06/09/24
Hello again. It’s been a while.
It’s not to that we’ve been doing nothing, but we haven’t been touring around so not a huge amount of motorhome activity to report on.
But now we’re excited to be preparing for a new trip to Scotland.
Work
As last reported, I (Becky) took on another work contract in January. Originally six months, this was extended to cover for a colleague’s summer holiday and I’ve just agreed a new extension to cover some final activities that had been delayed.
I hadn’t intended to say yes to this latest contract extension, because we wanted to get away in Bertie. But as it’s a limited number of days (approx 2 days a week) it feels like a perfect opportunity to see how the digital nomad life works for me.
Up to now I’ve managed a day here or there working from Bertie, but this will be more significant. For the next three months I will not be able to retreat to my home office, but will have to depend on mobile signal for data and solar for power.
We shall see how this goes. I’m sure there will be some updates.
Working on the road in Bertie
Bertie
Bertie had an MOT in February and a couple of people expressed an interest in buying the old thing. We very nearly decided to sell. We wrote an Autotrader ad and conducted a lot of research into a possible new van (which was great fun).
In the end, after a lot of consideration, and changing our minds more than once, we decided we would keep Bertie going for a couple more years. If we had found the perfect replacement maybe it would have been a different outcome, but every van we looked at had some compromises we couldn’t quite agree on.
We nearly changed our mind when, during August bank holiday weekend, our radiator sprung a leak as we drove to the top of a hill in the Welsh valleys for a Land Rover event. Our hearts sank as we contemplated delaying or cancelling our journey but with plenty of help from friends who are far more mechanically minded we think we’re all set.
Out with the old radiator
Marathon
I needed a challenge to motivate me during the winter months. So I decided to up my trail running game with a marathon distance run over Exmoor following the Two Moors Way. I managed to fit in plenty of training runs despite the miserable weather we’ve had this year.
We combined the weekend of the event with a stay on Exmoor. We arrived to storm clouds and torrential rain, the type of rain that wipers don’t seem to touch. I was concerned that I would need to run in the sauna of the full waterproof gear on the kit list.
Luckily the rest of the weekend was mostly sunny. We had a great warm-up walk in the Doone Valley on the day before the run.
The run itself was hard work with demanding hills (over 1100m elevation gain) and some tricky navigation (I really need a smart watch, as getting my phone out of my pocket every time I need directions is a right pain). But it was also incredibly beautiful, taking in a wide range of Exmoor terrain; river, moorland, combes and coast.
The run wasn’t without it’s difficult moments. Part way through I needed the loo rather desperately, I really thought I’d set myself back a long way when I diverted in order to find somewhere. Then about 20 miles in I ‘bonked’. My food intake obviously hadn’t been good enough. I needed to stop, rest for a few minutes and eat a decent amount of high energy food. I gave myself a good pep talk before I carried on.
Paul met me a few times en-route to cheer me on and ply me with food, at the last road crossing he told me ‘not long now’, but it felt like the longest stretch of the whole day, the extreme undulations of the high route along the river into Lynmouth felt like they would never end and every step of the steep downhill into the town felt like a hammer blow to my legs, I was so relieved to see the end in sight and be cheered on by the spectators, including my mum, sister and brother-in-law. I had really earned my fish and chips.
Despite my difficulties along the way, I ended up doing much better than I thought. I managed to just pip a couple of other ladies to the position of third female, fastest (male or female) in my age group and 7th overall. OK, it was a small field, but I was made up to get a trophy. I’m now trying to find my next, longer distance so I can apply some of the lessons I learned.
Relieved to be in Lynmouth and surprised to get a trophy.
What Else
Looking back, we have had plenty of time in Bertie this year, in no particular order:
- A visit to Aaron in Cardiff, using the very convenient city campsite.
- A great weekend on Dartmoor, visiting friends, walking and mountain biking on an icy moor in February.
- A wet weekend in Cornwall, making the most of our free entry to the Eden project (one week of each year you can get entry for the price of a lottery ticket)
- A dry and sunny water based weekend in Cornwall at Pentewan Sands where we got the kayak out and did some swimming.
- Hiking and biking on a holiday with friends in Woolacombe
- Several Land Rover club events around Devon and Cornwall, plus trips further afield to Wales and the National Rally at Milton Keynes
It’s just a matter of days before we start our long trip to Scotland’s east coast where we will intersperse my Digital Nomad life with plenty of outdoors adventures. We just cant wait!