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BERT 17

A bit late coming this one as it wasn't tied to the MX-5 blog. But Rod noticed it's absence and I realised that I really should correct that. This BERT was unusual for me as it's the only one I haven't driven on (there was also the Italian BERT that I missed completely), instead I was the passenger in Pete's Elise. This was probably one of the most chaotic and in a lot of ways, one of the most memorable BERTs.

It started, as it often does, at Pooley Bridge, where the Nicks arrived in the Jaaaag. This is perfectly normal.

Sadly the Nicks were only with us for a couple of days, but the breeze was indeed shot at Mrs Tingley's. I think this was the last time we stayed there. I'd like to think our glowing reviews were a part of Drochill Castle's meteoric rise in popularity. Shame it made it impossible for us to book again. What it did to was lay the template for what we liked in places to stay. Mainly a nice front room with sofa's for us to congregate in.

As stated previously when I owned one of the things, me getting in and out of an Elise isn't pretty. This was Nick's attempt at documenting in video the reverse birth taking place. Also to note, I am bigger than I was when I had an Elise and the passenger side of one is smaller than the driver's side. Something I forgot when I thought passengering in one might be a good idea. It was quite snug.

It's a fact of life that if you do a lot of miles in naily cars and sometimes things don't go as planned. This is where Pete's Elise decided that it was going no further. In the middle of werewolf country with no cellphone reception. Which meant that Rod and Pete had to drive a couple of hours back to Ullapool and Shiny and I stayed with the car.

Our wait was quite interesting, Shiny went on a hike up a hill to see if his phone would work. It didn't, and he ended up dunking his shoe and sock into a marshy puddle for his trouble. So instead we sat in the car. Pretty area, our parking there seemed to confuse passers by that it must be some sort of area of natural beauty or something. We even had a small coach stop. I'll admit we were tempted to take the driver's offer of taking us with them, but we decided to stick with the stricken Elise. We're good like that.

Ultimately this is what it's all about. By hook or by crook, we all made it to John O'Groats. The trip was memorable as hell even though it was more challenging than we'd planned. But that's BERT. Pete was an absolute legend, Rod as ever was the planning ninja, and it was awesome to see Shiny and the Nicks again. Top trip.

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