We had chosen to stop at a caravan park last night because we thought it prudent to shower before meeting our friend for a night out. After 4 nights wild camping with only a brief dip in the ocean to quell the growing stench, we could not have chosen a better place. The campsite facilities were amazing with actually hot, powerful showers and decent washing up facilities.
Category: Van
Ice Bath
There is a joke in England that throughout the ages, after all the clan wars were done, the political arguments settled and the bar brawls ended, the border to Scotland is actually demarcated by the sudden absence of the midge. A vampiric little blighter that serves no other purpose than to make the inhabitants of Scotland want to peel off their skin for the itching. Luckily, up to this point we have avoided them. However I think this morning they had a meeting and realised they had let us slip past so converged on us in mass at sunrise. Buzzing around the van, there was a midge cloud so thick you could have described it as midge soup. Instead we chose to drive away and fix breakfast somewhere less dangerous for our skins. They must have been so annoyed not to even get a taste of our exotic southern blood.
#VanLife
Grey misty weather greeted us, like a fluffy throw that’s been left in the summer house after a rain shower. It was dank but still comforting as the warmth of the sunshine attempted to start the day. In the words of a young boy from skye, “What makes a great view – distance”. The clouds smothered any hope of a view from the top of Old Man of Stowr and as beautiful the coastline is, there was no distance to be had this morning.
The V-Dubbers
Today was a mixture of complaining about our various aching body parts, and groaning in pleasure at the views we were treated to as we trundled past. After a leisurely breakfast of bacon butties we packed up the van.
It had been a very successful first couple nights in the van. Some of my fears had been dispelled; there was no leaking from the roof, it didn’t rock in the night with the wind to wake me or make me feel sea sick, and it was definitely warm enough. Also, most of the day was spent with the windows and doors open which means, so far, we haven’t had any condensation or damp issues. This was something I had taken great care to avoid so I am very happy its worked.
Ben Nevis Knees
OMG my knees, my terrible knees!
When we got back to base camp, they both ached fairly evenly. It was quite surprising seeing as one of them had been through 2 major surgeries in the last 3 years and the other was completely unmolested.
Our route up Ben Nevis could never have been the “normal” one, we are proud graduates of the SUMC! We had brought all our climbing gear along and scoped out a good looking climb. Well within our climbing ability technically, but stamina-ly, far beyond us it turned out. Not because we attempted and failed it, we did not even attempt. The weather looked soggy in the morning and from our experience on welsh rock, we could reasonably expect the climb to be “seepy”. Not an enduring quality on a 450m long climb and by the end of the day, knew we had made the right choice.
Glen Coe Memories
Actually reached Scotland today. Set off from our lake-district friends house at the ridiculously early time of 11am. He was kind enough to provide a proper fried breakfast. It even included “Bacon flavour enhancing true canadian maple syrup” oooooOOOOOooooohhhhhhh. It was really tasty.
Escape to the Highlands
“Chuck it all in the van”
“What… the kitchen sink too?”
“Yes”
…. is how the conversation should have gone.
No sooner had we left Banbury than I remembered my shiney stainless steel fruit bowl that I had planned to use as a washing up bowl was still wrapped neatly in my garage. Maybe it was the quantity of stuff in the van already, or my eagerness to set off, or just the inevitability of travel, that you always forget something essential… like washing up sponges. Maybe my forgetfulness is limited to washing up apparatus?
Orgy Of Snakes
I’ve been focussed on finishing off as much of the van as possible recently. At the end of this week, I am off to Scotland for a tour with a mate, so it has to be at least useable.
The cabinet has a long space that will be perfect for a big drawer. There will be nothing that I can buy that will fit it efficiently so looks like I’m making it from scratch. Where possible, in the Van, i’m trying to keep the face of the wood fixing-less. I want as clean a finish as possible. Sometimes this is not possible which is fine but a nice flush fitting, uncluttered look is what I’m going for. To this end, the front face of the drawer is a good bit of plywood – probably thicker than it needs to be, so I can screw into it from behind. I am also using wood glue so the connections are secure. This has turned into a very strong drawer. It slides on some batons and when loaded is heavy enough that it won’t slide out by itself when going around corners – hopefully.
Cupboard Creation
The whole extendy bed construction relies on having a cabinet on the other side of the van to hook onto. I wouldn’t normally have used such chunky wood for a bit of studwork cabinetry but as this bed may have two full size male humans sleeping on it, I thought I had better not skimp. It would truly suck if in the middle of the night there is a cracking sounds followed by to heavy bangs as we hit the floor.
Extendy Bed Bits
So I started to build the bed using EVEN MORE WOOD… I swear there is so much in this van its unbelievable! I know wood is renewable and reasonably environmentally friendly but im going to need my own forest at this rate!