Day 3 - Happy Families (and Haggis!)

Caringorms National Park
A stunning drive!

A few things on the agenda today: Elgin & Loch Ness.

Elgin and Forres is where our family come from ancestrally, so we wanted to check it out and see where it all began as it were!

<3 Love it <3

The drive from Ballater to Elgin was beautiful again, mostly through the Caringorms National Park again, mostly following the River Dee. We went out of national parkland and  back into civilisation to take in towns like Aboyne, Alford, Huntly, and Keith. All were really pretty and looked like lovely places to stay, but we were sadly moving on fast! We did stop in an Asda for some munchies and were pleased to see the amount of Irn Bru for sale!! Must be the Scottish blood in us, we <3 Irn Bru!


Finlay had woken up in one of those "I'm going to be a pain in the backside" moods, every five minutes I had to watch him like a hawk because he was either pissing somewhere he shouldn't be, trying to artistically stick his poo to something (he does that...), steal something, chew something or just be a general nuisance (his favourite was flossing his teeth on guy ropes...). We decided to let him into a little secret. If he was a good boy for the journey up from wherever Asda was (think it was in Keith) upto Elgin, he'd get a really special treat!

Happiest. Dog. Ever.

Not entirely sure how well the promise worked as he was still a bit of a pest, but while we were in Elgin looking at the war memorial guess who arrives! Daddy!

Mum and Dad have also been holidaying in Scotland for the past week in their caravan, they will stay until the weekend and go home, this is the point where our paths pretty much crossed so we thought we'd say hello to the old folks before posting them back on their way again. Finlay was so happy to see Dad and almost didn't believe it!

We spent a while wandering around Elgin with the old folks, which was nice. Stopped in a pub for a drink, sadly no Irn Bru on draught this time, but we had it in cans so hopefully next time!

Cpl James Younie,
Cpl Robert Younie
Private A. Younie (other side)

Stopping at the war memorial was a poignant moment and we found a few Younie names on there. Not sure what I should have been feeling at that point to be honest, it was a mixture of excitement to find something with "Younie" on it, but also sadness because that was a distant relative that died during one of the World Wars. It's an odd feeling that's for sure.

Elgin

Few hours with the old folks and pick up a few supplies form town and we were back on the road. Of course not before partaking in that very most Scottish of dishes... Haggis and Chips. Seriously, that is food of the gods right there!!!

Off to Loch Ness via Inverness and Go Outdoors. Only drove through Inverness but the bit we wer ein looked a bit of a dump if we're being honest, hoopefully the rest of it is a bit prettier!!

Haggis & Chips mmmmmm

A couple of hours later and we arrive at our campsite. We changed sites because apparently Borlum Farm has rubbish reviews, so we are now at Loch Ness Shores campsite, and we're staying for a couple of days. Low and behold we turned up in a downpour and it was seriously windy all night... I'm hoping to be able to get HARVe up at some point but not if this wind keeps up. Will keep you posted!

That's about all for today, don't forget to chekout the live photo album. I finally got around to getting up the pictures form Glenshee, still absolutely stunning!

Over and out!

Seriously shattered doggie!

 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