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Want to know how a to cope
with 9 sleep-deprived back seat drivers?? Read on...
3 Peaks - Route planning
Andy Stephens very kindly
provided an Autoroute Express plan listing times, distances in kilometres, and
road numbers/place names. I took
this home, consulted my big atlas and memories of the areas we would be
covering; I decided that the route needed a few more miles of ‘A’ roads
& considerably less ‘local roads’ as they didn’t appear on my map!
So the route took us out of
Bristol, North up the M5 with a short deviation to The Three Pears on the
outskirts of Worcester, M6 and West on M54 and we followed the A5 to
Betws-y-Coed for a fuel stop, thus necessitating only one fuel stop while the
clock was running, and on to Capel Curig before hitting less major roads for our
starting point at Snowdon, Rhyd Ddu on the A4085, the walkers finally beginning
the challenge at 7:15pm.
As the last 21 miles to our
start took over an hour and the Autoroute planned retraced this, when the team
were away a quick re-assessment was done & I decided to continue North and
take the A55/M56 route back to the M6 North, which was all dual carriageway and
we should therefore make better progress. This was definitely a good idea &
most of the team slept for this part of the journey. (Oh
no we ****** didn't! - Ed.)
When we left the M6 at J36,
Autoroute suggested going around Lake Windermere to the North on local roads, I
had already decided to go
around the southern edge on ‘A’ roads, however,
the one I had planned to use wasn’t there and the one we were on wasn’t on
the map! Undeterred, I realised that we were only adding a short
distance, but at a much better speed, but this part was definitely the toughest
on the driver - nothing on the radio, a cheerful chorus of snoring (*)
from the back, 3am & no distances on signposts - then a sign - Wasdale Head
9 miles. The road is single track,
it is dark - Headlights on full, foot to the floor, wake up down the back!
It was the most fun 9 miles I drove that night until I caught up with a
slower bus full of like-minded individuals and a road covered with sleeping
sheep - we could go around the sheep, but the bus was not so simple.
The sight of the ‘car park’ full of minibuses and MPVs at 4am as the
dawn was breaking was slightly surreal, but they wanted to walk & I wanted
to sleep, so I wedged the bus in a gap on the side of the road & let them
go. (* I can assure you that was general
muttering/cursing... - puzzled Ed.)
Soon after 5 there was a
knock on the window & a face I recognised & I thought, “They can’t
be back yet”, but there were people everywhere, so I assumed this to be the
case. As I struggled to
consciousness, I realised that it was only Lorraine, the others belonged to
another group; she had returned with injured knees, so back to sleep!
When the others returned at 7:30am it was a real struggle to wake up, but
needs must & off we went. 
This time I was happy to
follow Autoroutes suggestion – back to the A595, the only ‘A’ road heading
North - all signposted to Carlisle, from there A74 to Glasgow with the only fuel
stop within the 24 hours, and A82 to Fort William - nice & simple,
except.... the A82 is not the
fastest road at the best of times, but it is the only one, and no-one thought to
tell the organisers or sponsors of the Loch Lomond Golf Tournament that we would
be passing through on a tight timescale!
We arrived at Glen Nevis
Youth Hostel just before 2pm Saturday leaving the walkers 5 hours and 15 minutes
to get to the top & back again. I
could sit at the Cafe - coffee & toilets (!) either in the sun or the shade
and read peacefully for a while, dreaming of a shower & firm bed with a good
nights sleep.
As the bus was stopped
beside a large litter bin, I decided to clear out some of the rubbish before
parking properly and was just finishing this chore when I realised that things
were not going according to plan for the walking team - Steve Hughes’ knee
injury from Snowdon had proved too much to risk Ben Nevis and he had not
actually started the climb.
It was also my duty at this
point to try and find our accommodation for the night on the map, from the
details that Simon had left, 
which fortunately did not prove too taxing.
So having done this, and visited the cafe, Steve and myself settled
ourselves on a large rock in the field where sheep had obviously been, to catch
a few rays.
It didn’t seem that we
had been there long, before we spotted Simon returning very slowly
- it appeared he was suffering from dehydration.
We collected some water from the bus and retired to the shade, then the
cafe and waited....
Next to return was
Lorraine, again her knees finding the gradient too much, and very shortly
afterwards, we spotted a lone figure apparently running down - could it be one
of our team, could it be .... It is, it’s Andrew Stephens!
He completed the challenge in 23 hours 15 minutes by running the last 30
minutes up and the whole way down - total madness!
Again we retired to the
cafe, but the mood was now much more positive with one successful challenger
completing the course, and looking
so fresh too.
We knew now, that all we had to do was wait, but from Andy’s report it
was like to be later than 7:15 when the rest returned.
Fortunately they stayed together & we could see them from our vantage
point, so we were at the bridge to welcome them back.
After sorting out numerous phone calls home with very poor reception as was the case at the starting point of each climb, we set out on the last leg - to our long awaited showers and Bed & Breakfast at the Banavie Guest House, Banavie - as I thought, easy to find. But when we got there, the door was ajar and there was nobody home..... Even the thought of going straight to he pub was not actually that appealing! After much discussion “wait or pub, pub or wait”, we adjourned to the hotel/pub across the road, ordered food & drinks.
The hotel staff were
amazingly tolerant of the state we arrived in, and continued to try phoning the
Guest House until someone returned. At
that point we all called it a night, agreeing to be up for breakfast at 7:30!!!!
The route home was so much
easier, we left Banavie 08:30 - heading South on the A82, A74, M6, M5.
We stopped near Glasgow for fuel again, In the Lake District for lunch,
last Services before Birmingham (in case the traffic was bad - good plan!) and
again for fuel as we re-entered Bristol - Total mileage 1189, total fuel costs
£180.
I was very glad that Andy Axworthy & Hannah had their cars at home & I didn’t have to drive any further that day!
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