....... It was quite quite brilliant.
We took two days to get to our base, two days to get back, leaving six days for touring.
It started with a disappointment though, one of our number had car trouble & set off a day late, but had the car fail & had to pull out. The rest of us met at our usual place - The Stamford Garden Centre for breakfast a little later as we were only going 100 miles north from that point, but those from the south coast had already done 130ish miles when they arrived.
The first hotel in Snaith - The Downe Arms - was nice, with each of us getting a self contained "out house" in the car park. We had a pleasant meal, sat around in the sunshine, watched a Michel Bolton look alike park his Porsche within 3ft of his table, then went off to bed. One slight shadow over the proceedings was a cock-up on the camera front meant that instead of front-facing video, I had five thousand, five hundred stills taken a few seconds apart.
On day two we left the hotel breakfastless & travelled a dozen or so miles to "The Motorist" where we had baps booked. By happenstance, it was "Italian Car Day", so there were a few interesting cars to look at. Once we'd eaten, drunk & looked, we headed north with the roads getting better all the time. We crossed the moors & called into the excellent Toft Barn cafe, where we stopped in the bucketing rain last year. This year it was bright sun & the moors around the place looked spectacular.
Back on the move we called into Brymor ice cream parlour where one of us tried the beer flavoured ice cream.
Pretty much spot on time we rolled into Annan for the last refuel & called the hotel as the owner wanted to film our arrival. And so we arrived at The Ecclefechan Hotel & unloaded.
After a quick refresh & a drink in the bar, we had the first of many excellent meals & retired to bed.
Day 3 dawned bright & clear again, so after an excellent breakfast (choice of full English or full Scottish), we had to decide which route to do. Often we choose a route based on the weather, but today it was forecast to be good all over, so it came down to someone fancying going to the seaside.
So we did the route that was effectively the northern half of the new South West Coast 300. To begin with it was a little frustrating on the A road, but once we got to the coast it improved dramatically & the run back was very good indeed.
After another very good meal (with some beer) & a sleep we gathered for breakfast & the inevitable "what route today?" question.
Again the weather forecast didn't help, so we went out towards Selkirk. More excellent weather, more excellent roads, including the road past the Meggit reservoir, which isn't fast, but it's entertaining & very very scenic. Equally there were some dire road surfaces over short distances, but we managed.
Day 5 - well into the routine now, the people at The Ecclefechan Hotel presented the menu in the morning as well as any "specials" & we selected ready for the evening. Today we did the southern half of the SWC300 - it was of necessity the longest route, so some chose to cut a bit - which was anticipated & built into the route.
At the extreme far end we stopped in Sandhead, where the lovely people in the Tigh Na Mara got very excited at the sudden arrival of a bunch of brightly coloured cars, as did the rest of the inhabitants & as we left, just about everyone in the village had their phones out.
Day 6 was a bit of a washout as my girlfriend's car refused to start due to a dead battery. So we had a quiet one & prepared the jump start pack ready for the following day. But everyone else did a route that went south to Hartside Pass & they returned extolling the roads which were of course "the best ever" (it's a Rogues tradition that the best routes are the ones someone misses).
On to day 7 & a route which took in the best "local" parts of many of the other routes, which was brilliant. Again the sun shone & we had
another fantastic day's motoring. On this day we lost the Alpine who's driver headed north to pick up his wife & tour northern Scotland, but he was replaced by another Elise, who's owner lives in Scotland & came south to join in.
Day 8 & the final route, which was mostly in Cumbria & Northumberland. The roads were pretty epic, we did the wonderful Kielder road unimpeded by traffic, which is always good & even found a new place to stop. Then back to the hotel to have our final evening meal at the Ecclefechan & pack our bags.
Day 9 & we had to bid farewell to the the good people at the Ecclefechan Hotel. Our stay had been fantastic, it was in the perfect place, with good road connections to get us quickly into the areas we wanted to get to, a good car park with the cars away from public view, a comfy bar, nice rooms & excellent food. But it was time to head for the "Fox & Hounds" in Willingham-by-Stow - ish.
Two of the Rogues headed north to do more driving, one headed directly home. The rest of us took in Tan hill & several other EPIC roads, but the further south we went, the worse the roads got & if planning the same thing again I'd take to the A1 around Goole, but we had another good day & avoided the rain AGAIN.
So all in all one of the best Rogues trip ever. The bookings were complex, but all worked out well in the end. I shall write about each day in more detail, but for now - I'd like to have a sleep.