Thurso, and a holiday in Orkney!

West Murkie CL on the northern coast of mainland Britain is another small 5 ‘van site. The pitches are in the garden of a little farmhouse, and it has it’s own beach! After pitching up we were straight down to the beach which has beautiful white sand and a stream running down the middle of it out to sea!

We had a surprise phone call from Roy and June who we met on our first site of the trip in Broadway, it was lovely to hear from them, and how their year of travelling went!
Then we set off to John O Groats, it is much better than Lands end with no theme park present, but the hotel on the headland is looking very run down and derelict. We asked the photographer (who is based there at the famous signpost) what happened to it and he said it has been empty for 9 years but they are hoping to reopen it by 2012. We had a walk out to the end of the harbour and a look around the few shops that were there before going over to Duncansby Head, the headland just East of John O Groats. We parked by the lighthouse and then walked along the 2 mile path that took us to a viewpoint for the impressive Stacks of Duncansby, two rocky turrets which stand proud of the headland, and look like a series of rocks that have been piled on top of each other. On the way there while on the clifftop we spotted a fishing boat busily scooting around checking nets, it was followed by a group of 5 seals that kept popping their heads up to check out what was going on! It was much quieter on the headland by the stacks because most of the tourists didn’t bother with the walk out that far, so we had our picnic sat on a tuft of grass by the stacks before heading back to Tonks. Next stop was up the road to the Castle of Mey, which was the Queen Mothers summer retreat. Entry to the castle was £9.50 each, so we opted for the cheaper £4 option of grounds and garden, (we’re on a budget dontcha know!) we needn’t have paid though as no-one checked our tickets! First we had to drive through the castle courtyard to park under the shade of some trees (for the dogs) and then we had a walk to the front of the castle and its small woodland area. On to the walled garden where we had a nice look around the roses, veggie patches, flower gardens and other plant-like things. Finally we headed down to the animal sanctuary where they were looking after a number of sheep, 2 goats, ducks and chickens, pigs, birds and a couple of chipmunks!
Back to Tonks and we drove found to Dunnet Head, an outcrop of headland that is the most northerly point of the British mainland, the view from the lighthouse was good and we could clearly see the Orkney Isles out to the north, but as we walked up to the viewpoint at the top of the hill the sea mist closed in and everything became very white!


The next day we began our adventure to Orkney! First we went into Thurso to look at the Caithness museum as recommended by Mrs Yeomans, our campsite owner. It was converted from the old Town Hall and was lovely inside, there were some very impressive exhibits and a Dounreay exhibition which explains about the advent of nuclear power in the area, how the power station grew and what is happening now with its decommissioning. The museum also has a café and a shop and is free to get in, highly recommended! We had a bit more time to kill before our ferry so we went for a walk down to the beach next to the campsite, we had a lovely time there and Linda collected a load of little multi coloured shells, so much so that we were a bit later than we wanted to be for the ferry so ended up near the back of the queue! Luckily, they put you into rows before boarding, and our row was first on, so we walked to the top level of the boat and watched the staff squeezing everyone else’s cars in. We were due to sail at 4:30, and it took so long to ram everyone on (including some motorhomes and a caravan who had to reverse on) that we didn’t sail until 5:00! The dogs were fine in the car until near to the landing when one of the deck men stood next to the car and stared at Prince who went bonkers! Phil shouted down to him not to wind up the dog and the bloke wandered off. Off the ferry we set off for Kirkwall and found the posh new leisure centre where we sneaked in and had free showers! After we’d had our tea in a Kirkwall American style diner we headed back out to the Churchill barriers where Linda thought she spotted a possible sleeping spot. It was a nice quiet little track next to a car park with toilets, and it lead down to a nice little beach. We backed Tonks up behind some dunes and set up the bed as it was going dark. Just as we were settling in some Italian folk turned up in a car and 5 of them pitched 2 tents just behind us and chatted for hours, typical! We slept pretty badly because Prince hogged the bed and panted all night, but Smudge was fine in her bed in the front seat! (You spoil that dog!)


Our Italian neighbours left at 7:30am so up we got up and had a walk on the beach. Then the Italian Chapel was our first stop after taking some photos of the Churchill Barriers. The barriers were built in the 2nd World War in order to stop the German U boats getting into the British naval stronghold of Scapa Flow, and as well as the barriers you can still see the block ships which were deliberately sunk in the area as the first attempt to keep the Germans out. Italian prisoners of war were brought in to build the barriers and they stayed in a camp of Nissen huts on the small island of Lamb Holm, morale was pretty low and so to help raise it the British agreed that they could convert 2 of the huts into a chapel, and this is now the only remaining building of the camp after the Orcadians rescued it. The result is an amazing little chapel, which really provokes thoughts of what it must have been like here for the prisoners of war. Shortly after we had finished looking around the first coach party of the day arrived, full of French tourists, the men set off round the side of the chapel to relieve themselves, nice! We then went on to Mainland Orkney and headed for the Gloup on the Eastern side of the island, by Mull Head, there is a short walk to a very impressive collapsed sea cave with viewpoints built at the top so that you can have a good view of the cave below, and all the seabirds nesting in it.
Continuing our journey we stopped off at Kirkwall Airport for a coffee and a cake in their café and saw a Flybe plane arrive. The airport is tiny, and 2 minutes after the plane had let its passengers off their bags were coming off the baggage reclaim, it was the fastest luggage we’ve ever seen! The airport consists of just one main room, and arrivals and departures are nearly in the same place, so it was great to just sit and watch people saying their goodbyes and hello’s! We continued on to the Highland Park Distillery where Phil bought a bottle of 12yr old with a free minature of the 18yr old (voted the best spirit in the world, yippee!). On the way round to Stromness we stopped off at the port at Houton to see if we could watch some boats as we had our lunch, no joy there though. Once we got to Stromness we saw the huge Northlink ferry coming in to dock, and watched as it opened up it’s bow to reveal its ramp where all the cars drove off. We got chatting to some blokes who had come off the ferry, and one said they had hired a sailing boat for the week and they were going diving every day to see the sunken German warships in Scapa Flow, it sounded very cool, and there was lots of beer going on board. (one of the blokes was so big we thought he wouldn’t have needed any ballast to get down!) Afterwards we went into the Pier art gallery, which was a beautiful old building done up very nicely and had an interesting selection of arty stuff in there, it was free to get in but we only had 20mins before it closed so had to trot round a bit, still worth the visit though.
We continued round the island to Yesnaby which had WW2 batteries on a cliff on the West Mainland with views towards the Old Man of Hoy, while we were there we scoped it out as a possible camping spot as one camper was already parked up in the shelter of a building. Then onto Marwick Head nature reserve with a small beach, no camping spot here! Then back round towards Stromness through Twatt, stopping at the Ring of Brodgar , a 3,000 yr old stone circle which we had a walk round. We scoped out the carpark for a camping spot and found one where other people had backed up from the car park to a spot overlooking Loch Harray – perfect! We were back to our camping spot at about 7.30pm (after tea in Stromness) where we got set up for the night and then sat on our bed in Tonks with the boot open looking at the view over the loch.


Bit better nights sleep, with Prince down by the front seats, but he still took up too much room and did a lot of panting! We got up and set off looking for coffee. First off we found the Earl’s Palace at Bursay, a 16th century ruined palace which is now in the hands of Heritage Scotland and is free to look round. There is a tea shop in the village that doesn’t open until 11am so we carried on down the lane to Brough Head where there is a lighthouse and a Viking settlement on an island connected by a causeway, we started walking and got across to the other side of the causeway just as the tide was coming up over the top, so we hot footed it back to the car. We spotted a couple who had been on the other side and left it a little late, they had to take off their shoes and paddle across bare foot! We went back through Birsay where the village shop was now open so we bought biccies and tea and coffee, and 2 bottles of 9% Orkney porter for later! We drove round West Mainland and called at Broch of Gurness (Historic Scotland) then stopped for lunch in Finstown. On to Kirkwall where we went back to the leisure centre for sneaky free showers! We then drove over the Churchill barriers where we stopped by the Italian Chapel at a wine outlet where we bought a coffee and tried some free wine! We carried on down to South Ronaldsay where we took a narrow B road to the tiny seaside village of Herston, where we sat in someones drive and watched the ferry go out. We could see a nice beach on the other side of Widewall Bay so next we headed there and played ball with Prince and watched some farmers kids practicing ploughing. (apparently the farmers kids have a ploughing competition in the sand every year.) Then it was time to head for the ferry so we joined the queue and waited, slightly less full this time, so not as entertaining watching the loading, and we were soon back on mainland Britain. Happy to be back at the ‘van with it’s (huge) comfy bed, in a strange sort of way our little trip over to Orkney without the ‘van felt like a little holiday, and we were glad to be home!

The next day we moved to a lovely caravan site on the edge of the beach at Durness, on the Western side of the North coast.

Dornoch

Mill Farm CL is a lovely 5 ‘van site, and round the corner from the farmhouse was a little field with 5 hard standing pitches each with their own water and electric, and great views down to the sea. It was a gem of a site and we had the pick of the pitches. Once we'd chosen, pitched and put the awning up we headed into Dornoch. It's a lovely village that feels almost like the Cotswolds in style, we were lucky enough to see the highland show which was taking place today. As the games were half way through there was no-one on the gate so we avoided the £5.50 each to get in! We watched highland dancing, cycling, some big blokes tossing the caber, and then the obstacle race where people from the crowd had to jump a gate, climb a rope, pass through tyres and then run up a near vertical wooden wall drenched in water. It was crazy! Someone had obviously banned the health and safety guy and that was a good thing! After a brief look at the stalls we watched 'tip the bucket' where one person pushed a wheelbarrow with another person in it, who had to pass a metal rod through a small hole underneath a suspended bucket of water, miss and you got wet… strange, but very funny!

Phil was up and out at 8 to go and ride the Highland Wildcat trails which were 5 miles up the road from where we were staying. The ride is made up of 7km of red trails and 7km of black, and was really good fun, it climbs up from sea level at the village of Golspie up to the monument of the first Duke of Sutherland “The Wee Mannie” at 400m. The climb to the top is 7km long, and is claimed to be the longest singletrack climb of the purpose built trail centres, but once you get there you are rewarded with a 7km singletrack descent, claimed to be the longest in Scotland, rocks, jumps, drops and berms keep you entertained and grinning all the way down!
After lunch we went looking at caravans for sale (out of noseyness) as we’ve had it confirmed now that ours is written off, and we need an idea of what we can replace it with. We soon got bored of that and went to Dornoch beach where Prince played Frisbee in the sea while we both paddled out, this meant that Smudge had to follow us into the water, and she seemed to really enjoy it, running backwards and forwards and getting lots of praise!


Phil was up early again to go and ride the trails at Balblair and Carbisdale, these are classed as black and red trails totalling 12 miles if ridden together, the black is mainly riding on huge rock slabs and the trail designers have painted arrows on the rocks to point out which way to go, it was very entertaining to ride and quite different from anything else I’ve ridden so far, the red was shorter and included some nice twisty singletrack with a few drops and jumps thrown in.
First stop after that was the Glenmorangie Distillery where we paid £2.50 each for a tour and a dram, it was our first distillery tour so was quite interesting, and we got to see all the main areas of the factory including the mash tub, the stills, and the warehouse where the barrels are all stored for at least 10 years. While the barrels are in storage they loose 2% every year to evaporation (which they call the Angels share) and this makes the room smell thick with alcohol and stains the roof struts black, the tour guide pointed out that even the silver birch trees outside had turned black as a result! On an average weekday they usually fill 120 barrels a day, so the whisky is obviously in high demand! At the end of the tour we all went into the tasting room where we were given a generous dram of whisky to enjoy before we were led into the shop to try and convince us to buy a bottle!
We then drove out through the village of Tain to Tarbat Ness, a long spit of land that juts right out into the Moray Firth. At the tip is a now disused lighthouse which can be hired out for holidays, and lots of footpaths which lead you out to the rocks that plunge into the sea. It was a bit chilly in the wind so we had a quick trot around the site before hopping back in Tonks and heading to the small village of Portmahomack, we parked by the harbour and went for a walk along the lovely beach, it was quite busy because directly behind it is a static caravan site, and we stopped on the way back to Tonks at The Castle pub, where we sat on a bench out the front and had a pint of ale.


We went up the road the next day to a roadside café that we had seen a lot of since being here, it is next to a garage on the A9 and doesn’t look very inviting but every time we pass it it’s always busy, so we went to see what all the fuss is about! Inside we both ordered an all day breakfast and had a marvellous time stuffing ourselves silly, yum yum! To work off the breakfast we decided to go and park in Embo and walk the 2.5 miles along the beach to Dornoch and then walk back along the disused railway line. We parked at the far end of a huge static holiday park and headed out on the beach.. It started to rain half way along, and the little brolly had to come out to save us a few times, luckily just showers though. At one point we walked into the sea with Smudge following, we had to go deeper to avoid a huge bank of sea weed and she got all flustered and didn’t want to move! Phil had to go and stop her dithering and usher her along before she drowned in the tide! Poor Smudge! At Dornoch we walked across the golf course and past the hotel that Linda had stayed in years before, we then set out on the old railway line where we discovered loads of raspberries which we very industriously picked so that Linda could make some jam. In the evening we got chatting to our new neighbours, Mike and Dot, we sat outside between our ‘vans chatting and drank wine until it was too cold to stay out any longer!

We were both up at 7:00 this morning because we had to go back to Inverness where Linda had a dental appointment. We set the alarm to wake us up, but didn’t need to as the farms cockerels did a very good job of getting us up in time! The drive to Inverness took around an hour, but it was a good job that we left a bit of time as satnav took us to the wrong building, after asking directions we arrived at the very posh Centre for Health Science within the hospital grounds. While Phil took the dogs for an amble, Linda went into the very swish dental surgery where she met a very nice female dentist who told her she needed root canal treatment as the nerve was dying. As the pain is still bearable they agreed that it would be better to wait until we are home and get it sorted there, so lucky for Linda no treatment was needed! Linda then had an appointment at the hairdressers in Dornoch (its all go!). In the afternoon drove out to Golspie where we had a bit of lunch sat on the edge of the beach, then we headed up Ben Braggie, with Phil riding up the Highland Wildcat MTB route he had ridden a few days before and Linda taking the more direct walking route. Phil was at the top (where the monument is) first, and met some walkers who he took a group photo for, Linda was soon to follow so we had a brief break on the top and then it started raining! The walkers broke out their waterproofs and slipped them over their walking boots and hats, meanwhile Linda (in her sandals and t-shirt) got her little brolly out of her bag and popped that up, announcing that she needed to keep her new hairdo dry! They must’ve thought she was mad!

Move day the next day! Mike and Dot came over for a brew and we sat chatting for an hour or so before it was time for them to go fishing and us to hitch up. We waved them bye and set off for Thurso, the drive up on the A9 was very scenic ranging from lovely sea views with the oil rigs visible on the horizon to high moorland which was very barren and deserted. After turning off and driving down some very narrow lanes for a couple of miles we arrived at the very secluded West Murkie CL. The owner, Mrs Yeomans came out to greet us and gave us a choice of pitches which are all basically in different areas of her garden! We chose a spot hidden away down the back with a lovely view to the secluded private beach!

Inverness

Arriving at the Auchnahillin site by Inverness, it turned out to be one of the better private site’s we’ve stayed on, with full facilities and nice big pitches. After settling in we went for a drive over the Kessock Bridge and parked in the Dolphin Centre car park. We took the dogs down some steps to the banks of the Moray Firth in the hope of spotting dolphins or seals, but no luck there, so on the way back to the van we stopped at Harry Ramsden’s drive thru chippy, yes, like McDonald’s but just a chip shop!

It rained so hard in the night the awning had a puddle in it! When it finally stopped we went into Inverness for a walk around. First we walked along the Caledonian canal to the Moray Firth, passing a marina and a flight of 4 huge locks on the way. There is also 2 locks and a swing railway bridge where the canal enters the estuary, and we were lucky to find that there was a sailing boat from Germany just coming out of the sea lock, so we watched it for a while navigating through the sea lock, past the swing bridge and into the next set of locks. We carried on our walk along the Firth and came to the mouth of the river Ness, then followed the river into Inverness, past a large industrial harbour and into the centre of the city where the castle and the cathedral sit on the banks. Further up we walked onto the Ness Islands, a lovely nature reserve/park which is a series of islands linked by foot bridges across the River Ness, it was a very peaceful place to be in the middle of the city, and the only noise we could hear was the rushing water of the Ness. Once we crossed the last footbridge our walk was nearly over as we passed through the sports centre where we were parked, we spotted that they had a café though, so had to go in for a coffee and a bit of yummy carrot cake, just reward after having walked 6.5 miles!

The next day it was a much drier morning. We drove the 8 miles up the road to Culloden Battlefield site, which we had seen signposted off the road as well as in our National Trust book. The battlefield site has a large visitor centre and exhibition, as well as walks around the battlefield itself. First we went round the exhibition which explained very well the circumstances of the battle (basically, in 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie who was exiled in France managed to convince the French to fight with him to take the English crown. He went to the Scottish Highlands and recruited the clans, or Jacobites, to fight from the North. After numerous successful battles into England the government got annoyed with The Jacobites and chased them back to the Highlands, at this point the French were supposed to invade England to distract the government army, but they were late, and the plan failed. It all culminated in a huge battle at Culloden, by Inverness, where the Government forces overwhelmed the Jacobites and put an end to the uprising.) The exhibition includes some excellent sound and vision experiences, one of which is a 360 degree cinema experience of the battle itself, the battle was so graphic in detail that Linda had to stand by the door! After the exhibition we got the dogs and went for a walk around the battlefield, we both had audio tours given to us which are triggered by GPS, so when you walk to certain spots the guide tells you a bit about the history of the site via headphones, very high tech! We easily spent a few hours here and both really enjoyed it.

We’ve also been over the bridge to the Black Isle, we had a few things we wanted to see there and the first stop was the brewery where they offer free tours and tastings. When we got there several cars were already in the car park and a few more arrived before us, it was so busy in the little shop that we decided to come back later. We carried on along the Isle and ended up at the small town of Fortrose, we parked in a small car park which is in front of the ruined cathedral, so we went for a look round that first. Not much remains of the cathedral (only one small section) so it didn’t take us long to have a walk round the grounds and we were soon heading for the coast. Chanonry Point, a small spit of land which pokes out from Fortrose into the Moray Firth is a famed location for spotting dolphins, so we thought we’d try our luck and headed along the beach. As we got to the end of the beach we spotted a crowd of people. We had timed it perfectly, as there was a school of dolphins all headed down the Firth and out to sea, we got down to the beach head just as they were coming within 25metres of the shore and got a really good look at them as they rose up out of the water, someone said they were following mackerel, there was a solitary seal with them, he must have been after the mackerel too! It really made our day, so to top it off we had an ice cream!
Next stop was further along the island at Learnie Forest, Phil had spotted that there were some bike trails there. We parked up and Phil went off on his bike while Linda took the dogs for a walk. The track is graded blue for a while and has some nice flowing singletrack before you reach the black. Now I thought Laggan was tough, but sections of the Learnie Black were plain loony! One particularly steep, twisty rock staircase had me staring at it for about 10 minutes before I could convince myself to ride it, Great! The ride was finished off with a fun blast down the ‘bike park’ a section of jumps and berms which return you to the car park after about 9 miles of riding. Linda covered nearly 3 miles on her walk up to the viewpoint over the estuary, because the sun was out and the air was clear it was a lovely view down to Chanonry Point where we had been earlier, and across to Fort George.
We made a quick stop off in Rosemarkie to have a quick play on the lovely beach (water was freezing!) and then went back to the Black Isle Brewery, but this time it was a bit quieter, so we had some samples and listened to the lady tell us what a busy day she had!

Off to Loch Ness the next day, so we were up and out early. First stop was a village called Drumnadrochit where, after driving along the Loch for a few miles, we stopped at the tourist information. They gave us a leaflet for some local walks, and we opted to do a 3 mile loop up to a viewpoint on top of Craigmonie. After a steep climb up through the woods we emerged on top of the rocky outcrop which has stunning views of Loch Ness. We had our lunch on a bench facing the view and we spotted a number of boats on the Loch as well as Nessie swimming about.. We meandered back down off the hill and continued our drive down the Loch. Eventually (it’s a long Loch!) we reached the other end and spotted the canal locks where the Caledonian Canal continues on it’s way to Fort William, turning onto a B road on the other side of Loch Ness, it was much quieter here, it took us high up above the loch before descending back down and the views of the mountains above The Great Glen were fantastic. We dropped back down to the Loch and into a small hamlet called Foyers, here we saw signs for a walk to a waterfall so we parked up. The falls were very impressive, with the peat coloured water cascading down the slick rocks into the huge pool below. Further down the road we reached a small rocky beach, Prince loved it, and did numerous impressions of a white Loch Ness Monster while retrieving a stick, it was uncanny!


The next day was the Black Isle Show, an agricultural show which is claimed to be the biggest in the Highlands. On arrival we were ushered into one of the many massive car parks they had available, and parked up in the middle of a huge field, already swamped by hundreds of cars. A quick lap of the flower/veg tent proved that it was going to be a busy day as we were barged and prodded by the oldies rushing to get a look at the marrow most shaped like a willy or boob or something! We made our way out and went across to the main ring where the prizes were being dished out to some horses and ponies which Linda knew far more about than Phil.. Then over to the livestock area where we walked amongst the cows, bulls and calves, we had a look at a lot of sheep and then went and patted some very friendly goats. We had a wander through some of the trade stands and looked at some huge new tractors before heading back to the ring. The motorcycle display team were doing their thing, so we watched them doing wheelies, fly-by’s, jumping through fire and generally whizzing around seeing how many people they could get on 1 motorbike (10, in the end). Then the police dog handlers came on and gave a great display of well managed dog misbehaviour, with the wound-up-to-fever-pitch German Shepherds running amuck and biting criminals arms off as they ran to get away. Hugely entertaining! We had a bit more of a walk round the trade stands before it was time for the grand parade of livestock, so we got a good position at the side of the arena and watched all the handlers tromping up and down with their cows/bulls/calves/horses/ponies some of which got a bit spirited and did a bit of bucking and/or running off which was fun for us spectators but not so much for the handlers. Then off to the food hall where no dogs were allowed, so Linda went in first and tried samples of cheese, wine, brandy, whisky, oil, some of which she bought. While Phil was waiting outside he got chatting to some crazy fire juggling unicycle riding circus bloke about the delights of dogs and unicycles, so when Linda came out he handed over the mantle and ran inside to do some more tasting. He bought a bottle of Whisky and we headed over to the fun fair. The fair was huge, with loads of rides and entertainment. Phil went on one, some rotating, flashing, upside down sort of thing that flung the riders 100ft above the park. Great fun for Phil, who came off it with wobbly legs, and even more fun for Linda who watched him being flung around like being in a giant washing machine, outside, in the air! We went back to the goats for another pat before calling it a day and heading home.

Move day today! After saying bye to our next ‘van neighbours, who were from Dundee and also leaving today, we were on the road. On arrival we drove down the farm track to Mill Farm CL near Dornoch and there was a sign on the gate that told us to beep the horn, we followed instructions and a lady popped out and told us to drive down the track and pitch where we liked! Round the corner was a lovely little field with 5 hard standing pitches each with their own water and electric, and great views down to the sea. Yippee, another little gem!

Aviemore

Arriving at the Aviemore site the bloke on reception was a very strange, weird looking bloke who did his spiel in a drone, “the toilet block is closed from 12 to 3, your pitch is at the far end of the site, you have to buy electricity cards which you swipe in the bollard, blah blah blah”! The nice thing was Phil had 3 birthday cards waiting at reception.

Phil got up early to go off on his bike to do a 19 mile ride which took him around Loch An Eilien (which has an island on it with a ruined castle) to the nearby Rothiemurchus estate, and then around Loch Morlich, while there he had a nosey around the Caravan and Camping Club site which was extremely busy, but looked a bit nicer than ours!
The assessor from our insurance company was coming today to look at the ‘van, he turned up early and was done by about 11.15 so we decided to head off to the Highland Wildlife Centre that Linda’s Mum and Dad had bought tickets for Phil’s birthday. When we got there they had free kennels for the dogs to go in, so we popped them in a large one (which wasn’t that big!) and drove off round the main reserve, seeing Yak, Kiang Horses with 2 foals, Reindeer , Camels, Red Deer, Przewalskis (Wild Horses), European Bison. Then we parked up and walked round the rest of the reserve seeing Red Pandas, a Pine Martin, Highland Wildcats who had a kitten which is the first 100% wild cat born in captivity as there is a problem with them breeding with domestic cats, a polar bear called Mercedes who was captured in Churchill in Canada to stop her raiding the town bins and was brought to Edinburgh Zoo with the help of Mercedes Benz. She lived there for 25 years and had 2 cubs and was brought to the park in October last year into a lovely new enclosure with a large pool and a big field. We also saw a Wolf, some Antelope things (technical term) and three young Tigers and their parents in a large enclosure with pools that one kept jumping in, they were very playful. They also had a huge Snow Monkey enclosure where we saw baby monkeys….ahhhh!

Phil was up early again and went on the bike up the nearby Creag Ghleannain, an 8 mile ride from the site as recommended by the local bike shop, a long climb up a land rover track rose 1,500 feet before the route set off down a great piece of singletrack across the boggy and rocky moor, then a short road ride back to the ‘van. When Phil was back we drove up the road to the Cairngorm Railway base station as we had decided to do a walk to the summit of Cairn Gorm. In the winter the whole area is a ski resort, and there are ski lifts and tows scattered around the mountainside, the railway is a Funicular jobbie, and the two carriages were running up and down the mountain all day. We walked up the very steep Windy Ridge path which took us to the top station of the railway (unfortunately named The Ptarmigan building- people at work will understand!) we both went in for a look at the shop and the exhibition before having our lunch sat at the bench outside. Luckily everyone who comes up on the train is only allowed inside the building, and you are only allowed outside (and up to the Summit) if you have walked up, this meant it was relatively quiet outside! After lunch we continued up the steep track to the summit, some 2,000 vertical feet from the car park! After stopping for a while to look at the amazing views and take a few photos we headed down via the other ridge of the mountain, which took us down a surreal almost lunar like rock field, and then down past a large patch of snow which was still there despite all the sun we have been having. (Apparently they were still skiing here on the longest day in June!) The track on the way down was steep enough to give us both wobbly legs, so we were glad to see the base station of the railway. After having a quick look at the camera obscurer (a kind of periscope in the dark!) we headed inside the café where we luckily got the sofa seat and had wonderful cake and hot chocolate!

We’ve been out to Laggan Wolftrax, a mountain bike centre about 25 miles from Aviemore. Phil rode here a couple of years ago and the black route is crazy, with huge rock features and steep drops not for the faint hearted! It is definitely the hardest black route I’ve ridden, and I enjoyed it so much this time round I rode it twice! (One or two pennies short of a pound methinks!) Also rode the red and the bike park twice (while I was there) for a total of 20 miles, snapping a gear cable and breaking a spoke were luckily the only injuries. While all this was going on Linda went for a walk on a waymarked route up to Dun Da Lamh Hill Fort, a very steep 4.5 mile route with the reward of some fantastic views in the sun and spotted a red deer on the way up.






Linda was up and out early the next day to go on a horse ride at a local stables. She rode a highland pony called Mac (short for MacDonald), we had a nice ride through some of the Rothiemurchus Estate which is family owned and covers 25,000 acres. The weather was fine and the two other riders and myself were led by a very nice woman who had just broken in the horse she was riding 5 weeks ago, it was amazing and only stopped once at a steep bank, she cantered well and was very good at standing for gates to be opened. We had lots of trotting and a few canters and even a little jump over a log in the woods. My horse was nice and quite responsive and was very comfy to ride…I want one!
Meanwhile Phil took the dogs for a little walk in the nature reserve before going for a wander into town, visiting nearly all the outdoor shops in the process. One had a friendly lad in there who chatted about his love of camping and campervans, he also had a 125cc motorbike which he uses to go away with his tent! Another shop keeper got chatting about mountain bikes, he does a lot of running, but has recently got a bike so I told him about a few of the routes that I’d done and he got his map out so I could show him. He used to be an accountant but hated it so much he jacked it in to work in the shop and is now studying for some outdoor qualifications, ace!
Later on Phil had a run in with the horrible weirdy man who ‘welcomed’ us on arrival. When Phil went to empty the caravans waste containers, he discovered there was no grey waste empty point he went to reception to ask where it was. Weirdy man was there and he droned on about how people have to use the chemical waste point and lift their 40litre containers into place, Phil said that was crazy and an elderly person could easily hurt their back, weirdy man did another drone that most people check the facilities before they use them and empty their waste more regularly, Phil said it was a piss poor way to run a campsite and marched off! How liberating!

Move day today! Once we were hitched, Linda went to reception to get our deposit back for the toilet key, and a refund on the 2 x £2 electric cards we had bought (we never needed them, as there must have already been enough credit in the bollard!) the lady at reception was really offhand and said we shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, Linda pointed out that the weirdy man made us buy them on arrival, so she reluctantly gave us the £4 back! We were really glad to be leaving this site, and were glad to arrive at the Auchnahillin site by Inverness.