Carlisle around 7pm, immediately put the spare battery on charge and I am now off for a well deserved plate of tuck and a beverage.