Also consider a C210 or C206 if you can find one.
Thanks The Ancient Geek - the last part sadly is the difficulty here! Trying to find somewhere which rents C206, C210, or any other "non pa28 / c152 / c172" and doesn't require you to pay huge monthly fees seem pretty scarce unfortunately!
It was the 182RG I flew and loved it.
Thank you TangoAlphad, I really appreciate the help / thought. It sounds like the most promising lead thus far! I'll pop down to Denham and have a chat with them about membership, various cost, and likelihood of being able to do the trip whilst renting from them. I understand that it is over a weekend (and it must be due to family work schedules) and that 7.5 to 8.5 tacho hours over 3 days may not be enough to make it worth their while!
Yes the turbo Arrow III that I fly is pretty nifty in comparison to others (albeit older) Arrows I have flown. I normally struggled to get much more than 120KIAS but this one flies beautifully (and is wonderfully maintained by its owner which also helps a lot!). Last summer I was flying her at around 130KIAS whilst a hairline under max gross weight, and it was 28degC @ 2,000' which in my mind is a winner! But again - definitely not the short field performance that I have read and seen the C182 do!