An eventful trip to Scotland in the Autosleeper

 

It is a long way, a very long way to travel when your journey takes you from Bournemouth all the way up to Stornoway via the Ullapool ferry. When it's in the motorhome, that becomes quite a test of stamina, given that you can go up to 60mph in the van and the mileage is getting on for 675 miles. That meant having an overnight stay in Carlisle, not for the first time as I usually take a stop there in the car anyway, and I made good use of the stove to cook myself up some chickpea curry and rice. 

The  next day I set off at 7.30 and was in Ullapool with plenty of time to spare so I did a quick shop before strolling up the hills where I took a couple of photos of the scenery and of the motorhome in the Tesco car park. It was nice that it was dry, which was a pleasant change, but I don't think it really stopped after that.

The shots of the motorhome by the side of the road back from Harris via the mountains were taken in driving rain and fierce winds. Two of the air vent covers blew away during the visit due to the gales and it was terrifying crossing the mountains due to the buffeting which made a straight line something to dream of. It didn't help that a motorhome had toppled over just a couple of days prior to my visit and I was certain it would be a fate which befell me, so I took the bus over the remaining visits to my mother in the care home in Tarbert, safer and cheaper.

I say safer; the bus had a blowout on the final occasion and the gales meant that having opened the door to check the tyre, the driver couldn't get it shut again as the wind howled back, pressing it firmly back to the side of the bus.

The motorhome is an S reg, 1999, but had only done 24000 miles and it performed admirably, allowing me to average 55mph and to relax a little on the final stage of the drive home, another overnight stay in Carlisle breaking up the journey. The only problems were:

• I think I blew a fuse on the cigarette lighter plugging a fan heater into the charger which goes in to the cigarette lighter - not meant to have been done I suspect and I ought to be able to fix that easily enough
• The wipers need replacing as there was an annoying smear which was worse when the rain was light but still there when it became heavier
• One of the doors to the cupboards above the fridge swings open now and again and just needs tightening to stop it - no problems arising from it but annoying to see it in the rear view mirror
• The vent covers blowing away