Back in 1987 my dad and I made a camping trip to the North of Scotland. It was fun, different and we even enjoyed the spectacle of the RAF bombing the tiny island in the bay as target practice.
We stayed one night and then enjoyed the next day walking, talking etc.
Unfortunately the weather and rain turned against us so rather than spending another night in a leaky tent which was at risk of blowing away we decided to go home.
Home was 440 miles away and we were in a BL Metro (not the GM kind) which had a 1275cc OHV A-series (think MG Midget but single carb), a tiny 7 gallon tank, an SU carb and "longer" 4sp gearbox (18.6MPH/1000RPM in 4th) - but gears in the sump like the original Mini.
Normally this car would do 210 miles before filling the (annoyingly small) tank and we had done about 110 of those already. We were in Durness, north Scotland and headed south at about 11pm with the wind blowing.
We drove slow and eco, as we knew it then without gauges and feedback in the bad weather. We swapped every hour and used loud music to keep us going - differing tastes which last until today. Of course every garage we passed was closed as it was overnight and this is remote...
Eventually we reached the first main town of Inverness which was about 115 miles away and found a petrol station linked to an Audi dealer which was open. We filled up. I can't remember the exact MPG we worked out but it was well over 50 at that point.
We then swapped about a few times and filled up again between Glasgow and Carlisle until we got home and then slept until the next day.
The Metro (a HLE model for those in the know) hadn't been so eco then I expect we would have got stuck at some point, most cars had 4sp and gearing of under 20/1000 rpm.