Caravaning

Family Tour 2018 Day 7-8 - Day 8

Day 8: 29/09/2018 East Mey to Inverness (124 miles)

This was one of the rare occasions where we could say "Travelling south to Inverness"!

The cows in the field over the road from us were so loud overnight, there was a fairly constant moo-ing!  However, the sunlight was beautiful in the morning, and I caught a picture of the light on the rock stack at St John's point, along with one of the cows before we packed up:

It was another fairly easy drive, however, having let a car turn in front of me on the way down to Wick, we then found it was the kind that struggled to get to more than 35 mph, and didn't use indicators!  It was a relief when it turned off and we were free to continue at closer to 50 mph!

Once on the A9, a number of cars took opportunities as and when they arose to overtake us.  However, this didn't go so well for a mini, that had been behind us for some time, and cars had overtaken it and us in the same pass.  Eventually, it summoned up the courage and made its dash past.  Only for the bike rack strapped to its boot to come loose and start flapping.  Queue mild panic from both cars, as we didn't want a bike and bike rack underneath us, and I'm sure the driver didn't want to loose their bike!  He pulled over to the side safely, and we passed on by.

There was also the satisfaction of out accelerating the car behind us up a hill out of some hair pin bends, while having approximately the weight of that car attached to our rear bumper.  However, once on the level and at 50 mph, they did continue to accelerate to 60, and pass us, but a real gap did open up.

The only other event to report was as we turned onto the private road that lead to our friends house that we were staying at.  We had been assured that fitting the caravan along there would not be a problem, a neighbour tows a caravan behind their LWB Sprinter van.  Unfortunately, just onto the track there is a narrow bridge over a railway line, and after that bridge, a right hand 90° bend.  And round that bend came a Fiesta.  Although there was a nice big space on their right hand side to pull off the road (with no way we could easily, safely reverse onto a busy road with the caravan behind), they seemed incapable of making more than about 10 cm difference to the space for us to pull forward off the bridge, and then round the corner, without "customising" our caravan any further.

I spotted the side/back of the caravan, while Hannah studiously ignored the front sensors on the car that were beyond their minimum distance reading and warning of impending doom.  But we somehow made it around, with only about a cm between our caravan and the railings on the bridge, and an unknown amount of space between us and this car.

But the views from their house were worth the journey up the track.  A lovely view over the Black Isle towards Ben Wyvis.  We enjoyed a tasty curry that night, and it was the most time we had spent in a building in days!