[Mgs] A bit of a run

[Paul Hunt]

Drove up to Scotland and back last weekend in the V8 to climb Ben Nevis -
highest mountain in the UK.  867 miles averaging over 34mpg (UK gallons).
Fair do's 3/4 of the mileage was motorway covered at a steady speed of 75, but
200 miles was single carriageway doing plenty of overtaking.  About 7 hours
each way.  Google reckoned the distance was 822 miles, so the odometer at
least is overreading by about 5.5%, which is about par for the course as 0% to
10% is the allowable range in the UK.  Took the indicated mileage to 99387,
but that is the 2nd time around, with one rebore and probably crank grind
about 100k miles ago I reckon.  Used no water and only a couple of millimetres
of oil on the dip-stick.

Weather lovely in Scotland on the Saturday and all the way back on the Monday,
absolutely dire for the climb on Sunday - cloud base just above sea level,
howling gale, horizontal rain, freezing cold (we were in snow at the summit),
and visibility just a few yards.  Overdue for a bad one, the previous five
climbs had all been good weather.  By world standards Ben Nevis isn't
particularly high at 4403ft/1344m but the base is at sea-level so you climb
all of it!  Came across hundreds of '3 peaks' challengers on the way down,
attempting to climb the highest peaks in Scotland, England (Scafell Pike) and
Wales (Snowdon) including travel between them in 24 hours.  We are doing our
own '3 peaks' - Snowdon a couple of years ago, Ben Nevis this year, and
Scafell Pike in a year or so :o)

PaulH.