Open Door Policy

After setting off from North London at 6pm on Friday evening, we headed North as part of a convoy of 110 Triumph cars taking part in the Round Britain Reliability Run. We follow a defined route plan although naturally traffic and small lapses in navigational skills cause occasional diversions. The cars also run to a pace they are comfortable with: it's not a race, the number one priority is getting around safely in the time.

Here is a brief itinerary of the day (because there was so much it was quite hard to remember - times are rough, our brains are addled):

- 12am, near Corbridge (Northumberland)
- 2.15am, Edinburgh Airport (much needed coffee)
- 5am, Aviemore
- 8am, John O'Groats (proper cooked breakfast and photos with the sign)
- 9am set off through the beautiful Scottish Highlands (the sun is out, gorgeous)
- 1.30pm, Conon Bridge near Inverness for a quick lunch
- 3.45pm, Glencoe, beautiful as ever
- 5pm, Stirling
- 7.30pm, Tebay Service, near the Lake District. Good dinner, not the usual service station stuff!
- 10.30pm, a services near Chester, fill the tanks to the brim
- until midnight driving down through Wales on wiggly A-roads.

We've been swapping over driving duties every 2 hours or so. In each of the three cars in our mini team there are three drivers and this gives a chance for a rest. Going into the wiggly bits of Wales, we increased the frequency of driver swaps as the roads are great fun to drive but challenging.

In all, the day was a blur of places whizzing past. Having both regularly commuted to Edinburgh, it was odd being at the airport at 3am with it all closed up. Annie had never been to John O'Groats before so was very excited to reach the top of mainland Britain. The Scottish Highlands were simply stunning in the sun. Wiggling down through Scotland it's amazing how long it took to get back down via the highland roads. Lovely to see Glencoe again having been there only a month ago. Final highlight of the day has to be the wiggly drive through Wales, more on that tomorrow.

All very beautiful places, but it's the people that make the trip. More on the others tomorrow, but the standout moment of today was fellow blipper Martin discovering the "design feature" of the door in the Triumph 2.5 PI which made it no longer shut properly. The fact he discovered this whilst going around a roundabout, nearly falling out of the car in the process made it all the more hilarious for his passengers. It's ok, we were going slowly, it was all fine! Gaffer tape was applied to the door and we entered and exited through the passenger side from then on.

A few action shots from the car of course to capture the action.