My partner, Sue, is climbing Kilimanjaro for a cancer charity in September (2010) and is training hard to do so. Living in the relatively flat county of Essex we have been travelling to other parts of the country so she can practice on hills, with me, Mr Unfit, tagging along too. We've been to Wales, (climbed Snowdon), and the Peak District, and as she had to attend a conference in Edinburgh in mid-June, she thought it would be a cracking wheeze to climb Ben Nevis. She had emailed colleagues to see if anyone else was interested in the climb and one person said they were; we arranged to meet and do the climb on the Saturday. I was to meet her on the Thursday when the conference finished, stay overnight in Edinburgh and then drive, via Inverness along Loch Ness to a camp site in Fort William on the Friday ready for the climb.

I left on the Wednesday in the trusty Bongo. I overnighted in a lovely little village, Reeth, with an abundance of pubs and excellent views on the edge of Swaledale. In the morning I went across country on a single track road across the moor, carefully avoiding the sheep, and met the main road up near Barnard Castle. It was still very early and I'd broken the back of the journey the previous day, so I ambled along at a steady 50-60 mph knowing I had plenty of time. Oh ye trusty fool!

I stopped in Jedburgh, about 30 miles south of Edinburgh, for a comfort break and a man parked next to me advised me that coolant was leaking from the Bongo. I looked and sure enough, a green liquid was trickling from under the radiator. I looked under the bonnet and could see the area was damp, but not where the leak was from. The local information centre didn't know where a motor spares shop might be for a sealant, so I bought a 5 litre bottle of water, topped it up and drove to Edinburgh with one eye firmly on the temperature gauge. I arrived with no further mishap and ascertained that the leak seemed to occur when the Bongo warmed up and cooled down; it didn't seem to be a constant leak.

The next day we travelled around Edinburgh looking at the sights but I was becoming increasingly concerned that we wouldn't make the full journey. Being a member of a motoring organisation, who shall remain anonymous though their initials are an acronym of "car", I phoned to see if they could offer any support. After more than an hour a man turned up, looked at it, let it run for half an hour and told me that I had a hole in my radiator. Bravo. I asked if he knew where I could get a sealant nearby, he told me there was somewhere nearby but despite my mentioning it several times he never told us where.

I could see we weren't going anywhere and decided it was time to call International Rescue, well, Ian at Bongo Mission Control anyway. I was lucky to catch him as it was Friday and he was just leaving to debrief Brains and Virgil. I explained our problem and location and he said, "Hang on, I know someone who can help you, I'll phone back in 5 minutes. Sure enough, 5 minutes later he rang and explained that the man we needed was "Bongo" Bill in Dunfermline, 30 miles away, and gave me his number.

Bill (not pictured above) is the proprietor of the Campercraft Bongo Centre (01383 747703) situated in the most pleasant industrial estate I've ever seen. It's an ex MoD Fleet Air Arm site with the units dispersed over a very large area. What other industrial area can you see deer, rabbits, foxes and a large and varied contingent of birds? Sadly, he'd fitted his last stock radiator two days previously, and, being Friday, would not be able to do anything until the next week. We agreed to return on the following Wednesday when he would have a replacement rad waiting for us. There was also a toilet block with hot and cold running water very close to his unit and Bill suggested that we stay on the site overnight on the Tuesday and use the facilities. If you are ever in the area they are worth a visit. Their website can be found at www.campercraft.eu.

We continued on our way, though sadly missing out the Loch Ness run, I didn't want to push our luck, and we reached Fort William with just a few top ups. The campsite was great, right at the foot of "Ben Everest", with excellent facilities, and we prepared ourselves for the following day.

The next day dawned bright and clear, not a cloud in the sky; very rare for those parts. We met Sue's colleague, Andrew, and his girlfriend at the information centre at the foot of the mountain and started our climb. There were quite a few groups of people doing the Three Peaks challenge for various charities and the fitter of them were running up and down the mountain. The record time for a man running to the summit and back is an astonishing one hour and twenty-four minutes, the women's record is about one forty-eight. We took nine and a half hours, though to be fair, Sue could have probably done it at least an hour faster each way without me. Being such a clear day, the views from the summit were absolutely fantastic, BN is surrounded by other hills and mountains and is truly spectacular.Sue did a 16 mile walk the following day along a river valley while I nursed my aching legs.

On the Tuesday we travelled back to Dunfermline and headed for Bill's place. The Bongo was now losing water at a faster rate and we were becoming increasingly concerned. The leak seemed to be creeping along the top where the core joins the surround. None of the garages we'd stopped at sold a sealant and we were now carrying 2, five litre water bottles and filling them at regular intervals. Eventually, we came to a garage that was also a Land-Rover main dealer and whoopee they had a sealant. We spent an hour or so there topping the rad up and bleeding the air from the pipe situated by the bulkhead under the passenger seat. Getting the clip off is a real pig!

That seemed to cure the problem and we continued our journey, arriving at the site as the last people were leaving. Not only was it quiet and peaceful, Walking around that evening was when we saw the deer bolting for the shelter of a wood.

The following morning, Bill showed us the Bongos they were working on and some rock and roll beds they had made by another company on the site. These had sturdy metal frames, yet slid smoothly, easily and effortlessly from the upright to prone positions. He can have them made to any size and were certainly impressive. As it was going to take a few hours to complete the work, Bill kindly dropped us off in town to explore and arranged to pick us up at lunchtime. When we came back he had also given the van an examination, touched up some undersealing and lubricated the roof. What service!

We haven't had any further problems and enjoyed a pleasant return journey. I've since done another 1,200 mile trip to France and back and things all seem fine. I have to say though, that when troubles occur, anywhere in the country, it shows the worth of being a member of an organisation like Bongo Fury. A phone call to Ian had put me in touch with Bill and our holiday had been saved. Heaven only knows what another garage would have charged to supply and fit the rad and I doubt they'd have put us up for the night! Our grateful thanks to them both.

Incidentally, if any of you are of a charitable disposition and would like to support Sue's endeavour, donations can be made to:

http://www.justgiving.com/Susan-Pembroke

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