So, how much did this little jaunt cost...?
Petrol - 250 litres/55 gallons @ £229.44
mileage: 1,999
averaging 36.36 mpg
Extra food (I took most with me) @ £13.43
McDonalds exclusive roadside eatery @ £9.34
Camp sites @ £22.16
Misc @ £8.96
Total = £283.33
(of which probably about £179 is TAX. I should become an MP....)
Monday, 18 May 2009
Friday, 15 May 2009
Special thanks...
... have to go to jonathan. Since my teens i have nurtured an ambition to head up to john o'groats and i youth hostelled as far as fort william at 19. For the last 4 years i'd been talking more about it then jonathan generously volunteered to look after the buns for me so i could realise it. With 20 occupied apartments at the time and a family of house buns, this was quite a commitment. So, thank you for all your help and support in making it possible for me to do this trip - a journey which represented more than a 'holiday'.
A post from shaun
Huh! I feel used. She's quite happy to stuff a heatpad in my tum when it suits her but then slings me out muttering that a 4 season sleeping bag is much warmer than her 8 tog duvet. I'm on strike... Shaun the sheep x
Sorry, shaun...
It was just too hot for you last night so i had boot you out. The weather has changed again and is now back to the milder temperatures and heavy rain which greeted my earlier arrival in Keswick. Anyone else would probably have found the night cold and damp but i was sweating buckets again. Today i'm heading home via my folks and will hope to catch them between hospital vigil visits. J had a bad night too so got up and cleaned out the buns at 5am which must have suprised them and is now back in bed. Apart from last year's knee op this is the first time he's ever had time off in over 15 years and even now is trying to keep going and work from home.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Last night...
Tonight is my 9th of living go the gutters and it could be my last for a while. I was supposed to return home on tuesday but j is (bravely) suffering a nasty flu bug and feels it's better if i stay away. Knowing how flu knocks me, i wasn't going to argue. Having been living in cramped conditions and balancing on a 16" wide bed for 9 nights, i thought cabin fever night have hit by now - but it hasn't and i could happily live for longer periods like this. I'm settled into a routine of solar charging my torch, phone and radio during the day, checking my leisure battery every morning and warming up my heatpads at night (it was very cold at night in Scotland). I'm even used to washing via mineral water bottles and a plastic food tub although yesterday i hit a low point when i was struggling with the heat, stinking feet and felt as though i was covered in greasy chip fat. Living on/by the road shows just how little i really need to get by, but i have missed having proper internet access to keep up to date with the buns' journals. However it will be nice to stretch out on my 5' bed, have hot water at the turn of a tap and be able to sleep without keeping an ear out for prowlers or having to move on too early go the morning to avoid being seen.
Poor peter rabbit...
I'm glad my pass was accepted. It took less than ten minutes to view the beatrix potter exhibition.
Real food!
Yes! After a week of surviving on mostly junk, chips and offerings from uncle ronald's eateries, i've been craving some 'proper' food and here it is: roast beef butties plus raspberry yogurt for dinner and microwaved kippers (minus the butter splodge) cooked at the roadside for tea (yes i brought a food thermometer for temperature checking as this will be the first time i've used it for actual cooking).
Clean!
Thanks to a fellow camper, i found a shower hidden away in an out building. It was dingy but warm and wet and i no longer stink of sweaty feet. I can now face cumbria.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
And the rather more basic washing facilities...
So much for my plan of using a camp site shower this evening. I arrived at Gretna camp site only to find it had closed and, late at night, i was facing a Night hidden behind trees in the grounds of a posh hotel. Luckily j came to the rescue by finding a site online, booking it and i navigated through miles of remote lanes to reach it. Now i'm here it's simply a paddock with a tap and nothing else yet is costing more than a top standard site, but i'm committed now. Poor j is home with a flu bug so the plan is for me to stay away for a few more days and visit my parents en route back instead but they're involved in hospital visits. They must know i've only had one proper wash in more than a week (remember it's been very warm for the last 4 days and i have a heat problem...) because they've warned me they'll probably be out. I'm at the stage of feeling sticky and itchy -there's only so much you can do with kitchen roll and Loch water. Ali - if you're still reading this, would you like to join me??!
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