d Aunty Helen are over here living it up on holidays I decided to go and travel with them for awhile. So I meet them at the beginning of the Scotland leg of their trip in Inverness on a very cold wet rainy day. It all started with me remembering as I got off the plane that my coat was on the couch in London. DOH! So after some quick coat shopping (a lot harder than you would think at summer time in Scotland) we were all set.I arrived in Inverness to Aunty Helen deciding that she should explore the hostel, roof and all and learnt how to use a dryer (ask her about that). Nana kept getting told off for swearing and mum was just glad I was there to enjoy it all with them.
The first day was miserable freezing cold with rain and wind. We visited Culloden (to whic
h I had been before) and Fort George which was very impressive. I was surprised to find we where having roast that night (I’m use to pasta when I am travelling) so I thought things were looking up.The next day surprised us it was sunny and not only that it was quite warm. We packed up and headed off for our trip around the top of Scotland. The morning started with the compulsory visit to the shops. Then trying to find a computer that we could transfer photos from the camera to the USB stick. This is a very hard task as most internet cafes only let you use the net. We headed over the bridge at lunch and stopped at the dolphin and seal centre where we found wild raspberries. This find turned out to spur on the theme of the holidays which was 'where there are raspberries there I shall pick'
. I don’t think I have ever eaten so many raspberries in my life and they were all good.After getting our small pile we went to find the dolphins we travelled to Chanonry Point near Fortrose on The Black Isle. We were lucky to see lots of dolphins swimming about and even saw a mother and calf. We also saw a seal although it was mainly its head and bum poking out of the water as it was swimming about. We sat there for quite awhile watching them all play.
We then headed off to the fish ladder, mum was beginning to get very worried I was taking them in the wrong direction as we started off. This was because it was only 70km to one of our stops on the 3rd last night of our tour around the north section of Scotland. After some discussion it appears that that section of Scotland is only about 70km across which kept mum and Aunty Helen quite amused for awhile. After a minor detour (that was my fault) we found the fish ladder which was closed however we did get to see into the top and had our own personal guide from a local fisherman who was there to see how many fish had gone through the counter. He explained how it all worked and that they have closed all of them now as the glass broke in one of the viewing platforms one day and people almost got killed. He suggested thoug
h that we head to The Falls of Shin which were right near the hostel we were staying at that night to see the Salmon jump.Heading up to our hostel which just happened to be a castle we found a raspberry farm. The raspberries where huge and after picking a few punnets we felt that was enough for now and to get some on the way back through.
The next day (which was sunny and warm again) after spending the night in out castle which had some huge rooms and so great woodcarving on the stairs we headed off to The Falls of Shin. Here we had morning tea and shopped and spent the rest of the morning watching the salmon jump over the falls. Which was very exciting and we got
some good photos. After lunch we headed up the coast to John O’ Groats which is famous for being up the top of Scotland via a few scenic detours. We stopped in at ………. Castle which was a Norman stronghold of 2 and had a look around which were all very nice and we got to see some sea bird breeding. When we reached John O’ Groats it was starting to get cold again and after shopping we had fish and chips for dinner before heading to Thurso where we were meant to stop for the night. We didn’t stop here because they got out accommodation wrong and they were full. It worked out well as It didn’t look very nice and we travelled onto Tounge. This was a bargain as we ended up in a really nice hostel with a great view over the Kyle of Tounge. We almost completed a 500 piece puzzle on our stop here and realised that it didn’t actually get completely dark at night (which is an interesting experience).Day 4, we had to detour back a little this day (which was sunny again!) to Bettyhill to visit the Strathnaver Museum. The museum is fully of history on the Mackays and life in the highlands before the clearances which I didn’t know anything about before coming to the museum. The Clearances it basically when they moved all the people off their lands (not very nicely) to put sheep on (Google it to find out more).
After the museum we drove back to Tounge to look around and ran into a very interesting artist who talked to us for awhile. We then headed to Durness for the night (on the way finding more raspberries to pick), we got to Durness quite early and went for a nice walk along the cliff tops and beach.
Day 5 (Sunny and warm; this has to be part of the whole gloal warming thing)
Durness is not much of a town but they do have some interesting caves called the Smoo caves which we went and had a look at. You can take a tour by boat into the caves but we were too early for that so just had a look around the outer areas.
We then headed out to our destination for that night Ullapool. The drive down was really nice and we got to the town quite early. We could not check into our hostel quite yet so we had a look around the shops till check in time.
Once we had checked into our hostel we went across the road to the pub to listen to the live music. There were two girls playing traditional Scottish music as well as songs that they had written which made for a good evening.
The next day was blowing a gale but still sunny and quite warm; I wanted to go on the seal a
nd bird tour but it was not running that morning due to the weather. There was no plan for the day and everyone wanted to look in the shops some more so we pottered around. It got to the point where the boat tour for the afternoon was going ahead and Mum, Aunty Helen and Nana wanted to go to a pottery store which would require some back tracking so they left me behind and went off for the afternoon.
I went on the boat trip which was really good. We saw heaps of birds nesting and some hawks and seals playing in the ocean as well as them lazing around the rocks. It was really beautiful out on the water around the islands and I had a great time.
That night we headed back towards Inverness to Avimore our last stop before I had to head home. Avimore is near the Cairngorms National Park which is beautiful.
The next day (sunny) we set off to explore the Caledonian forests and started with a nice walk around Loch An Eilein which was beautiful and crystal clear. We decided the normal route was a bit boring so headed off down a track to the lake shore. It was a very pleasant walk around the lake through some beautiful forest.
We then went to visit the reindeer who were all in the shed out of the sun because it was too hot for them!! (In Scotland weird, I know) and we ended the day with a cup of tea and cake.
My final day on holidays with Mum, Aunty Helen and Nana got off to a slow start as my flight was not until later that afternoon and no one felt like rushing. It was also sunny again!!!! So on the last day of my section of the road trip we took the scenic tour back to Inverness. This paid off as we actually got to see a red squirrel (much to the enjoyment of Aunty Helen) but no deer (to the disappointment of everyone).
We also stopped at the Heather Centre which is a nursery/ garden/ craft centre/ restaurant/ antiques dealers/ landscape supply place, very interesting and quirky place!! But they do, do good seam pudding which they call Clootie Dumpling which we had for lunch which was a nice end to a great holiday.
So in summary, I had only 2 rainy cold days out of 9. This had to be a record for the UK let alone Scotland - what a holiday!!
