Last year Scarlett expressed a desire to see dolphins in the wild. I did some online research as to whether this was a feasible challenge here in the UK and uncovered various ‘hot spots’ including Cornwall, parts of Wales and Scotland. We had really hoped Shell Island in North Wales would answer this one for her as we were camping there in July and some advance contact with the campsite and local boat tour opertors suggested we had a good chance. In the end despite countless time gazing out to see across the bay and a rather expensive boat trip the dolphins proved elusive and we didn’t see any. We saw seals which Scarlett considered a worthy runner up but we carried the quest over to this years list of ‘things we want to do’ for her. I am a great believer in finding ways to make dreams come true whenever possible.
We were reliably informed that Scotland, specifically the Moray Firth is *the* place to see dolphins in the UK, infact in Europe and arranged with our tried and tested holiday sharing family 😉 to have a camping trip there this year. Michelle took on the role of researcher and tracked down a fabulous campsite at Rosemarkie which we were excited to see had many rave reviews about dolphin sightings on a regular basis, both from the campsite and from nearby Chanonry Point. A six night stay for us made joining the Camping and Caravanning Club financially worthwhile so we did that, got it booked up and then dealt with the full logistics of a 12 hour drive to get from our ‘almost as far south as you get’ home to ‘almost as far north as you get’ destination. Not quite John O’Groats to Lands End but pretty damn close.
So Wednesday was the first leg of the journey – six hours driving to a Travelodge (booked in their advance booking £22 deal) in Carlisle. Six hours driving in a car filled with enough stuff for 11 nights away, with two young children and a woman with a cracked ankle is never going to be a delight but armed with toffee bon-bons, many painkillers and my crutches in the top box we were off. We’d been initially aiming to be away for 9am, stop for lunch mid-point and then drive back out for dinner somewhere in Carlisle once we’d checked in. The ankle, left over packing from the night before and me only being able to crawl round the house on hands and knees meant it was closer to 11am when we actually set off. Getting up and down the stairs was a nightmare 🙁
Aside from being in agony and the shiny floor surfaces of Services being no place to skitter across on crutches the twice we stopped for wee-breaks it was fine. No real hold ups, a very brief wee-stop once and a fairly brief McDonalds for kid-food and tea & coffee for Ady and I stop and we were at the Travelodge by 6pm. We had a rest and recuperate in the room and then set out to find food. The sat nav told us cashpoints and shops were six miles away but when we set it to go there it changed to 23 miles away meaning a nearly 50mile round trip thanks to being on the north bound side of the motorway. Some debate ensued about whether to do it or not but Ady was driving-tired, I was in pain and the kids were hungry so we went for dinner at the services Burger King instead.
This put us back in the room before 8pm, already fed, down to the last teabag which I knew I’d need in the morning, without a sniff of alcohol (not allowed to sell it on motorways apparently) and therefore fairly fed-up 🙁 . I settled for sitting in the bath (water came up to mid-thigh, lost all semblance of dignity trying to get in and out with ankle then taking many painkillers and reading my book in bed. I did send the others out to ask at the desk for more teabags though (along with another pillow as we only had three between four of us and some more loo roll as there was only half a one when we arrived which got used up in just one visit to the loo each by D&S (what do they do with it?) ).
All of which meant we were up and out nice and early on Thursday morning though. We cheered as we passed the border into Scotland quite quickly and stopped at some more services for tea, coffee and pastries to go for breakfast. The final leg of the journey was slightly longer than satnav expected due to lots of road works but so breathtakingly beautiful with scenery that noone minded. Some text conversation with Michelle told us that calling into teh nearby Co Op along the way would be wise to get supplies and then we were there!
A speedy check in, despite my failing to think of bringing the C&CC membership card to prove our member status and we were offered a choice of two pitches. One the other side of the loos and showers to where Marcus and Michelle were pitched, so close to them as we’d initially requested when booking, or one right on the beach front (all of a minute’s walk to M&M’s tent). No contest really :).
Predictably the wind and rain put in an appearance as soon as the tent was out of it’s bag with poles threaded. Davies and Scarlett and Ady really tried to be helpful but as none of the three of them had any real idea of how the tent actually goes up and my ordinarily great temper was slightly frayed due to really being in pain by now so in the end we gave up before the wind broke a pole or we all broke our relationships and sat on the tent to stop it blowing away. And then along came Marcus and Michelle 🙂 🙂 🙂
And suddenly the wind dropped and with four adults and a bit of a plan it all seemed terribly easy – I’d say it was our best pitching ever :). Marcus had some spare rock pegs (an utter necessity for that campsite – along with a claw hammer to bang them in and get them back out again afterwards, a handy hint from a campshop owner when Ady bought pegs) and we were very quickly in and sorted. Michelle and I sat in the car to rest my ankle while Ady and Marcus emptied the car into the tent and then as the time was right according to changing tides we all headed off to the Point. It is a fairly short walk along the beach and my only real regret of the week was that I never did manage it as it looked beautiful and walking along beaches – either to see dolphins or come back to the tent for relaxing and drinking wine – rank in my all time favourite past times. The last evening was my planned ankle-almost well enough time to do it and the tide was too high meaning there was no sand and only very big pebbles making it impossible for me to navigate across so I never did do that walk.
Marcus and Michelle had seen dolphins every day they’d been there but even so Ady, Davies, Scarlett and I couldn’t quite bring ourselves to expect to see them. I was hobbling slightly behind with Ady when Scarlett came flying back calling out what we first thought was ‘I’m going to see dolphins, I’m going to see dolphins!’ but turned out to be ‘I’VE SEEN DOLPHINS! I’VE SEEN DOLPHINS!!!’ 🙂 🙂 One child, dream made reality :).
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At that point Michelle says I broke into a run and I certainly forget my ankle hurting or the 12 hour drive or the trauma of the tent pitching and I too saw dolphins 🙂 My longing for dolphin spotting has been all about making it happen for Scarlett but they are very magical creatures and it was quite a moving experience. Neither Ady or I got anything like the photos captured by Marcus and the crowd gathered at the point every turning of the tide was always at least half made up from serious photographers, several of whom sell their photos to the press, for calendars, postcards or for stock images of dolphins. There was a real camaraderie between the regulars, some of whom spent a month or more there every year for the dolphins. The other half of the crowd was people like us, drawn there from all over to see dolphins. Watching and listening to lots of other people get their first glance of dolphins over the course of the week was also a lovely experience.
Suitably thrilled, educated about why the dolphins leap (catching salmon to eat, they knock them out of the water to try and break their necks or otherwise disable them, they also need to swallow them head first so have to be quite adept at throwing and catching), and now rather cold we headed back to the tent. The kids disappeared to the beach, Ady cooked dinner and Michelle and I drank wine and admired the view.
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It doesn’t get dark until after 11pm which is just blissful and ideal for us with our tardy dinner habits so for once we ate in daylight all week 😉 .That first night we rang the children to get them home at about 1130pm – suitably ashamed of our slack parenting when they told us they had walked all the way into the village 😳 It finally did get dark and bedtime was called.
Friday – one of the few non-dolphin related things on our list was to visit Loch Ness. It has long been somewhere Ady has wanted to see and when we realised how close it was it was top of our list of places to head to. We ended up not doing rather a lot of the other things on our provisional list really, mostly due to my ankle which coupled with the loveliness of the campsite and the regular appearance of dolphins visible from the tent meant we were happy to have a relaxed, doing-very-little time.
So to Loch Ness – we lost Marcus and Michelle on the way – we’d assumed we could follow them and not bother with satnav, they’d assumed we’d got satnav and would arrive around the same time as them. This meant some frantic use of my phone to track down a postcode for the place we were heading for to put into the satnav and put us about 15 minutes behind them. A complete lack of mobile phone coverage meant that I got their voicemail and text messages over the course of a couple of hours all in one go at the same time as they got all of mine. So we completely missed each other as they ate first then went round the exhibition while we went round the exhibition and then ate. When we arrived we parked on a fairly steep hill and when I opened the boot to get coats out (it was pouring with rain) a bottle of oil fell out and landed right on my ankle causing a yelp and tears to my eyes 🙁 .
The Loch Ness visitor centre was, I thought, pretty good. Not necessarily a ‘must see’, nor at £18 for the four of us exceptional value but educational, enjoyable and excellent for setting the scene for Loch Ness which all of us knew a little, rather than a lot about. They have set up about six walk through chambers with films projected onto the walls and a different feel in each. The centre was very scientific in bias, not exactly debunking theories on a Loch Ness monster but certainly not subscribing to them either. I thought it was very good although my least favourite bit about it was the walk through an array of ‘retail opportunities’ on the way out, flogging a variety of Nessie themed stuff, some traditional Scottish stuff like heavy jumpers and kilts and finally a whisky and shortbread shop. We resisted all lures to spend money until the cafe where we had chips (kids) and tea / coffee and quite possibly the best millionaires shortbread I have ever tasted (Ady and I). Having already seen dolphins and therefore decided the money set aside for a dolphin spotting boat trip would not be needed after all I decided to book a Loch Ness boat trip instead. The others took some convincing but on the basis that none of the four of us might ever be at Loch Ness ever again I persuaded them. It was well worth it :).
We had an hour to kill so drove into the village and looked at the castle but decided admission prices made it prohibitive so visited the tourist information centre and a gift shop instead where Ady was assured by a wise old Scots woman that the weather would clear up by 4pm. As it had been raining non stop all day long and mists were swirling around the place in a spooky and atmospheric fashion this seemed rather unlikely.
The boat takes 12 passengers but there was just the four of us and a German couple so we had an all but private charter. John, the skipper picked us up in a mini bus and we arrived at the Loch side to board the boat. The boat is one used for scientific research on the loch and had all sorts of sonar and radar equipment which he explained to us before heading out to the widest and deepest part of the loch, telling stories, history and personal anecdotes as he went. I spent a lot of the time outside loving the murky feeling of the loch and the air of mystery and magic all around. At one point Ady, Scarlett and I were outside and Ady asked where Davies was – we looked round to see him sat up at the wheel steering the boat :). John then let Scarlett have a go and between the three of them they brought us back to shore. What a fab memory, to have steered a boat across Loch Ness 🙂 .
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Back to the campsite ready for another evening trip to The Point for dolphin spotting and another lovely evening infront of The View.
Saturday Rosemarkie, the little local town had a ‘Beach Fun Day’ so we walked along the beach to have fun ;). I think all we really participated in was chatting to Charlie Phillips of WDCS (whale and dolphin conservancy society) who is very cool and has the most soothing accent I could listen to him talking about dolphins for hours. The kids wandered off to play in some woods while we sat and drank tea and coffee and pondered the village fete-ness of the day which included Cutest Pet, Sandcastle and Best Cupcake competitions. Cutest Pet must have been a sure fire win for a little huskie puppy who looked like a wolf cub and was so gorgeous even I rather wanted to cuddle it. We walked along the beach to the furthest point we could see from our tent and did some rockpooling finding various ‘treasures’ both live and not including a huge piece of wood, washed white and weathered but quite incomprehensively on the beach with no real evidence of quite how it would have gotten there. We walked back via the Spar and deli in Rosemarkie and I think we had another evening visit to Chanonry Point before dinner.
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Sunday was the night the wind and rain came in and I spent quite a while sitting in the car trying to get warm and reading my book. Ady cooked a curry which I shivered my way through eating and then Michelle and I sat in her porch, Marcus and Ady sat in our porch and the kids sat in our tent until some sort of sibling altercation between D&S put an end to their evening and effectively ours. It was a noisy night and I think there were some casualties on the campsite but our tent stood up to it all just fine and aside from some puddles in the middle section (really must waterproof those cross seams) we were fine. Ady did a spot of dry stone walling with some beach pebbles to build a barricade where a small gap showed between the side of the tent and the floor thanks to a small hole in the ground.
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Sunday morning was when it became apparent that Davies needed some sort of fleece as one of the casualties of chaotic packing was him having one lightweight denim jacket and nothing else with sleeves at all. Scarlett’s wellies also died so a shopping trip was in order. We went to Inverness and after much faffing finally found some good solid Dunlop wellies for Tarly, a Regatta fleece for Davies in a sale and some really good waterproof walking boots for him in the same sale too, with which he is very pleased. I got a neoprene support bandage for my ankle which was improving but feeling very unsupported and like all the inside bits might be falling apart so this was good for holding it all together. We visited Morrisons for food supplies and then called in at the North Kessock WSCS as Michelle had tipped us off about a free gift for visiting both centres and we were planning to visit the Spey Bay centre on Monday. We saw no dolphins from their large viewing window but the kids enjoyed the various activities including some enormous floor puzzles showing food chains and some feely boxes of natural and man made things you might find in the sea.
Back to the campsite for more view, friends, dolphins and relaxing. I think this was the night where I woke in the early hours to go to the loo and was so amazed by the orange light beaming into the tent I got up, found my glasses and took a picture. Right infront of us in the sea was a small boat called The Ballena which we’d been admiring and using as a barometer for the weather – it sat still on a calm sea and bobbed about like crazy on a rough one when it was windy and rainy. We’d debated who might own it and why they might use it, it was sort of the mascot of our week. We were really sad to learn that the day we left a storm caused it to come loose from it’s moorings and crash onto the beach 🙁
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We’d started to make friends with people around us by then. We had a Dutch family opposite us who were very friendly – their two boys (late teens?) were lovely lads who had a brief dip in the sea every evening. We’d also spent some time chatting to one of the photographers who came along to Rosemarkie every year for dolphin pictures. It was a really friendly campsite where you exchanged a word or two with every single person you came across.
We’d decided we’d make the drive to the Spey Bay WDCS centre with a plan to call in at Findhorn . So that was Monday’s plan. In the end the drive was longer than expected and there was enough to do at Spey Bay to keep us there for most of the day so we never got to Findhorn. We had a cup of tea on arrival and then joined a talk on Whale and Dolphin Watching. We spent some time in the shop and had a go on various computer based activities including learning about all the adoption dolphins, listening to various underwater sonar sounds, listening live underwater and chatting to the staff who were all very enthusiastic and friendly.
We’d brought food for lunch so sat outside eating watching various birds (gulls, gannets) and looking out for otters and seals. They make all their cakes on the premises and we’d seen them mixing up cake batter when we had our cup of tea earlier so we headed back inside to sample some cakes and scones which were delicious before joining another talk in the ice house there. It is the biggest ice house in Scotland, dating back several hundred years and has six chambers. It was used to store sea trout and salmon caught from the river Spey using ice taken from the river. Davies, Scarlett and I had been looking at the remains of an ice house in Bognor the week before from the outside and talking about them so this was perfect to now see inside one and really understand how they worked.
The tour was really good, the chambers had all been set out in different ways with the first one containing some art work made from marine litter such as fishing nets, broken cans, bottles etc. They were mostly mosaics of dolphins, whales and other sea life and were very lovely, while still being made out of rubbish and are done to raise awarenss of the dangers to wildlife of beach litter. The next chamber contained lots of found original and recreated tools from the ice house days including picks, carrying containers, a boat and various tools they have yet to identify the use of. There were also pictures of the river Spey in recent years with it’s vast amounts of ice, grainy old photos of people holding up prize catches of fish and we were told about the river and how it floods and breaks its banks every year when the snow and ice melts and changes the flow to the sea creating new sand banks and mini islands every year as well as how rich in wildlife it is.
The next chamber was filled with bones of whales and dolphins, some whale teeth and we were shown and handed around the ones we could touch. Finally we made it to the fifth chamber (the sixth was just used as a foyer) where a life size dolphin and new born calf models were suspended above our heads showing us the size and scale of just how big the Moray Firth dolphins are – the biggest in the world, nearly twice the size of the ones in places like Florida, as a result of living in so much colder water. Then a short film was projected onto the wall all about whales and dolphins and porpoise. This was mostly beautiful film footage of them along with plenty of facts and figures.
When we came out there was the hourly shorewatch going on (the staff spend the first ten minutes of every hour with binoculars observing the shoreline to spot wildlife, noting anything they see) and a small crowd was gathered watching osprey and then suddenly there were dolphins! So we stood and watched them out at sea, had a go with their really good binoculars and another, different perspective of dolphins until a sudden thunderstorm drove us back inside again and then finally when it looked set in we decided to head back to the campsite.
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On the drive back we stopped at the Baxters Highland village for a quick look around, a taste of whisky and peep at the museum-y bits of an olde fashioned shop.
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Back to the campsite for another visit to Chanonry Point, more playing on the beach til late for the kids and more sitting admiring the view for adults.
Tuesday was our last full day and night and we’d already decided to stay close to the campsite. The tides changing meant there were two chances to see dolphins that day so we planned a picnic lunch at the point seeing the first, a visit to a nearby brewery that offered tours and tasting, a last quick trip to the WDCS in North Kessock and then a communal haggis dinner with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe before a final visit to Chanonry Point in the evening. We nipped to the deli in the morning for supplies and wished we’d visited earlier in the week. The man behind the counter was a true salesman, encouraging us to try various things (all of which were so delicious we ended up buying some) and chattering away to us. I’d planned to walk to the point but seeing no sand and far too many rocks to make it safe for me at the best of times let alone with my poorly ankle I had to acknowledge my limits and we drove. It was pretty cold down there but we had our picnic and then when the dolphins were heading off we did too to the WDCS.
This time we were in luck and had a stunning aerial view looking down on about 12 dolphins spread out below us in groups of two and three. There was loads of activity and it was a very different perspective looking down and seeing how they interacted with each other. Scarlett had found various crab claws and dried up starfish on the beach over the week and had decided to offer them to the centre for their display so she did that and they were gratefully recieved and put straight on the display which pleased her 🙂 . We watched with the various binoculars and enjoyed the enthusiasm of the girl who worked there excitedly shrieking ‘ooh did you see that!?’ every time a dolphin jumped out of the water. We watched the tour boat, packed with people go out into the middle of the dolphins for what would have still not been as good a view as we’d been treated to every day at Chanonry Point and were most grateful that the dolphins of Moray Firth had shown themselves to us with such amazing regularity each day :).
Back to the campsite via the Black Isle Brewery where we joined one of the free tours of the tiny operation of beer making. It was really interesting and we enjoyed sampling a couple of different beers. Ady bought a couple, I bought some beer soaps.
And so to Haggis Night 🙂 . Marcus had volunteered to cook haggis and gravy which left us with mashed potatoes and mashed swede. I was on peeling duty then Ady took over, realising we didn’t have a masher (rather short sighted, must add that to our camping list along with a whisk 😉 ). It took ages to cook them as it was breezy and the gas was blowing about on the cooker making for an even longer cooking time, then they needed mashing up with a fork but we got there 🙂
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Scarlett loved the haggis but was less keen on the swede, Davies loved the mash and swede but was not keen on the haggis, I liked it all, loved the flavour but was slightly offended at the baby-food-ish texture of everything being mashed up and scoopable up with a spoon. Would have it again though 🙂 .
Michelle and Chloe were not fussed about Chanonry Point, having plenty more opportunities ahead as they were staying for the rest of the week so very kindly did all the washing up :). The rest of us went off for a final bout of dolphin spotting.
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A lovely last night back at the tent admiring that view and drinking Black Isle Brewery beer 🙂 .
Wedneday morning with huge thanks to Marcus and Michelle we packed up and were away in record time (ankle considering 😉 ) bidding a fond farewell to our lovely holiday companions and a truly fab campsite and gorgeous place. I always say I’d not go back to any campsite on the basis there are so many others to try and so many bits of the UK to see but I think I’d make an exception for Rosemarkie, it was a fabulous six nights with pretty much nothing possible that would have made it more perfect :).
The seven hours to Jan and Jonathan’s was the biggest chunk of all the journeys over the holiday. We stopped only once, at everyone’s favourite services Tebay and arrived at about 7pm. As always hospitality, company and surroundings were fabulous there and we all enjoyed our brief stay with Davies and Scarlett having a great time playing with Jasper, then watching various Youtube clips with Catie and Megan (and the rest of us 😉 ) before bed, then the rest of us sitting and chatting for a couple more hours about respective life changing plans. Before getting a really rather good nights’ sleep in a bed.
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” alt=”” />, by then it was time to head to the Fool but a sudden downpour drove us (and many, many other people) into the English Heritage tent. I suspect they had never been so crowded in there 😆 Ady and I had picked up some big yellow ponchos at Tesco the night before reduced to 50 pence each, so wishing we had bought more and could have resold them for profit, we donned those and headed out of the squeeze.
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. Scarlett became Puss with material from a cheap fleece blanket, hair tied into ear shapes, the same hat that served as the Hatter’s for Alice, the boots she wears for Badgers and a sword from a Captain Hook outfit. The feather was fashioned from yellow paper. Ady wore his own trousers, belt and shoes, a top of mine, a waistcoat I made from offcuts of Davies’ outfit and lashings of green facepaint. I wore a green sundress from the cheap shop (that I will wear again), more face paint and a tiara from the pound shop!
