Me: “Fancy a trip to John-O-Groats”
Luke: “What's there then?”
Me: “F'all mate, it's John o Groats dude, you know famous for being top of mainland Britain and the Lands End to groats pilgrimages?”
Luke: “Oh okay then, lets do it, when we going?”
Me: “November!”
Snippet of conversation a couple month back between me and my mate Luke 'Toppa' Vincent. My better half had a vacation planned with her mother to some fancy resort in Mexico for the first week in November so I was not going to sit around doing naff all, time to hit the road for a mini road trip expedition.
The plan was a two vehicle convoy consisting of our 110 Landrover Defenders, a TD5 and a 300tdi. Luke setting off from Surrey and meeting me at my home in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Where we would travel north to the Lake District, then to Newcastle to pick up a fellow shotgun traveler named Roy before making the haul up to John O Groats and back. I would also be travelling with my two lurcher dogs.
The vehicles are previously modified over the years with a bias towards being medium greenlaning capable and nano expeditions (weekenders). My only new additions before the trip was a night heater and a 1.222 disco transfer box conversion.
Luke's 2002 TD5 commercial 3 door Defender main points:
Maggiolina Roof Tent
D2 Airtronic Eberspacher night heater (i.e diesel fueled furnace)
BF Goodrich Mud-Terrains
Extra internal storage
Engel Fridge
CB radio installation
Security cubby
Panel insulation
Extra cabin and road lighting.
1.222 ratio transfer box.
Safari Snorkel
CarPC and GPS Sat-Navagition with MemoryMap.
My 1996 300tdi CSW 5 door commercial main points:
Quechua 2 man pop up tent which I used on full length roof rack (poormans roof tent)
D3LC Eberspacher night heater (i.e diesel fueled furnace)
2nd Row seating removed and boarded out for dog beds and under floor storage.
Rear tub boarded out for under and over storage.
Rear roof shelf off the dog guard for extra 40kg storage area.
Dual fuel tanks.
Full length intercooler.
Extra cabin and road lighting.
Michelin ZXL tyres.
PTO driven superwinch.
1.222 ratio transfer box
HAM/CB radio installation.
CarPC and GPS Sat-Navagition with MemoryMap
Between the two of us we had 20 NATO ration packs and 40ltr of drinking water. Roy came along with another 3 ration packs for his part of the trip. I took along few days worth of dog food which went into Lukes fridge along with the beer. The plan was to use the excellent ration packs and supplement by picking up fresh food and snacks on the road as and when desired. Between us we had 3 different style stoves. I used my no fuss JetBoil PCS that uses a canister gas, Luke uses a coleman pressurised multi fuel stove and Roy tortures himself with a paraffin spirit burner stove. We were all armed with SPORKS!
Couple other trends in our kit is that we all use headlamp torches, essential kit for 4x4 laners and rough campers. The other thing is that we all don NATO gortex jackets and leggings when the rain hits, and boy didn't it hit for this trip.
Saturday 31st October 2009Quick breakfast at my gaff before me and Luke hit the road at around 10am. A 273 mile trip north via the M4, M5 and M6 into the Lake District. My truck only managed 32mpg, whereas on my last trip to lakes it was 34mpg. We arrived late afternoon and hung around the proposed camp spot until dark and suitable late enough to deploy the roof tents. We were parked up in a isolated woodland parking spot near the village of Hawkshead, popular with mountain bikers. Full moon and Halloween, parked up in pretty much middle of nowhere... we hit the sack after trying to spook each other out. Then came the severe rain which didn't stop for more than a few hours until Wednesday!
Sunday 1st November 2009Early rise as we wanted to be packed up and clear before any visitors came, we also had a breakfast date to keep at Roy's in Tyneside, Newcastle.
The trip across to Roy's is about two and half hours worth at 100 miles. Driving in torrential rain with much surface water on the roads and traffic signs bleating out severe weather warnings. Safely arrived at Roy's gaff at around 10am ready to devour a big breakfast fry up. Before we had time to change our minds and settle in, we where off into the rain and heading North once again with Roy riding shotgun with Luke.
It is about this time the sunroof in my Defender decided that it no longer liked being tightly closed. The catch broke and with every heavy brake or gust of wind the mini lake that lived on the roof became a freezing cold waterfall down my neck, shoulders and into my cubby box. Whilst driving along I made up a mini shelter with my gortex to cover the expensive electronics in the cubby box. I lived with this drenching for hundreds of miles, letting out a wee scream over the CB to let the others know of my misery (much to their giggling delight).
Our over night stop was a isolated woodland carpark north of Inverness, Scotland. In total on this day since leaving the Lakes we had covered about 405 miles and driving in some awful wet weather. We arrived in the dark and after an evening meal, brew and a beer we all hit our sacks.
My trucks mpg had dropped to 24mpg and I was losing power only managing 55mph top end but was running fine when I switched using the front fuel tank. Next day I concluded that the diesel in the rear tank was getting way too hot after several hours of being heated by the vegoil heat exchanger (for this trip I was running on pure diesel in both tanks).
Monday 2nd November 2009Early morning break in the rain was an opportunity not to be missed, so quickly up, breakfast and pack away whilst we could. It stayed pretty much dry for awhile so we had time to loiter. My first operation was to check over the fuel system in the engine bay, nothing obvious, no blockages found. So I arranged the coolant hoses so that the heat exchanger was bypassed. The power issues didn't return for the rest of trip so I think hot diesel may have been the cause though I never heard of that issue before, so who knows?
Second operation was to sort out the sun roof. The urge to rip it out and smash it into small bits with hammer was pretty strong, with both driver and passenger seats now soaked. As well as the sunroof locking mechanism no longer ratcheting tight, it was also clear that the glass panel is warped in the middle so never would seal properly again. I settled for engineers repair kit number no.2 (after the hammer) which is DUCK TAPE. Roy and I stood on the trucks tree-sliders, clung to the side of the truck whilst we passed duck tape under the roof rack until we had sealed up the entire rim of the sun roof. This mod worked and it was wonderful to not even have a single drip of water come through, condensation drips didn't even occur for rest of trip. I then decided to apply some rain-x to the windscreen and upon doing so the windscreen wiper plastic hinge mount snapped! Bit of a panic, but solved by melt welding the piece back together again with hot soldering iron. Not usually a strong repair it did in fact survive the remainder of the trip.
The Eberspacher heater also showed its worth now. Set to full blast it dried the truck and wet garments of clothing in double quick time. The truck become one big tumble drier with Roy pegging up his romper suit on my make-shift clothes line to dry out.
Time to hit the road. We didn't have that far to travel to get to John-O-Groats, so arrived late morning. Photo opportunities taken and postcards sent we drove a little way down the coast to park up and have lunch and walk on the beach to restore the spirit. The weather was kind, with blue skys and lovely fresh sea air and even a few sea-lions in the surf.
The dogs loved the beach run and I set about beach combing, found myself a hard hat, it looked pretty new too. Didn't find a body that belonged to the hat so decided to keep it.
Roy had to be back in Newcastle for Tuesday. Instead of flogging our guts out to get him back in time we had a plan. Take him into Aberdeen where he could catch a train the remainder of the way whilst Luke and I loitered in Scotland for a few more days. So with that in mind we set on our way to get a head start on the trip to Aberdeen. We drove an hour or so and found a wild camp spot in a secluded valley just north of Brora. This day we only covered 190 miles.
Tuesday 3rd November 2009Roy's train departure was 5:30pm, so we had plenty time to get there. The rain came back during the night but we still had a dry window of opportunity to have breakfast and pack up in the morning. Roy spent the night in my spare tent (3man Quechua XL pop up) rather than his bivvy. I think he probably preferred the ease and comfort!
Seeing there was time to kill it was spent visiting Lossiemouth beach. Roy and Luke entertained themselves watching military aircraft flying around whilst I put on the gortex outer layers, Happy Mondays on the iPod and took the dogs for a moody walk up beach in the heavy rain. I found a fresh fish that must have decided that the sea was not as wet as the rain and so jumped to its death on the shore. This fish was stuck on Luke CB antenna on my return to the trucks.
We continued into the unexpected multicultural and rich city of Aberdeen around 4pm and dropped Roy off nice and early. Roy being a yorkshireman born and bred had of course naturally 'forgotten' his wallet at his house in tyneside, along with the prepaid train ticket details. This didn't cause too much of an issue and he was able to collect ticket okay. No, no problems there, it was just the landside over the railway line that caused the bigger issue. He ended up having to take bus from Aberdeen to Dundee before continuing journey home by rail. By that time Luke and I had traveled out of the city heading south as fast as we could before rush hour kicked in fully. We pulled into the first place the satnav would recognise so that we could plan our route for the evening. We happened to pull into the carpark of the Offshore Survival Training Centre which was meaningful to me as I had attended its sister centre to do my Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training many moons ago.
Using the Ordnance Survey Mapping on the in CarPC we spied out a likely area that could by used for a nights sleep. So an hour or so on the road again and we finally parked up in another mountain bike car parking area in the sticks. This time in the Durris Forest near Stonehaven. As we settled in for the evening we where surprised to see a car adorned with mountain bikes pull in and get ready for a night run. Turned out to be friendly locals practicing for an upcoming endurance ride. We had an offer of using their home in morning for showers and breakfast which was very kind gesture to be made to strangers. We declined the offer none the less, preferring to be independent if not a bit smelly. 196 miles covered today.
Wednesday 4th November 2009OH LOOK AT THE GLORIOUS SUN! It was gorgeous morning, warm sunlight bursting through the trees. Took the opportunity to air the dog bedding on the bonnet and go for a wander deeper into the forest with the shovel over shoulder and bog roll in pocket. Another trend between us, we carry bottles of germ busting hand cleanser in pocket at all times whilst on road trip, bigger bottle can be found in rear of truck and on dash board.
Discovered the tail pipe section of my exhaust had completely broken away from the silencer, how weird. Not a major problem and something that could wait until return home before repair. If the road trip was planned for longer then I would have gotten a repair. The was no noise increase but system was no longer supported at the rear mount. Just had to keep an eye on it, and if needed strap up remainder of the exhaust to chassis for some support, but turned out not to give any concerns.
Time to hit the road again. This time on hind sight we didn't pick a very good destination to make for. First we drove into Perth because Lukes mother was born there, so a postcard sent back to her in NewZealand was a promise fulfilled. We then traveled further West across the country through Glasgow and around to Greennoch. Unable able to find anywhere suitable nearby for a nights park up we struck out south. Finally after much wandering and rejecting we ended up in the great location of the Galloway Forest Park. Boy it was cold, frost on the ground before bed and dinner on a frozen park bench. I decided to sleep with the dogs in my ground tent. Turned out to be a warm night afterall probably because bivvy pants where worn, maggot sleeping bag was lined with fleece liner and the whole lot shoved into a gortex bivvy bag, that and the fact the sky clouded over, it was toasty! 294 miles covered today.
Thursday 5th Novemeber 2009The rain kicked in again all night and didn't let up in the morning so it was a wet breakfast and pack-up.
A few forestry commission vehicles buzzed past so it was thought best not to hang around too long. As always we ensured the site was as clean or cleaner than we arrived and then moved off. With fuel cost tally rapidly reaching the 350 pound mark each we decided to head for home. So we took a scenic route down to Gretna Green, not to get married but to seek out the cemetery where some family ancestors are rested. Tomb located , photographed and another promise fulfilled we headed for the nearest fastest route south. M6, M5 and again in torrential rain. At some point past the city of Gloucester Luke peeled off to take the more direct roads towards Surrey. I continued down the M5 until reaching the M4/M5 split. Quick blast down the M4 to Junction 18 then A-road past the city of Bath onto Trowbridge, where I was met by all the locals celebrating my return with firework displays. Luke tells me he also had a firework display welcome too. I wonder how they knew we where coming home? :lol:
409 miles covered today.
Approx 1800mile Round trip. Approx 325 pound spent on fuel.
Good fun, good company. Rain was something to get used to and didn't spoil things. Very mild November too.
Will definitely revisit the Galloway Forest Park in near future as it's not that far away and I would like to spend more time there exploring. The possibility is there to fill another Scottish trip with exploring the West coast and Isles, but have no plans for that any time soon.
Handful of events and stories left out, like the mystery car we shared the carpark with in the Lakes, the tarmac road crew we kept meeting around Scotland, the carbon monoxide filling tent incident, and the smoke grenade under the bonnet and screaming FIRE joke played on Luke in middle of night ;)
Cheers, Stephen.
Copyright stonefisk.com 2009
Most photo images used where taken by Luke Vincent.
