Road Trip to Scotland – 1

So…. this is the big one. Years ago I saw someone who had taken a train trip around the coast of Scotland and it looked amazing. And years ago T and I did ‘a week in a van’ where we slept in the back of the Trafic and visisted the Blackpool (very briefly as it was awful) , the Lake District, Newcastle, Sheffield and a few other places.

So I wanted to take the train journey as it’s an epic one with incredible views, and amazingly is just a ‘standard’ service, not the Orient Express or some price gouge. So this trip has been made around that, but to make it up to Glasgow in a single day seemed a stretch, so we (OK, I!) decided to visit the Lake District for a day on the way up, then get the train from Glasgow to Mallaig (end of the scenic line), stay a night there and return to Glasgow the next day. Then go to see Summer in Newcastle, Visit York (national railway museum is another must that I skipped before on the previous road trip) and stay overnight and then come home. I didn’t want to do it during half term (last week) as I wanted fewer kids around wherever possible. And I felt pretty bad last week (before starting the steroids) so I don’t think I would have been much better physically anyway.

Yesterday was day 1, and I’ll be honest it did not start well. I woke up at 3am and never really got back to sleep, despite taking medication that should have helped; I got up properly at 5. I have started feeling pretty bad first thing in the mornings, and even after the traditional amazing breakfast that T does every day, I was just wiped out. Original departure time was 8:30 to get here at a reasonable time, but that slipped to 10 for a variety of reasons, mostly me. T did all the driving as I wasn’t feeling up to it and she quite enjoys driving the camper. A mis-plan of route (avoiding motorways) was quickly found as the time had gone from 5h30 to 8h45 which was a bit of a shock that we initially put down to the M5 being closed and the general end of half term traffic, but soon got to a a more reasonable time.

We stopped a few times on the way, mostly for breaks for me. I’m finding even just sitting around tiring now, so while I improved as they day went on (and another coffee was had), there was only a brief period when I would even have considered driving…. and by the time that came up it had probably passed anyway! So we kept going… paid the M6 toll (first and last time ever, that’s for sure at £17!) and got to the camp side – Park Cliffe – just as it predictably started raining. Got shown to our pitch and hooked up and then just sat for a while. The aerial shots make it look closer to the lake than it actually is – it’s not walking distance for me at this point.

I’ve cried a lot. Being consoled by T as ever. This is incredibly difficult. What used to just be a normal thing that you’d do on a normal holiday day – drive 326 mles – is now an epic undertaking for me. Even a couple of weeks ago this would have been OK – the trip to Belgium was a case in point where it was a bit tiring, but doable. Now it’s a draining marathon, and not just physically so. To be so reduced by this, from being capable and just normal to finding just being a passenger for 6 hours ultimately extremely difficult is a difficult thing for me to deal with at the moment. But I have to deal with it as the only other alternative is giving up which isn’t an option when you’re 300+ miles from home aside from anything else. Plus I know I won’t get another chance at this. It really is now or never. Soon enough, everything will have been taken from me by cancer.

But here we are, in the Lakes. With Lakes weather!

Bought dinner from the on-site ‘takeaway’ static van which was a nice combo of veggie stuff (refried beans, etc) and fries. Too much to eat all of it but very tasty and saved T cooking.

During better moments on the way up I was contemplating being able to take part in the last thing we did before I fell ill last year, the London-to-Brighton EV rally. I’ve bought a ticket for it (the UK part), but I really don’t think it will be an option – even the UK leg, let alone going to Bruges and Amsterdam afterwards, even though it’s less distance than we’re doing this week. If I’d had a teleporter last night I would have been back at home and just given up – it’s that hard to contemplate what lies ahead both this week and indeed in the weeks to come; I really do think it will just be weeks now as my energy levels are just dropping off so quickly. But the first day in Belgium didn’t go well either, so I’m hoping we can get things a bit closer to being on track today and allow the train journey to be an enjoyable 5 hours.

I went to bed at 8 and slept until 2, then took another pill and slept until 8. Got up, had breakfast, and then re-did the bed and had another hour. I feel ok now, but no better, having just had what would normally be my mid-morning complan+ with fruit etc that has been helping keep me going when eating is getting a bit tougher.

The original plan for today was to go down to Windermere and take in the scenery, but the weather (both internal and external) is conspiring to make that a bad idea… so we’re going to spend the day together in the van and take it easy. Apparently it will “stop raining” later. We shall see!