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Continuing on our trip from where we left off under the Ireland "update", we caught a 07h30 ferry from Larne in Northern Ireland to Troon, Scotland.
We headed straight for Stirling for a sightseeing stop: William Wallace Monument, Stirling Castle and Bridge of Allan ect before continuing north-westwards. We bushcamped for the first time in UK on the banks of Loch Awe and had our first and only braai which was great, just us on our own in the middle of nowhere. However we were joined by some friendly fisherman the next morning, who's only concern was that that they may have woken us up!
We spent the morning and afternoon in Kilmartin Glen looking at stone circles, burial cairns and stone carvings & crosses before heading to Oban, Western Highlands, where we did a whiskey tour and tasting at one of Scotland's oldest distilleries. After that we headed around Loch Leven, near Glencoe, where we witnessed some stunning scenery. We camped at a campsite on the banks of the Loch, near Kinlochleven where we had our first encounter with the dreaded midges!
Next day we ferried over to Isle of Sky, where besides driving the entire island, north to south, we somehow found time to visit another famous distillery: Talisker - funny that! Our campsite that night at Sligachon again had stunning views but was pretty wet and muddy and once again troubled by the dreaded midge, which we were now beginning to hate! Grrrrrrrrr! We pitched our side awning tent for the first time as protection from the weather and the midges which was quite effective. However we got almost no sleep that night as the weather deteriorated into "The Perfect Storm" - with the flapping of the roof tent keeping us awake and waiting for the sound of the side awning tent destoying itself. (Luckily this never happened!)
The next morning was a bit of a disaster - the side tent was in a bit of a state but otherwise undamaged. We hastilly packed up in the rain and beat a swift retreat off the island with our tails between our legs heading eastwards in search of better weather!
The day took us via Loch Ness, (no sight of Nessie!) Inverness, Dalwhinnie Distillery - Scotland's highest, Ebradour Distillery - Scotland's smallest, & Aviemore heading towards Dundee before stopping at a really nice camp site for the night just before Blairgowrie.
Our final day in Scotland saw us go via Dundee, St Andrews and Edinburgh before crossing back into England and heading towards the Lake District. To make up for a rather late start that morning we drove till quite late (almost 11pm) and just slept near the side of the road in the back of Cathey near Keswick in the Lake District.
The next morning was raining again so there wasn't that much we could do in the Lake District so we had a nice breakfast in Ambleside before heading towards York. We crossed the Yorkshire Dales National Park which was lovely and then spent the afternoon in York, sightseeing and having Sunday lunch in the pub, as you do - seeing as we were back in Engalnd York was a definate highlight as neither of us had been there before and exceeded our expectations. Have a look at some of our photo's especially of Yorkminster if you have never been there before.
That was really the end of our trip - all that was left was a pretty depressing drive south via loverly places like Doncaster, Rotheram, Mansfield etc (NOT). Without thinking we managed to get our selves stuck in the M1 motorway traffic jam again - for about the 3rd time in as many months - pretty much from Luton all the way to London and so only arrived home quite late.
Thats it. Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. For more Scotland photo's, other than the ones on this site, go to: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=a5care2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
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