Category: Vehicles

Finally back to Scotland again

As Scotland eased its restrictions for entering the country, we finally are able to go back to Whaligoe without having to spend a 10-days in self-isolation. So we are preparing our next trip. As the weather seems to be better than last time, we will give it a another try with our pick-up to see, if we can make it this time without getting stuck again.

The last it looke somehow like after the recovery with tractor and cable winch:

This in turn means, we will again take the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle with a night on the sea. Time-wise it takes longer than to go through the tunnel, but hopefully less stressful.

The good thing about taking the car is, we can bring a lot of stuff with us such as a Raclette “oven” and have a real Swiss Raclette at the Loch. Plus, we will be trying out our new Brompton Bikes to test the route from Whaligoe to Wick.

As it currently seems, we have to conduct a PCR test two days after arrive. According to gov.uk a new test centre opend in Wick. We will try that out …

So, let’s hope the situation stays as it is and we are able to go to Whaligoe soon.

Securing the Back Window of our Hard Top with a Farrimond Friction Hitch

We have a Beltop Hard Top for our Toyota Hilux. Though we are quite happy with it, there was something we did not want to live with it.

So we fixed a minor nuisance of the back window of our hard top: having rain pouring into the pick up over our power jacks … We adjusted the back window with a Farrimond Friction Hitch. Check our video on how we did this.

I first saw this knot on a video from “Far North Bushcraft and Survival”. The knot presented there seems just as useful in the backwoods as for our car. Here it is:

Roof Top Extension

Last December we got ourselves an AutoTerm Diesel Heater for our tent or side awnings. However, we could not really use it for our roof top tent, as the pipe was so long, that practically all the heat was lost before getting into the tent. Therefore we created an extension at the rear of our tent to place the heater on it (amongst other stuff). Have a look at it at the video below.

We can even fit the extension with a tarp to have some rain protection on a quick stop.

Roof Top Extension with Tarp as Rain Shelter

A very basic installation and far from perfect setup – but it works …