Independent overland travel through Africa in a Unimog called Moglet

My God, what an overpriced pit! Maybe a generation ago it might have been quite nice, but the one and only campsite we could find in Auchterarder was not somewhere we wanted to stay for too long - especially at £15.50 a night! We may be getting a little picky in our old age, but the site had no clean water for Moglet that we could get at, no running water in the dishwashing area, I couldn't get anything other than tepid water to come out of the showers, the power supply was a measly 6amps (usually 10amps at most sites) and there was nowhere for us to empty either our grey or black tanks. Oh, and they wouldnt let us park anywhere other than their car park because they didnt actually have the hardstanding that their advert said they did! We arrived late and initially booked for three nights, which felt more like a jail term by the end of the first night! Now we're ok with the whole rustic approach to this adventure we're on, and the lack of heating in the shower block is something I can pretty easily get along with, but when they charge the second most expensive rates we've encountered since we left home, I think its pretty shocking. Needless to say, I wouldnt recommend them - if you want to stay in the area, the car park in the village centre about 2 miles away is totally free, reasonably flat, has 10 or so extra large spaces specifically for caravans/motorhomes etc, is 30seconds walk from the loos and you can stay there for up to 72hours without paying nowt. Much better value, as far as I'm concerned...

Rant over :-)

We decided to make the best of things though and hoofed our way up a local hill called Craig Rossie - apparently a gentle introduction to making sure my temperamental ankle is going to be well behaved. All things considered, I'd say the first half of the walk was good fun, even if the initial slog uphill through a farm and lots and lots of cow poo isnt exactly the best way to start your day. And once we made it to the top, our efforts were rewarded by the windiest place we've been to yet - have a look at Jasons beard and you'll see what I mean! It was one of those places where you can stand still, hold your arms out sideways and jump in the air, and land two feet further downwind! The noise from the flapping hoods on our jackets (it was safer to have them up and and tied down, then whipping around our necks!) made it almost impossible to hear anything we said to eachother...

The route down was slightly less pleasant, pretty much the entire back side of the hill was covered in heather and no path to follow, so you had to blaze your own trail down a pretty steep and constant incline. My ankle started to play up, and it was only a matter of time before I twisted it again and landed on my arse. Then the rain started to fall, making the heather even more slippery, and by this time it was getting dark etc etc... Never time for a good self-pitying bawl when you need one, I had to content myself with snivelling on the move as I slipped and slithered my way down the hill behind Jason, every little wobble sending really rather unpleasant shooting pains up my leg. After about 30years or so we eventually made it to more level terrain, and then it really did start to piss it down. We stopped long enough for Jason to put on his waterproof jacket and for us both to put on headtorches (pitch black by this time), and then plodded the mile or so on the road back to Moglet. The only highlight to the evening was that the wind was picking up (I like a nice bit of angry weather :-)), with a 'horrible' night forecast, according to a fellow inmate of the camp. One final twist of the knife that the campsite had in store for us - we put a load of washing on at about 8pm, after the owner had told us it'd take about an hour to go through the cycle and then if we hung it up in the same room it'd be dry by the morning as the boiler was in there too. I think I forgot to metnion that their 'laundry' facilities didnt actually stretch to a tumble dryer... Poor old Jason was on washing duty, the cycle took more like 4hours, he ended up stringing half a mile of paracord up in this tiny room so we could hang our clothes (nothing else provided, naturally!), only to find them still pretty damn damp the next day. Needless to say, Jason had a word with the camp owner, changed our three nights to two, and got a refund so we left early. I think it may have been the underlying, unspoken threat of an exploding poo tank that convinced him we might be better off leaving sooner rather than later!