Fort William to Wasdale Head
So it's about quarter to eleven as we leave Fort William behind and people are wolfing down as much pasta as they can stomach to replace lost calories. Apart from MORT who didn't bring any. He shows no respect for the mountain and will pay later, you mark my words. Still feeling quite fresh, I take first stint at the wheel - we figure if anyone's got to drive when tired, it probably shouldn't be someone who only passed their test a couple of months before. MORT and Baylis settle back and try to get as much kip as one can in the back of a fully laden Fiesta. Dale had the good sense and foresight to bring a couple of pillows, without which I doubt we would've managed any kip at all.
The driving is going okay, as I have Dale doing the navigating and keeping me alert. We lose a bit of time following slow traffic - I am very nervous about overtaking unless I have a hugely long, clear stretch of road in front. Also I stalled in Dumbarton, at which point Baylis woke up and grinned at me. I have now stalled once at the Rat Trap, twice in Cardiff and once in Dumbarton. There is a mini trauma as we go through Glasgow and miss the turn off to the M8. After a few moments of panic, we find ourselves heading south-west towards Kilmarnock. Dale navigates us back on to the M74 via Hamilton; that's my town coming to the rescue, but we've still lost about 20 minutes by the time we reach the changeover point approaching Carlisle.
going nowhere fast
As I think I may have mentioned, it is not easy to find a comfortable sleeping position in the back of a fully laden Fiesta, and I think we each managed somewhere between zero and two hours kip. The road up to Wasdale Head? is slow going; we almost trashed the suspension going over a water covered pot-hole and had a face off with a stubborn sheep getting 40 winks in the middle of the road. The question of whether Dale was, in fact, head, has never been satisfactorily answered and he remains tight lipped on the matter. We get out of the car a few minutes behind schedule; I think even given the Hamilton detour (did you see what I did there?), 5.5 hrs for this drive is very optimistic.