Caravaning
Family Tour 2018 Day 15
Day 15: Coventry to home (130 miles)
There and back again. Our final day of travel was a "short" of just 130 miles. We drained down the water system, packed up the caravan and attached it back onto the car, before hitting the motorway and main roads to get back home. Nothing much to report, other than the "friendly" car driver that was sat on the inside lane doing about 55 miles an hour, who matched our speed when we attempted to pass them. Not wishing to push luck or any of that, we didn't try and have a race to see who could go fastest, but let them "win" and settled in behind. A few junctions later, the driver was kind enough to give us a single digit "salute" as he took his exit. Oh well, at least we maintained the moral, and legal high ground by not trying to force in front!
Back home we soon had the caravan back on the driveway, and the feeling of openness and space that a house has over the caravan. Even now I look back at the photos, and the distance traveled on a map, and am amazed at the adventure we had, how much we managed to fit in to 2 weeks.
Family Tour 2018 Day 13-14
This covers the last two nights away from home, and our big push south. From Dallachulish we pushed south to Lochmaben, near Lockerbie. Then from there down to near Coventry, visiting some family on the way through.
Day 13: 04/10/2018, Dallachulish to Lochmaben (175 miles)
So the journey home really began, and we were sad to leave the campsite behind and be on our way. Our route down took us over a very interesting cantilever bridge at Connel. I was able to snap a quick picture having driven over it, and underneath it on the A85:
We continued on to Luss, beside Loch Lomond. Some scouting ahead on google maps had told us there was a good sized car park, along with a filling station, both of which were going to be useful for continuing our journey. There was plenty of space in the car park, and we copied a motorhome and parked across parking spaces, rather than length ways. We weren't sure how happy bus and coach drivers would be if we used one of the bays marked for them. However, we are sure that this would be a different matter had we been there at the height of summer on a nice day.
With the caravan parked, we tended to the dogs needs, and stretched our legs too beside the loch, before heading into the village to find lunch
Family Tour 2018 Day 9-10
On Days 9 and 10, we spend some time around Inverness, and then drive down Loch Ness and take the bridge, over the sea to Skye
Day 9: 30/09/2018, Inverness (36 miles)
A quiet day today, starting off with a visit with our friends to their church, which was out in Culloden. We headed back to their house for lunch, and while we waited for things to finish cooking, I got taken bird hunting watching. I was lent some camo gear, and got my biggest lens out, a 170-500mm and stalked up to the unsuspecting birds with much success. Even to the point that I was closer than the minimum focus distance!
Once the bird feeders were re-stocked, the birds came thick and fast:
Family Tour 2018 Day 11-12
In this next stage of the tour, we spent a day exploring Skye, before then heading over on the ferry towards Fort William
Day 11: 02/10/2018, Skye (84 miles)
The morning after the windy night before was a complete contrast. It was sunny and bright, and we were quite happy to begin our exploration of waterfalls of sky. The first ones we went to were a short distance from the camp site, but as we were continuing on to other ones, we did drive and park up near by. A short walk from there took us to the Rha Falls:
The weather over night appeared to have supplied them with a good amount of water.
Back at the car, we then planned our route to get to the next set of falls, at Loch Mealt, and falling over a cliff into the sea. We picked the (not much) smaller road via Sartle, rather than going right the way to the top of Skye. And what a view of the Quiraing we got as we went along our way. We stopped in the car park to take some quick pictures of the landscape, and will have to come back and walk it properly another time:
It feels a bit hard to believe that it is real, and not just an artists epic landscape!
Family Tour 2018 Day 7-8
From middle of the Highlands we push north east to John O'Groats, before heading south to Inverness for the weekend
Day 7: 28/09/2017, Altnaharra to East Mey (116 miles)
While walking the dogs before breakfast I first had to get a picture of one of the best farmers signs I had ever seen:
Yes, the sheep and lambs around this area truly have no road sense, and with them free ranging, real care needed to be taken.
Sun rise was something to be beheld too:
But with a bit of sadness to leave such a beautiful site behind, we packed up, and by 10 am we were on our way.
We retraced our steps from the previous day passed through Syre and Bettyhill, passing the white walled, red roofed church in Syre:
We had wondered about heading out to Strathy Point to see the lighthouse, but didn't fancy our chances of a dead end road with a caravan behind. But just after the village of Strathy, there was a nice big carpark with views looking back on the lighthouse. It was fairly breezy, but I got a few snaps of it in the distance
We hoped to fill up ready for our drive down to Inverness in Thurso, or another petrol station or 2 between us and our camp site in East Mey, but one was getting its fuel delivery, and the other appeared to be waiting for the tanker to make it there too, so we carried on to the camp site. This was another Certificated Location, called The Crofters Snug.
They also have some glamping pods, which the owner was staying in, rather than the house, and came over to direct us to a pitch. He also recommended using the mover to face nose down the inclined pitch to face the front windows across the 1 field between us, the sea and then Orkney. We didn't bother with the awning, as it was rather a stiff breeze, and we were only staying one night.
With the dogs settled, we then popped out for a hearty bowl of soup (and lots of grandparents complimenting us on our daughter) at Castle of Mey.