Day 9 - Loading, Loading, Loading

Seriously getting fed up with this lack of connectivity. I pay for unlimited data... so far I've had unlimited sod all for the past 3 days. I am irritated and annoyed. That and I've managed to pick up a cold so I feel like shit too, just to add insult to injury.


Anyway... on a more positive note we have taken today as a pure rest day so Prince and I are hanging out in our tent drinking Irn Bru and eating chocolate.

The view from our campsite is lovely, a valley between two mountains/hills (we've been having the hill vs. mountain debate all journey), but sadly it keeps raining :(

There was a break in the rain long enough for me to go and grab a shower (lovely, warm shower!) and do some washing, strung the washing line up between the two tents and happily hung it all out... for about fifteen minutes before it started raining again. I'm really over rain now!

We decided to actually do SOMETHING with our day so headed into Portree again for fish and chips by the seafront. One thing that has seriously pissed me off so far is so many places near the coast (and, lets be honest, we've been near the coast quite a bit) that don't sell fresh fish? Just crap from bookers out of a bag?! The fish and chip shop we went into has been frequented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who featured it and cooked in it for River Cottage: Gone Fishing where he did beer-battered pollock as an eco-friendly alternative to haddock.

Sad to say that Hugh Fluffy-Lovelystall must not have had that much of an impact and pollock wasn't on the menu, just normal fish and chip shop stuff, and my scampi was out of a bookers bag yet again. The chips were a bit crap too. Doggies enjoyed it as we took their food and bows with us so we could all have dinner together!

I'm not impressed with Skye so far, perhaps it's the weather I don't know... it just hasn't grown on me yet?

Tomorrow's plan: all the tourist crap around Skye!

Day 8 - Over the Sea to Skye

Today has been mostly driving... we had some bits planned (like Strome Castle, which we couldn't find) but mostly just spent our day driving through some more lovely scenery on our way to Skye.

We left Gairloch/Strath and travelled West towards the Kyle of Lochalsh, through Kinlochewe, Stromeferry, Torridon, Shieldaig, Lochcarron (Which was lovely). We stopped in Ben Eigh for a spot of breakfast, we thought the large mountain looking thing might be Ben Nevis but apparently it wasn't. We were trying to check Google to find out, but as usual no bloody phone signal... (yes I have tweeted EE!).

The Whistle Stop Cafe in Ben Eigh is quite nice and worth a visit. They were kind enough to let us have breakfast outside with the kids (dogs) and provided tables etc. I would say, however, that the price you paid was definitely a captive market price! Nearly £8 for very small smoked salmon with creamy scrambled eggs & toast and £8 for a tiny "Full English" with no toast. The smoked salmon was good and the black pudding was nice though and tasted vaguely haggisy?!

Onwards and upwards, we were really looking forward to going to Skye as The Old Man and The Old Lady have holidayed there a few times and say it's beautiful. We shall see!

I have to share the pictures from the "petrol station" though as this is becoming amusing. Where I am from, when you think of 'petrol station' you think of Esso or Texaco or a supermarket like Tesco or Morrissons. Here it's just a tiny pump from the 1950s and a few days ago I actually had a serviced pump... I didn't even know they existed any more?! Anyway....

We arrived at the Kyle of Lochalsh and crossed the bridge into Skye just before it began to tip it down with rain. As promised The Peatbog Faeries were bellowing out nice and loud with The Folk Police as we crossed over and prepated for the hour's journey to our campsite in Torvaig. We had e-mailed them and had no reply for a booking so we really were working on luck!

We drove through civilisation then back out through more mountains and hills and rocks. Skye has some beautiful waterfalls, but then again I can't say I've ever seen an ugly waterfall! They all seem to have a mysterious look to them that makes them magical.

We arrived at Torvaig fairly early, having still not got a reply from their email. Pulling into the carpark it was still raining and I was desperate for a pee. We noticed that, yet again, there was no phone signal and the campsite was charging £3 PER HOUR for WiFi. Seriously. £3 PER HOUR. After using the facilities (and finding them seriously lacking in cleanliness) we decided that actually, Torvaig campsite is a bit of a dump... That it it seemed that none of the tents had electric hook up, and by this point my phone and tablets were running out of charge (my phone drains VERY quickly when searching for data unfortunatly).

We left Torvaig and went back through Portree (the main port, apparently) to Sligachan where we noticed a campsite on the way past. This was great! £20 per night is a bit steep, but it seems normal for Skye (welcome to tourist heaven...) but we have electric hook up and phone signal, albeit slow phone signal. The Toilets and showers are kept pretty clean too so no complaints. The chap who runs it seems a bit standoffish but I am sure he's cool (UPDATE: he's actually really nice!).

Got the tents up in daylight again (thankfully...) and headed into Portree with the doggies to pick up supplies for dinner (chicken tortellini with a pesto sauce! mm!). I reserve judgement on Portree, but it seems very touristy. Quite pretty but very touristy...

Into bed and the pub across the road were having some live music we could hear, I love the fact that they finished with "I will walk 500 miles..." I suppose it's like us finishing with something proper British like BohRap!

Tomorrow's plan: Nothing, quite literally!

Day 7 - Karma hates me

47 Minutes. Within 47 minutes of starting off today I had managed to jackknife the trailer (resulting in a new dent in my car), rip something off of the underneath of my car, get lost, nearly have a head on collision, and almost run out of petrol. Teapot tells me that Karma treats everyone equally, I tell her that's shit.

So let me explain.

We left Clachtoll Beach (the place with zero phone signal and WiFi that was ridiculous) and headed towards Achmelvich, as there is apparently a gorgeous beach down there that is well worth a visit. This is crap by the way.

Can't fault the scenery

A beach there may be beautiful, but it's probably at the end of the road where the campsite/youth hostel is so we decided to turn around and go somewhere else instead (as I have no intention of paying for a campsite I'm not staying at just to go and see a pretty beach?!).

Turning around, that's fine. There was room where I was if I went up onto the slight hill to swing round. I did that and guess what? The hill was actually rocks, rather sharp ones actually. They caught something under my car and ripped it off, in the confusion I hit reverse to get off of the rock and the trailer went corner first into my bumper. Safe to say I was not happy. Unhitched the trailer and assessed the damage, dent isn't too bad but a couple of nasty scratches that will probably cost me a fortune to fix, now the trailer was free it was easier to move the car off the rocks, this produced the realisation that something had been pulled off underneath. I know sod all about cars in all honesty but I had a quick look under and nothing "serious" seemed to be dangling off, the two pieces in my hands were made of plastic and rubber and one was the rubber bit that goes along the bottom of the front bumper, so I knew that wasn't serious, but I had no idea what the other bit was.

We finally turned car round and re-hitched the trailer in order to go back out to civilisation. I only had about 40 miles left in my tank and knew petrol was of the uppermost importance. While 40 miles seems like a lot, it was 36 miles to Ullapool! Luckily Lochinver was only 1 mile away and had a, rather expensive, petrol station!

On the way down the single track road I went round a blind turn only to lock headlights with a Mini Cooper traveeling WAY too fast... luckily we both had very good breaks and didn't swerve down into the sheer drop on the side of the cliff. Teapot and the dogs learnt some new words in that moment and also learnt that I'm an equal opportunities abusee; I don't care if you're a local, if you're from the UK or foreign, I will give you exactly the same amount of road rage!! Dickhead.

Highland Coos!!

I did find out what he was rushing away for though when I had to wait for five minutes down the road due to a couple of escaped Highland Cows! Magnificent animals, really pretty but I think the 3 farmers (not shepherds?) getting them back would beg to differ!!

Quick check under the car on the forecourt and I saw a suspicious looking drip. As I mentioned before I know sod all about cars so had no idea if this drip was supposed to be there or not, asked in the petrol station where the nearest mechanic was and got "there's one down the road but he's on holiday, next one is in Ullapool". Great. I mentioned before that Ullapool was 36 miles away, that was in the opposite direction....

Ullapool

40 odd miles later and we arrive at the Bosch garage in Ullapool, I have to say that was the scariest 40 miles ever as I spent the whole journey listening to every stone hit the car thinking "shit, what fell off? How much is that going to cost me?". Luckily, after a quick check over from a very friendly mechanic, I was told that the bits that were pulled off were just plastic or rubber covers that come off all the time and the drip is actually condensation from the aircon and totally normal! Phew. I will be sending the Bosch garage a thank you card and maybe even a cake as they didn't charge me at all for looking at the car!

Ullapool dock

We decided to stay in Ullapool for a bit and have a look around, free parking in Ullapool!! The town it's self is quite nice, much busier than other towns or villages we've been through so far, which isn't hard really as most of the "villages" consist of about 3 houses and the "towns" stretched to about 10 houses and maybe a church!

Tasty dinner and the only time Duchers IPA
has ever tasted nice!

Lucky for us the sun came out too, which made an crappy start to the day feel much better! Lunch was a lovely crab meat sandwhich at a little pub on the seafront. I really love seafood so getting fresh was well worth it!

Prince and Teapot
cuddle time

After Ullapool we headed off again towards our next campsite in Gairloch. As usual, the scenery on the way was beautiful but the phone signal has been utterly shit. This is a massive shame because we wanted to check out places to visit en route, especially those that allow doggies in, but this has been near impossible due to the shitty connection (yes I have complained to EE) so I'm kinda worried we may have missed out on some things.

Photobombed

Arrived in Gairloch (actually Strath..?!) fairly early in comparison to every other day and pitched the tents in the daylight! Days seem to last longer up here and it's light until almost 2300. We decided to nip to the local gardening and outdoors shop to get some bait to do some sea fishing, found the shop easily as it was described ad "that modern looking building". Modern, bits of Gairloch/Strath may be, but phone signal and decent WiFi they seriously lack.

Pretty

Love the light
on her ears!

We're still really crap at fishing. I had to cut my line after about the third cast when it got stuck in seaweed a few metres out to sea. Teapot carried on and I went for a little picture taking expedition.

Soon to be a starter

We both saw Mussles growing and figured, if we can't catch fish we may as well collect dinner! What a starter!

Tasty starter!

Back to the tent and another early night as my head was throbbing by this point after a pretty stressful day.

Prince loves my cloak!

Day 8's plans: The Isle of Skye!

Day 6 - Gone With The Wind

I'm aware that I'm a few days behind with the blog.... No phone signal or WiFi at our last campsite, so there's also a lack of decent photos for this one too! :( I'll update later with pictures!

So tody has been fun! When I decided on the title of Gone With the Wind I really wasn't kidding! The part of Scotland we were in was experiencing some seirosuly windy conditions! Pitting the tent down in the morning was definitely a two person job as we were warned by the friendly campsite owner "careful putting your tents down, I've seen a few fly into the sea and you've really lost them then!". No kidding either! Left the guy lines down until the last minute for those!!

All packed and ready to go, we headed out of John O'Groats and down towards Furness. Our campsite was in Clachtoll Beach, which was a fair drive, but we were prepared for that. We drove through some pretty desolate scenery to be honest. Melvich, Strathy, and Armadale all looked fairly miserable and a bit dull. We were beginning to wonder why they bothered promoting the North Coast 500, then we stopped in Bettyhill.

At Bettyhill there is a café and a tourist information in a small cottage, over the road there is a 17th Century church that has been converted into museum. It was this museum that really changed my mind about the landscape we had just driven through. The museum taught us about the highland clearances, when tenants were evicted from their little black houses to make way for sheep, if they didn't leave then the cottage was set light to. The museum had a video that interviewed some of the Makay clan who were discussing the ceilidh and how having a ceilidh has really brought people back together and me;t the culture alive. There were times when speaking Gaelic was banned and traditional music was shunned, this really sounds dreadful and I'm pleased to see that it's become history now.

Upstairs in the small museum was a room dedicated to clan Makay, this was amazing and lovely to see the price as well as the heritage. I must ask dad how he's doing with our family history and take a bit more interest.

Moving on, I found myself looking at the landscape and abandoned dwellings through new eyes. It's both sad and poignant, I can't see how the lifestyle as it was could have survived, but at the same score it seems wrong to just evict people with no other options.

Next stop was onto Durness for Smoo Cave! I love the name of this place and I've got style brilliant pictures but sadly my tablets and phone are the only devices that can get the super slow WiFi and the pictures are on my -weatherproof, thank goodness- DSLR SD card, so you'll have to check them out later! Smoo Cave was really cool though and had a huge waterfall across the road that looked fierce, then we walked down the cliff side to the cave where the waterfall landed. Prince was a bit scared of the loud waterfall but we went into the cavern to see it and s it was awesome. Not the silly American version of awesome, but proper awe inspiring awesome! It's surprising that a waterfall with that much ferocity ends up just a small stream out to sea! Nate is pretty amazing!

Last stop was our campsite at Clachtoll Beach. This is where I have to have a little moan. It was £21 poer night fur 2 adults, 2 tents, 2 dogs and 1 car. For that you got a bit of soggy grass and cabin toilets and showers. Our campsite at Stroma View was tiny but we had spotless toilets and showers, a washing up area, soggy grass (think everywhere has soggy grass!) and electric hookup, for £10 per night. The campsite at Clachtoll was very nice but had no phone signal at all, and the guy buggered off without telling us the WiFi password, WiFi that was weak at best. Just feel a bit ripped off and won't be giving them great reviews on TripAdvisor.

We did, however, get a chance to go to the beach (Prince had his life jacket on, obviously!). Prince didn't really like the sea to be honest but I'm hoping he will come round when we go to Skye :). Sunset was gorgeous!

Day 7's plans are Achmelvic beach, a castle I can't remember the name of, Lochinver, maybe Ullapool and onto Gairloch.

See you tomorrow! Xx

Day 5 - Found Nessie

We got a LOT done yesterday! Felt like I was driving all day but actually wasn't that long at all really.

We left the campsite at around midday and headed for Drumnadrochit (how do you pronounce that?!). We didn't realise that our campsite was on the other side of Loch Ness to all of the touristy stuff that goes on, so although Drumnadrochit was only something like 5.4 miles away, I had to drive all the way around half of Loch Ness to get to it, roughly 30 miles! Someone really need to build a bridge across Loch Ness!!

We got to Drumnadrochit about an hour or so later, after dropping into Go Outdoors for emergency supplies as the bag for my duvet has given up so a huge compression sack will do the job. To those that complain I take a duvet, it actually packs down as big as Teapot's sleeping bag!





Our aim for today was to see Nessieland and The Hill O' Many Stanes. Nessieland had appalling reviews on TripAdvisor, so naturally we had to check it out! It was £6 entry for each person and we could take the dogs in too. It really wasn't that bad!! There was a huge tacky Nessie outside and the inside of the 'attraction' was made up of stuffed Nessies and Nessies that looked like they'd been made from paper machet! It was good fun though and there was a video lasted about 20 minutes that took us through the history of Nessie.

The shop was great and ot over priced too! I brought myself a few more post cards (I collect them!) and an I <3 Scotland hoodie which is REALLY comfortable!!

Leaving Drumnadrochit we headed out towards Wick for our next stop, The Hill O'Many Stanes. Just as we went past Loch Ness we thought we'd stop and grab a few last pictures, and low and behold we have taken a picture of The Loch Ness Monster! In keeping with tradition it's very grainy and not very clear but it's obviously Nessie! Luckily I snapped another too, check out the bottom for a better picture!

Off we went along the way! We were due to arrive at our campsite quite early so decided to take a "quick" detour down to Nigg village where there is one of the finest surviving Pictish stones ever found. It was located in a really pretty little church in Nigg and it had it's own room etc. The graveyard of the church was also really interesting, having some of the strangest but fascinating gravestones in the grounds.

We followed the 'Pictish Trail' along a bit further and came to Shandwick where, above the village, is another huge Pictish stone. It's a bit odd seeing this random bit of rock in a glass case above the village, but once again the carvings are really pretty and intricate. I might get a Pictish tattoo as they're my ancestors. Haven't decided yet :)

Onwards and upwards once again, off to the Hill O'Many Stanes! This was such a peaceful visit. I don't know what it is about neolithic stone sites, but they seem to have a really calm and still atmosphere about them. The Hill O'Many Stanes contains a few hundred stones that are not much more than knee height, the tallest is about waist height , that fan out down a hill side. It's not a very big site at all (around about the size of The Sanctuary near Avebury) and didn't take long to walk around, but it was interesting to note that it's not believed it's a "religious" site but more probably an early form of graveyard (although there are no buried bones) or commemoration site for the ancestors, as generations have added to the stones over the years. The Hill O'Many Stanes was a lovely visit and I'd recommend it.

Almost at the end, quite literally! We drove through a few more villages (I can't remember if Helmsdale was before or after The Hill, but it was really pretty too) and came to Wick. I thought Wick was going to be fairly big(ish) and a bit more bustling, but honestly... it was a bit of a dump! The road from Helmsdale to Wick (A9 I beleive?) was a really odd drive as it was populated on the edges by derelict cottages ans brand new cottages. It seems that people don't mend their property they just build a new one? Very strange.

Continuing on and we arrived in John O'Groats, which is quite literally at the top of mainland UK, the most Easternly point. Just like Wick though, John O'Groats seemed a bit dead and deserted. I expected a seaside type town with lots of tourist crap, but there really wasn't much there. Luckily for us we arrived just in time for a few pictures by the sign, pick up some post cards and snap some lovely pictures of sunset!

Got to the campsite about 15 minutes after, pitched, fed, watered and in bed by midnight. Ready to start it all again on Thursday! Next stop is Clachtol Beach, via Toung and Smoo Caves!

Until tomorrow folks, over and out!!

 Live photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/Gos9KaSACAwi4n7b7

Things I have learnt from this trip:
1. Robert Burns was right; “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
2. Even clean wet dog smells just like wet dog
3. A wool and linen cloak is an incredibly versatile piece of clothing and I've no idea why it went out of fashion from the 15th Century onwards?!
4. My dog is really REALLY nosey
5. I had some brave relatives
6. Princess is a racist dog (she doesnt like Chinese people... how ironic)
7. Prince does some seriously disgusting poos...

Day 4 - Gone Fishing

Our Campsite!

Pointing the way

Today has been good fun, not much driving for me meaning I could relax and chill out a bit! Back onto the road trip on Wednesday! Hardly know what day it is to be honest!

Mountain Dog!

We started off our day with a very lazy lie in (interrupted by a small child who decided that playing saucepans like a drumkit was apropriate... grr...).

The Falls of Foyers

As our campsite is located in Foyers we decided to have a look at the Falls of Foyers. This waterfall comes from the River Foyers and feeds Loch Ness and generates hydroelectric, which I think is really cool!

I got to try out some of the photo techiques Kate has been teaching me about to make the water look really smooth. Naturally I forgot my tripod though so had to improvise! I think the pictures came out ok!

Prince LOVING walkies!!

Prince and Princess LOVED the walk and Prince was trying out his new hiking bag, he was bouncing around like a new puppy! I think he and Princess think they've become mountain dogs or something, who am I to spoil their fun? They had a great time! We enjoyed the walk too, although I am clearly not as fit as I thought I was! The climb back up was really steep, had to stop a few times... to take in the view obviously!!

We've had a bit of a mixed bag weather wise, ranging from really cold and windy right up to lovely sunshine and wondering where the suntan lotion is! It's been nice, but I can safely say I am really bored of rain now..!

Its all too much for Princess

Tomorrow we start the North Coast 500 tour going upto our first stop which is in Wick. Today, however, we decided to check out Fort Augustus which is a small town a the bottom of Loch Ness, it's famous for having Neptune's Staircase, an eight lock system on the Caledonian Canal that takes the boats up or down. It's the longest lock staircase in Britain and really cool to watch. I loved how one of the lock keepers had little pink fairy wings.

Neptune's Staircase

Quick stop off in a pub by the lock (I would NOT reccomeng "Light Ness" pale ale to anyone, it was sadly quite horrible!) and a scout around the gift shop, my post card collection is growing quite considerably and I can see how HARVe would be really cool to get aerial shots for post cards, wish I'd had him for Neptune's Staircase!

Live catch!

Back to the campsite and we picked up two fishing kits (kids ones!) on the way back and decided to do a spot of fishing in Loch Ness. We're really bad at fishing, this is apparent! Although, saying that, we did make some catches! Teapot caught a spring (with free rock) and I caught some algae and a twig! For junior fishing rods using jelly tots as bait, I'd say that was pretty good going!!

A Spring AND stone!!

Luckily we had reserves with us for dinner, and by 2200 the weather had really gone freezing cold (luckily no rain) and the "I'm just going to get warm in my pjs under my duvet/sleeping bag" quickly turned into "I am asleep".

Plenty of fish...apparently!!

All in all, a good day! Wednesday's exersion: Nessieland (which is apparently rubbish but probably so bad it's good!) and Whaligoe Steps on our way to Wick!