Scotland

Our last night ended up with a meal at The Dores Inn which was fantastic…with amazing food and lovely views of Loch Ness!  Where we *actually* saw Nessie!  Take a look for yourself   Now I know that was strictly day 15 but I just had to blog about it

Today was the last day of our road trip, which was very sad!  We woke up on the shores of Loch Ness, not a cloud in the sky & the temperature rising to the dizzy heights of 21.5…typical!

But all good things have to come to an end & it just made the scenery on the way home look even more spectacular, especially this little spot for a cuppa at Glencoe!

It took us a total of about 11 hours to get home with stops & a car pick up on the way, which was a little tiring but I didn’t envy my parents who did all the driving.  Now back to earth with a bump & back to work tomorrow!

I hope you liked my holiday blog & thank you for reading…sorry but I’ll be back to boring blogs about Excel & Outlook real soon & maybe one or two about Leeds Rhinos too.

Today was the penultimate day of our road trip, so we are moving on to the shores of Loch Ness for our last night.

So we decided to pop into a few towns to so a spot of shopping, Dornoch, Tain & Strathpeffer. Not a lot of shops to be fair although The Jail in Dornoch is probably my favourite, wish we had shops like that at home. Full of amazing gifts & a lovely old building.

From there we made our way to the Falls of Rogie, another waterfall know for salmon leaping, but we didn’t see any today. Slightly disappointing although the 1 mile walk around the river & woods was still nice.

Finally a quick shop in Inverness & yes, you’ve guessed it, a Starbucks! My first English Breakfast Tea in about 3 weeks…it was lush!!! It was so strange being back in a city…there was people everywhere it was very, very strange.

Well tomorrow, will be my last Scotland Road Trip post…a very sad day, although I’m sure you’re all bored of me by now…so until then! TTFN!

Glenmorangie Distillery was the first port of call today.  I hate whiskey, but, when in Scotland & all that I was very interested to see just how it was made.   For just £2.50 we got a short tour around the factory, getting to smell the carbon dioxide that gets released from the barley…totally & utterly disgusting but sinus cleansing at the same time.  In with the price was a dram of whiskey to taste & a £2.50 voucher off a bottle which we were bound to buy

We then went to a place called the Falls of Shin, which is a waterfall on a river which is well know for salmon leaping.   We did actually see some trying to jump up the falls, quite incredible to see, as you can see from the picture my husband took

After that we just had a drive round some of the smaller roads, as we needed to get back to watch Leeds Rhinos vs Wigan Warriors over the Internet…you know…getting our priorities right & all that.  Just hope they appreciate it & make it worth our while!  Come on Rhinos.

Today’s the day that we started our descent of the British Isles, although we still have 3 nights left. We were heading towards the town of Dornoch, taking in the east coast. First stop was Wick…well what can I say about Wick? Erm, nothing much really, so sad to see a fishing town with no life, all the shops closing & everyone seemingly feeling the same! I don’t think I’ll be going back there in a hurry!

Then we moved on to Whaligoe Steps, which is approx 330 steps going down to an old fishing harbour that was last used in the 70′s. It was really interesting to imagine what went on back then, but I’m really glad I don’t have to climb them steps again! I was still feeling sick from the exertion an hour afterwards.

We slowly made our way down the coast road, stopping at Lybster Harbour, Helmsdale Harbour, Brora Beach & Dunrobin Castle. The best of which was Brora Beach, another chance for a paddle, hee hee!

As we were nearing Dornoch we decided to go onto the smaller coast road along the estuary just to make the journey a little longer and we were greeted with a group of about 100 seal with pups! They were soooooo cute I was very excited

Once we got to Dornoch we sat down for a pint in the sun at The Eagle Hotel, it was lovely although we did have a mad Liverpudlian talking to us about how brilliant Scotland is, it was hilarious Happy Times!

Up for an early breakfast today as we had to travel back to John O’Groats to catch the ferry to Orkney. We have booked on a coach day tour which took us to all the main tourist spots on the islands.

First stop was Kirkwall, the capital. Only an hour of spare time so we had a cup of tea & a scone, quick look around the cathedral, bought some lunch

Next stop was Skara Brae (another hour stop), which is a village built in 3100BC before the pyramids & Stonehenge! It was very interesting to see how things were built with just stone.

From then we stopped at Ring of Brodgar, Standing Stones of Stenness and the Italian Chapel before heading back to the ferry for the trip back home.  I very much enjoyed my ‘peedie’ tour of the Orkney Isles, there is so much to see and do, much more than we did today.  Maybe worth a trip back some time.

Another sunny day and another moving day!  Time to move on to our last place before we start getting nearer to home instead of further away.

It was only 10am and I found myself climbing up a hill to Castle Varrich, which was not far from the bed & breakfast!  The legs and back are sore from yesterday so it took me a little longer than normal!  The views were worth it tho, even if the castle was a little pants!

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Unfortunately for me the sun woke me up at about 3am this morning and I struggled to get back to sleep so tried to blog at about 7 o’clock but it would seem that Scotland is against bloggers…but the sun was shining so there was no real complaining from me, not after yesterday afternoons downpour, anyway!

We decided to do a 5 mile walk as it was such a nice day.  My only contribution to choosing where was that I wanted it to be near a beach so I could paddle afterwards!   I’m such a child!   So off we went to Faraid Head, back to the beach I’d paddled at the day before…in the rain!  It was a 5 mile walk (nearer 6 I’d say), that took us to the most North Westerly point that we would get to on this holiday, although we could sit & look at the actual most North Westerly point from the cliff’s edge.

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Moving day comes round very quickly and this one was no different.  We were moving on to a small town called Tongue!   Between Scourie & Tongue lies the most North Westerly points of mainland Britain!

The thing I will take away with me from this area the most is the gorgeous beaches!   There is nearly one round every corner!  Even if the weather was a little pants to say the least, they’re still beautiful & unspoilt.

We decided to take a trip to Smoo Cave, a cave originally made by sea water but now changed by fresh water!  We were greeted by a funny man who sounded like Mrs Doubtfire, which me & my mum found hilarious!  We donned our hard hats and went aboard a little dinghy with another family of 5, very snug!  ‘Move along dears’

It was amazing, being underground in a huge cave with a waterfall of fresh water falling through a sunk hole! Fascinating stuff & well worth the £3 it cost for the tour

The bed & breakfast we arrived at was beautiful, not the views of the night before, but in a very relaxing & peaceful setting! Much needed!

After a very nice ‘local’ breakfast…eggs from their own chickens and sausages from their own pigs (I’m glad to say no lamb from Larry!!!)…

…we were ready to face the day…which was a day around Handa Island, a nature reserve.  We travelled to a small village called Tarbet where we caught the Handa Island Ferry, which was a small boat only big enough for 10 people.

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Today has to go down as the best day so far. It was moving day so we were heading further north towards a little place called Scourie. As the distant from Ullapool to Scourie wasn’t as far as the last jump, we decided to take the coastal route.

This took us to a secluded beach called Achnahaird Beach, which has to be one of the best beaches I have ever been to. I may even go as far to say as it’s the 3rd. Not topping Hawk’s Nest or Palm Beach (Home & Away) in Australia, but very close.

We walked down to the beach & had a paddle, the water was actually quite warm at the break but freezing cold the deeper you went (which wasn’t far!)

We then moved on a little further & the landscape changed again. Up from the ground shoots Suilven, Scotland’s most distinctive mountain. He was fantastic…and you would have got good views from the top of him.

We finally arrived at our new home for the next 2 nights. A little croft with only 2 rooms, overlooking their own shoreline! The views from the bedrooms are fantastic. Only a short walk (ok, about 20 mins) and you get to the Atlantic…which we did for a spot of fishing and otter spotting, both of which were elusive.