It seemed to rain most of the night, but although it was overcast in the morning it stayed dry long enough for me to have (a very small) breakfast outside. I knew it was forecast to get better in the afternoon, but it felt like time to go home. Light rain was falling by the time I was loading the car. If it had been going to be a fine day I'd have done the cycle run to Fascadale, Kilmory and Ockle that I'd originally planned for the Saturday (and had that special meal on the Sunday), but there wasn't going to be a long enough dry spell for that. I did do the route in the car before setting off for good, but the countryside there doesn't look its best in overcast drizzle. Mind you, I did see a couple of cyclists I'd encountered on the Sanna road the previous day valiantly tackling it in hi-viz waterproofs, but rather them than me.
I headed for the charger at Strontian* and got my allocated 45 minutes, which was enough to get me home on paper, but I knew better - especially as I made a detour to see a bit of Morvern on the way. Once I get to Stirling I go like a bat out of hell, so stopping for four minutes on the Osprey chargers at Stirling ensured that there would be no unwelcome drama.
I got home at about nine, low enough to be able to do a long charge although I didn't really need to, and then I collected Jori the next morning. I could tell by the weight of the cat basket that he'd been indulging himself, and even though it was only two weeks he was noticeably plumper. As Jean (the cattery owner) said, his mission in life is to make sure every food bowl is polished clean. And of course he gives her the big emerald eyes treatment, and he's getting very little exercise compared to what he gets at home, so puts on weight. That night he disappeared from eleven o'clock and didn't reappear till five in the morning. How do I know? Because that's the time he jumped on to my bed, distinctly damp, and informed me that
now he wanted to sleep in the bed with me whether I liked it or not.
So that was eight nights in the car and I could have gone on and on if the weather had held up. Three different camping sites - three nights in Sleat, nearest charger just over five miles away, three more by Loch Mòrar, nearest charger just under five miles away, and two in Kilchoan, nearest charger two miles away.
Having the bike makes a huge difference. I can leave the car in the camping spot, so not lose it, and go off for the day to do proper sightseeing at a relaxed speed and get some exercise. I could easily stay three nights without charging so long as I'm not driving much and the nights aren't too cold, although as it happened I didn't actually do more than two at any point.
The car was the power bank for
- keeping the cabin warm and comfortable all night
- running the refrigerated cool box whenever the car wasn't actually locked (the milk stayed good for five days and nothing else went off at all)
- boiling the kettle for cooking and washing
- running the induction hob
- running the pump to inflate the airbed
- recharging the e-bike
I imagine you could manage this in an ICE car, but you'd be cold at night unless you had some sort of externally-powered heater, you'd need a leisure battery (and probably be restricted to a low-powered kettle whereas mine is the full 3 kw) and I don't really know how you'd get the bike recharged. Having that
huge power bank in the car itself is an absolute game-changer.
The sheer freedom of going where the whim takes you without having to think about accommodation is absolutely amazing and I can't recommend it more highly.
* University challenge question. Which element of the periodic table has a Gaelic name? And your bonus extra question,
what does it mean??
