21st December. Failure To Run 50 Miles In A Blizzard.

Following The Fat Boy/Otter's failure in The Great Glen 5-0, having to give up at 35 miles instead of the full 50, he was keen to set matters right by running 50 miles mainly in darkness due to the fact that the 21st was the shortest day. I suggested it would be quite Christmasy to start at the top of the Drummochter Pass due to the elevation and recent snowfalls.

Arrived and departed the iced up Asda car park at 1 am, "I'm afraid it'll have to be the Land Rover" said The Otter. The Otter's brother had volunteered to be at the wheel of the LR and made no attempt to conceal his opinion about the venture. Naturally the Snow increased markedly beyond Blair Atholl as we began to climb. One wiper was a bit lacksadaisical in its approach then around 2.30am whilst nearing the ludicrous dropping off point at Drummochter summit 50 miles up the A9 there was a slight bang followed by a cessation of all wiping action. Due to the now blizzard conditions snow quickly rendered the windscreen opaque. It looked increasingly that asking Alistair to drive all the way back to Perth into the infrequent but invisible oncoming traffic was a favour too far. A handy roadside fir tree provided a stick to attach a cloth to for wiping through the open window, although I offered to lie on the roof rack and manually clean from above. A few minutes later the interior began to smell strongly of something electrical in its death throws, "Are the wipers still switched on?" I enquired. "Yes" . "Looks like you're in the market for a wiper motor then as well as the linkage" . Things improved with the forcing of the arthritic drivers side wiper blade into movement and the attachment of bungee cords, the wiper could now be operated by the two passengers alternately pulling left and right through the now both open windows. The smell of diesel fumes mingled with the melted armature plus a background of burnt or hot oil. " This is absolutely brilliant" commented The Otter on the vastly improved wiper action "Pull"  "Pull" etc etc just showing how relative everything is. "I don't know why land drover dont fit this as standard" I said. There was a question mark about the heater's efficiency. with the continual querying as to "JEEZUZ CHRIST! Are you sure the heater's on?"