Miniclan's Thistle Run 24/05/15

Taken from the Miniclan website...

The miniclan are delighted to announce that the date for this year's Thistle Run is Sunday 24th of May

The start point will be Blair Drummond Safari park, and it is hoped that the end point will again be Fort William Shinty club car park, although meetings with both venues are still to take place.

Full details of booking etc will be confirmed in the coming months

I'm very interested in going on this.

BOOKING OPEN!!

go to:

http://www.miniclan.co.uk

Been a novice on the Thistle Run I wasn't sure what to expect. So going from the experience of Dale ,who has done this about 5 years on the trot, I'm glad to say as with any information Dale gives it was very reliable to how good a journey it was.
Given Scotland, or Scottie land as Dale calls it, isn't exactly close I was a little nervous as I would be doing it with, I'm sure most will know, a fresh engine. At least I had a fresh MOT to give me some confidence.
So a mid Saturday morning set off from Dales saw us start the long journey to Stirling about 4hrs away where we would stay over at the Premiere Inn. Luckily it was dry and bright at times and with no delays on the way there. The only thing that stopped us was food and bladder emptying  stops.





Big fans of the mini up there


At the Premiere Inn car park there was a club of Monaro's but I think the classics held their own...

...we had back up just incase.


All that travelling deserved a good meal and a good night sleep


The next day saw us raring to go and with only a 20min drive to get to the start point at Blair Drummond safari park.

There were 194 registered cars but more showed up on the day




















After our lunch stop it soon became apparent we were the last ones, Dale and me are still baffled by this as we didn't exactly stop for long.
It was a few moments before our lunch stop that my wipers decided to stop working. well you can't have it all your own way.










We turned up 3rd and 4th from last ffs at Fort William so we missed the judging made more worse as Dale could have been on for a prize by the amount of attention The Mistress got due to the trailer/ the general presence.














Sadly there was an incident between two minis won a prize tho if that helps

and the other

This was my fave of the lot, was a genuine Downton engine

























Check out the A-pannel.... door bottom...door top...boot...etc


After all that it was time to make our way back down to our rest stop for the night in Dumbarton about 2hrs30mins away from Fort William.
Once there we checked in, dumped our bags and got a Frankie and Benny's and then back to end the day.
The drive home the next day was nice and steady and dry thankfully for me with us only really hitting traffic on the A1(M) so close to home without a delay.

All in all it was well worth the trip up there. The views were really very beautiful. The pics don't do the scale of things justice and the amount of good comments or thumbs up on our way there and back were plentiful. The fact they change the location every 4 years to mimic the St Andrews cross means you get a different set of roads and therefore different experience each time round. The fact its such a long way away makes you feel like you've taken part in something really special and getting back in one piece under your own steam gives a great sense that your pride and joy has given you just that. Highly recommend this journey and most likely one I'm going to do again next year.

Don't think I could have asked for better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M41WjeQoQn4&sns=em

More pics of the great turn out of cars
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2804703@N20/pool/