One word? When seven would do…

Whoosh!

Woke this morning at Loch Maree which by virtue of being to the east of us meant we had sunrise over it which was beautiful. I know the indian summer is gorgeous and all, meaning DJs everywhere are playing Boys of Summer, Summer Lovin’ and Walking on Sunshine constantly but it does make for a hot nights sleep in a campervan which has been cooked in and has four people sleeping in it. We’ve made room in the van for all these bloody coats and put up with them in the way all this time ready for Scotland, knowing we’d be needing them now and no mistake!

Ok, my attempt to show the downside failed then? 😉

Ady was doing a hand wash of pants so took it down to the lochside for a final rinse. I decided it would be nice to have a wash in the loch (and shave my legs too actually if we’re being frank about such toileting habits) so Scarlett and I went down too and had a paddle / wash / wade / shave at the same time. It was very gorgeous and a bit mad and I do have pictures to upload at some point. And here they are!
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We listened to Popmaster (Ady won, he did really well on the bonus questions) and then did the Woodland Trail walk of the reserve we were at. There are two trails – woodland and mountain. The mountain trail was a 4 plus hour trail and recommended day sacks with layers of waterproof clothing and food supplies, which much though I am sure would have provide a sense of achievement and some gorgeous views isn’t really my idea of lots of fun – I like walking, not climbing ;). Also there has been broken glass in the last two car parks we’ve been in so Ady is nervous about leaving Willow for prolonged periods incase of break ins. Plus we don’t actually have a day sack 😆

The Woodland trail included plenty of uphill-ness and took about 90 minutes with stopping for admiring the view and reading from the booklet at each numbered stopping point. The trails all around the highlands are excellent, filled with information, pointers towards stunning viewpoints and with really good footpaths etc.
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We arrived back at Willow and headed off to the next stop off which was still in Beinn Eighe, this time at the actual visitor centre. We did toilet emptying / water refilling and then went in to watch the film and do the indoor exhibits – loads of interactive stuff including a couple of games on touch screens about the geology of Beinn Eighe (proved how much the kids have been taking in this week, they did really well at that :)) and one all about deer which Scarlett and I did and now know loads more about Roe Deer, Sika Deer and Red Deer. There was a senses game with stuff to listen to, smell and feel, some identifying different birds beaks and more. All very good.
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Back to Willow for lunch as we were all hungry by then and then we got out to do the three trails there – the small picnic trail about what various birds eat, Davies read all of those signs 🙂 Then the Rhyming Trail which had clues to riddles to identify various plants and animals and finally the Wee Trees trail which had a story book to read along the way telling various chapters at various points. This was another uphill walk but again with excellent paths and plenty of benches and viewpoints to catch your breath :).
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It was getting late when we left there and we had much debate about what to do next, so headed for Torridon as there was no internet signal in the area and much as the walks are excellent we were ready for a change of scenery again. We found Torridon but it proved far smaller than expected and the Deer and Countryside Centre was just a tiny building which looks like it may not sustain an entire days visit.

We ended up seeing signs for Applecross and deciding to head for there as it is on our list of places to visit anyway. Our loose plan is to go to Inverness next Monday once rent has gone in and we are solvent again as the kids need shoes, my phone is due an upgrade (and I want a new one!) and I need some new jeans so we need a proper retail destination for at least a couple of hours so we are hesitant about heading to Skye just yet, particularly without much in the way of cash.

We were struggling to find somewhere suitable to stop, Ady was fretting about petrol, I was frantically trying to connect the Mifi and the kids were all out of charge on their DSs when suddenly we saw a golden eagle on a fence post right infront of us. We stopped, but sadly another car (the first we’d seen in *miles*) came the other way and spooked it. It did land fairly close, enough to get a blurry picture, but it was our closest encounter to date which was more than enough to bolster us all again :).
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We quickly found a parking spot after that and despite the mist having rolled in and obscured the view I know we are looking down on a large chunk of sea below us so hopefully it will be clear in the morning. We had dinner and my Mum rang so we all talked to her for a bit, then Eduardo rang so we talked to him ;). We have a vague plan tomorrow to maybe find a campsite for one night to charge everything back up again properly, do a wash, have showers and a night of lights on instead of torches so if we find somewhere for under our £20 budget and where the Mifi picks up signal we’ll go for it, we’re thinking maybe Applecross campsite.

which is one of our favourite sayings at the moment. Mike, our letting agent says it to me every single month when I make my phonecall to him to check on rent collection progress ‘Don’t worry Nicola, we’re on it, we’re all over it like a rash’. Whilst the context is always totally hassle-filled it is a funny saying nonetheless so we’ve adopted it.

This morning we had breakfast observing the gorgeous view and our fellow camper getting up and packing his tent back up. He came to return the borrowed tent pegs but we said he could keep them. Wonder if he’ll think of us every time he uses them? 🙂

It was our plan to spend a couple of days in the Gairloch area as we were hoping to find plenty to do there including a laundrette as we are starting to run low on pants! Infact Davies has run out but we’ve been washing and drying them – the footwell in Willow on my side is always blowing with hot air as we keep the heater on to cool the engine so it’s perfect for drying clothes, shoes, anything else wet – I love the multi-purpose design functions ;).

We stopped at the tourist office and I asked if there was a laundrette in the town. There wasn’t but the woman suggested calling at the local campsite to ask if we could use theirs! The town had a fairly unfriendly feel to it with people stopping to stare at Willow a bit – we’re definitely feeling less free and happy the further back south we come. We stopped to empty the loo and fill up water bottles but the water is a bit yellow tinged so we’re boiling it before drinking even though there was no sign to say it’s not drinking water. We called in to a shop for some milk and put some petrol in Willow and headed out of the town.

We came across a parking area just outside the town so pulled over to see what was nearby and a friendly couple getting back into their car told us about a waterfall walk nearby which was one I actually had marked as a possible thing to do – Flowerdale Falls. We headed off and it was quite a nice walk to the falls and back with some blackberries to forage along the way. There were several bridges to play poohsticks on and a handy eagle soaring overhead for part of the walk :). I do have photos but again they will have to wait, very frustratingly still have no internet signal on the mifi 🙁
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Back to the van we drove across the road to Gairloch Pier which is basically the place where all the wildlife cruises start from. There were loos with hot water though so I was able to wash my hair :). We had lunch there and debated what to do next, deciding to carry on in our planned direction.

We ended up driving further than expected (this is becomming a frequent happening!) and stopped briefly for a walk at Slatterdale Forest Trail before ending up at Beinn Eighe lochside carpark where we have stopped for the night.
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More to say but about to run out of mobile phone charge so will publish and fill in gaps tomorrrow.

We woke up this morning to an ever increasingly gorgeous view as the early morning mists cleared. We had breakfast and hung on in the van for Popmaster before driving back a couple of laybys to the carpark for Corrieshalloch Gorge. It’s a National Trust place and doesn’t have an admission charge as such but does have a suggested donation of £2 per person for parking. We thought £2 for all of us was fair given no one else seemed to have paid at all (you got a pay and display sticker and no one else was displaying them).

There was a longer walk taking you across the gorge or a quicker route straight to the bridge. We went for the longer one. It was such a gorgeously hot day we were all in T shirts and still hot.
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We enjoyed walking along in the sunshine looking at the stone stacks that were everywhere and adding to a couple of them. The gorge was a riot of colour with a load of pine trees giving a deep green colour (and lovely pine scent too) and the rest of the deciduous trees all turning their autumn colours. The gorge is truly impressive and the bridge crossing it is very cool. Scarlett doesn’t like bridges, particularly ones with open sides, gaps in the slats or ones that move about so this ticked all her Not Like boxes. As such I was really proud of her for crossing it there and back, and for plucking up the courage to come onto the viewing platform too 🙂 Brave girl.
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Davies and I loved the bridge, particularly when we realised we could sway it even more by rocking about on it, so we entertained ourselves with that for a while until it freaked Ady out too much (he wouldn’t get on but was standing on the sidelines looking pale!) 😆
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The walk was slightly quicker than we’d expected so we were back on the road again well before lunch. The initial plan today was to not travel very far and maybe even stay in the same overnight spot again, but we did need to find a toilet to empty our loo which was almost full, and stock up on water supplies, so decided to drive until we’d found one and then find an overnight spot.

This took rather longer than expected so we stopped for lunch at a very beautiful spot overlooking a rocky beach. The kids were looking down with narrowed eyes and then grabbed their binoculars and exclaimed that there were seals down there. Sure enough there were loads of them, all basking in the sunshine on the rocks and sometimes flopping back into the water and splashing about. It was very pretty 🙂
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We had lunch and then moved on again still looking for a loo. Finally we came across one and got the toilet emptied and the waters filled. There was no hot water so I didn’t wash my hair which I was hoping to do but not quite desperate enough to do in cold water just yet – maybe by tomorrow…

Once that was done we were ready to look for an overnight stop and soon found one – a gorgeous spot with panoramic mountains, islands and the sea. The kids were desperate for some running around time so they went off and played in the field next to the parking spot for about an hour while Ady and I planned the next few days of our journey and made pizza dough.
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While we were sitting waiting for dinner to cook a young guy walked up the hill next to us and stopped to pitch his tent. Ady nipped over to offer help and was asked if by any chance we had a spare tent peg. As it happens we do so Ady gave him a couple and lent him our mallet as he was banging his in with a stone (travelling light, I guess there are always stones around so no need to carry a mallet!) so we have a neighbour :).
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At one point I glanced out of the window and just where the kids had been playing earlier was a big stag being all majestic ;). We watched him for ages, trying (and mostly failing) to get pictures, admired him leaping the fence with ease and then trot off into the sunset. Very cool :).
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No mifi signal again so no photos yet, but fingers crossed again for tomorrow 🙂

Popmaster got drowned out by yelling this morning 🙁 The pressure of over a week in the van with no time out at all started to show with Davies and Scarlett yesterday and they were squabbly. They do it so infrequently my tolerance for it is virtually zero and of course they are totally trapped with each other – sharing a bed, a sofa, a dining table and so on. This morning they were both after my attention and when I started reading a book with Scarlett Davies was getting more and more annoying and I lost my temper with them.

Some discussion about just what should be the result has made for a much better day today – I am very conscious of the Big Ask on their shoulders of this year and although I am utterly confident that the rewards are many I don’t want their memory of this bit to be overshadowed by falling out with each other every five minutes and me shouting at them for it. They were both horrified at my suggestion that we call it a day though and have been the very best of friends again all day today :).

We headed in a giant loop around the coast road overlooking the Summer Isles again, having done it last night looking for somewhere to sleep. First to the Summer Isles Smokehouse which is a fab little purpose built smokehouse complete with viewing windows around three sides of the building so you can see the process going on inside. We looked in at the kilns, watched some men filleting salmon ready to be smoked and then watched the process the other end after they’d been done of trimming, de-boning and slicing before packaging. Then we went inside to have a look at the oak chips (they use old whisky barrels) and see what was on offer for sale. Limited budget or not we decided we really should sample something so chose a small pack of smoked salmon to have for lunch. Pricey but very nice :).
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We left there and went to the Hyrdroponicum which is inbetween it’s old incarnation with the previous centre closed down and it’s planned new visitor centre with the straw bales stacked up ready and waiting. We were a bit underwhelmed with that to be honest, despite the friendliness of the woman who chatted to us. Ady has come across that sort of growing method before a few years ago and was not deeply impressed then. We’re glad we went but mostly because the outside growing area, right next to the sea and simply in soil was thriving and showed it is possible to grow stuff even in such extreme conditions which is reassuring.

By then we were getting pretty hungry so we found a good spot to stop for lunch and parked up. We watched another eagle for a while – our only wildlife spot today – and debated what to do next. Our original plan had been to return to Knockan for an overnight and then head to Corrieshalloch tomorrow, via Ullapool for some petrol. But we’d had a windy night there on Sunday and tonight is also windy, plus we are all a little resistant to stopping in the same place twice if we don’t have to, so we decided to get fuel and head for Corrieshalloch today. This was on the basis we were better driving this afternoon in the rain and having all day in the forecast sunshine to explore tomorrow, plus we’d get to charge stuff up off the cigarette lighter for longer!

So to Ullapool, a quick stop in Tescos for some more fresh fruit as the last lot had already almost gone – kids currently inhale nectarines! a small spend on petrol and then back on a real A road again with white lines, road signs and everything. Ady and I both felt a bit sad leaving the wilderness behind really, although we know it gets beautiful again lower down from our time in Tarbert and we’re really looking forward to Skye. We reminded ourselves that we can come back up again if we want anyway.

We’ve parked just past the Corrieshalloch Gorge in a nice big layby with a view which improved every minute as the mists cleared. We had a lovely dinner of pasta bake with cheese and bacon which came in under £3 and we justified the lack of veg with all the fruit eaten earlier in the day ;). I read a load of Matilda before dinner and a load more afterwards and now despite the wind and rain outside we’re all outside of our sleeping bags tonight as it’s really hot in the van, probably due to the oven being on for the pasta bake!

We had Popmaster this morning at Knockan Crags and then headed to Ullapool. We needed drinking water, I wanted to wash my hair (cold water only at the loos at Knockan) and we had a shopping list of food supplies. This is our last week of the month so we’re on limited funds with the expensive holiday of two weeks ago and Davies’ birthday out of this months cash flow, so we broke out the Tesco clubcard vouchers that we have had in reserve for food. They were mostly from when Ady used to use Tesco for his work fuel and we had about £40 worth.

So we did that, scarily spent £50 but did need to restock on things like shampoo, cotton wool buds, tea bags aswell as actual food and while we got lots of value stuff and tins we also got a fair bit of fresh fruit and veg as I feel really odd not having that now (I know, how things have changed!). We’re trying to balance cheap with healthy, processed with able to bake in the van and not entirely compromise all our ideals about stuff like organic / free range etc. Not easy! Today we went for chicken burgers and chips because they were on offer so very cheap dinner, but did have loads of stuff like fresh fruit, cheese and oakcakes for lunch. The rest of the week will be stuff like pasta bake, steak pie, fish cakes and so on. We’ll manage til next Wednesday but will have to curtail our travelling a bit as petrol will not be a feasible expense for this week like it was last week.

Shopping done we went for a wander round Ullapool – funny place with several shops selling touristy things but no real shops as such. There was a charity shop where I tried on a couple of pairs of jeans as all of mine are falling down. The size 18s were on the big side and the size 16s almost fitted. I’ve not been a size 16 since I was about 21! Didn’t buy any but am hoping by the time I have some money in a couple of weeks I might just be able to buy the 16s :).

I called in to the public loos while Ady and the kids went back to the van and I told Ady to come back to collect me with Willow so I could fill the water containers up. Imagine my surprise (is it just me or does everyone think of the Viz letters page when they see that phrase?!) when I discovered two shower rooms in the toilet block 🙂 🙂 So in we all trouped with towels and shampoo 🙂 Scarlett and I went in the disabled one and Ady and Davies in the other. I can only assume they are there for fishermen or something but we very much appreciated them :). So lovely hot showers and hairwashes all round, water bottles all filled, we got back in the van and headed north again. We suddenly realised it was 3pm and we were all ravenous so we stopped in a beachside layby for lunch. We spent ages watching four eagles circling in the distance and speculated for a while as to whether they were sea eagles, after closer looking with binoculars we decided they were not and given there were four together we thought they must be parents and their young. Later we saw four together again a few miles further north which we assumed must be the same group. This time one of them got close enough for a positive golden eagle ID – so exciting 🙂

We headed back north with the intention of finding somewhere to stay overnight before doing a couple of things near the Summer Isles tomorrow – they had been planned for today but the need for food and water drove us out to Ullapool! We ended up driving way further and for longer than we’d hoped, including passing both the places we’re going tomorrow and driving in a big circle. We were all getting slightly fed up when we turned a corner and spotted a deer, then two, then three and then realised there was a big stag there too – all so well camouflaged. We were so close and able to pull over, wind the window down and take photos while they stared at us before finally getting spooked and all running off. Magical :).
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That cheered us all up and then we found a parking space too :). We all got very excited when the northern lights notifier on Ady’s phone went to HIGH and thought we were going to tick off yet another thing today but it has since dipped back to MODERATE and although I am sitting with the curtain open facing north I can’t see anything. Not sure how long to sit up on watch really, everyone wants me to wake them if I see anything…

We had dinner, I read several chapters of Matilda and the kids had pre-bed hot chocolate. I have no Mifi signal (and infact am not sure how much longer I’ll have the Mifi for, I got a message on it the other day to say it is an internal SIM card and will be disconnected, so have emailed my contact there to ask if it can be kept going but am not sure what will happen -eek!) but Ady’s phone can also work as a wireless hotspot, although it is slow so not able to upload pictures still 🙁 Fingers crossed for tomorrow on that one.

Every time we stop I seem to decide this is my new favourite view 🙂

This morning we woke, breakfasted and headed off. We debated stopping for milk at the supermarket but the little Spar in the village was closed and we decided not to drive round to the Costcutter, we also decided not to bother filling up with water at the public loos. Both were slightly wrong decisions retrospectively but we’ve managed on limited milk and water supplies.

We are rather better organised with vague route planning for the coming days instead of last weeks drive up, then along, then back down type notions so this morning we were heading for Knockan Crag which is geologically a Very Important Place as it was here, way back in the 1800s that two geologists very famously came to understand about how our landscape was formed. We’ve been doing lots of learning this week which has been great – interesting all round as we’ve all been finding out stuff but also great for me and the kids as we have really missed spending time together exploring and educating ourselves. We’d already read the leaflet for Knockan Crag so had a good basic grip of what was learnt here – that the rock formations with older rocks on top of younger rocks happened when plates collided forming mountains with younger rocks slipping over the older ones. Ady is the only one of us terribly interested in recent history (I personally have no real interest in Tudors, world wars or Romans. There, I said it!) but all of us are very interested in pre-history, early people, land before time and geology type stuff so this was fascinating.

Knockan Crag is one of the many free gems we have discovered already up here, free, excellent, full of information and education and just really well done. Just like the woodland trails yesterday you can tell this has been done with passion, enthusiasm, by people who really care about their subject matter and want to share it with others. We arrived at lunchtime so had something to eat first, used the toilets (a fab stone building with living roof, toilets and sinks all using water collected from the hillside, therefore a bit brown and not suitable for drinking but *exactly* as all toilet and washing facilities should be) and decided to stay here overnight as there are no signs to say we can’t.

We set off up to the Rock Room which is an open sided, turf roof space with a large sillouette board to tell you all the various hills and mountains around with names, how to pronouce them, what they mean (they are all Gaelic), how tall they are and so on, and loads of information about geology including comic strips explaining John Horne and James Peach’s discoveries, putting the history of the earth into a 45 year old woman’s timeline (eg humans arrived last week, dinosaurs came when she was 42, first rocks were formed when she was 5 and so on), rocks under magnifying glass to show how they have been shaped and formed and loads more.
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Then a choice of 3 trails – the shortest taking you to the quarry, the medium one to the Moine Thrust and the Crag Top trail which is over an hour and climbs right to the top. Naturally we did them all :). Loads of fab features including rock sculptures, poetry and prose inscribed into stones, information boards and of course stunning views.
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We reached Willow again, having looked down on her from very high and took advantage of our being back in the van again so early to cook a decent dinner. We had steak pie (van-made pastry and tinned steak) roast potatoes (tinned potatoes) and chocolate chip cookies to follow (van made using a packet mix). Scarlett and I did that while Ady and Davies looked at some of Davies stories he’s been writing and illustrating while we’ve been on the road. Davies spent ages this morning writing himself out sums and doing them which rather amused me :).

Dinner was really nice, we all shared the last can of coke from the fridge too – Ady and I had some vodka in ours which neither of us actually like much but we’d brought along from home as we somehow had a bottle in the chiller. Have added apple juice to our rather long shopping list for when we next hit a supermarket so we can make Bobs 😆

The sun was just starting to set then so we decided to take a dusk walk in the hopes of seeing wildcats which apparently can be a possibility here. I strongly suspected we would not as we are utterly incapable of being quiet despite all our best intentions but the view and the thrill of being out with bats swooping over our heads was more than enough to make it worth the chill.

Back to the van for hot chocolate and stories (we’ve started Matilda, we all love Roald Dahl) and then bed all round. I have sporadic signal so flickr is being stroppy but I am managing to blog and will hopefully get pictures uploaded tomorrow.

No signal last night so Saturday written in word doc

This morning we walked into Lochinver after breakfast for a look round. It’s a big ish town with a couple of shops, petrol station and various cafes. It is a large harbour / fishing port with loads of wildlife around the coastline.

We went first to the Assynt visitor centre which is the tourist office and also the base for the wildlife rangers. The downstairs has the usual selection of leaflets, maps and tartan tourist stuff for sale and a large display of local history information including maps, models and videos. Ady and Davies learnt all about crafting and the clearances while Scarlett and I watched a video of hen harrier chicks in the nest taken last year on Orkney. They usually have live footage of a local golden eagle nest, but the pair of eagles, who they have been watching for 15 years did not mate this year, which is apparently common after a harsh winter with little food around like last year was but a shame nonetheless. The hen harrier footage was very good if not quite as exciting as webcam stuff from a nest actually nearby.
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Upstairs was the childrens section with various puzzles, interactive bits, computer with local information, scope set up over the harbour and loads of information about local wildlife. They had a board up which excitingly reported very recent sightings of minke, pilot and killer whales, dolphins, sea eagles and other birds. They also had on display a leatherback turtle skull and some ribs from a fin whale all locally found. I spent some time writing down information about the 15 best places to spot wildlife locally and have plotted them in to our coming weeks plans, particularly as they mention wildcats and sea eagles which we’d love to see but know the likelihood is slim of, so anything to maximise chances is good. Ady and the kids spent time watching a heron fishing in the harbour through the scope. We walked along to check out the far shop and picked up some sausages for dinner and some fruit for lunch and checked the prices and opening times of the petrol station.

Back to Willow for lunch and then we nipped into the town to get some petrol as it’s closed tomorrow and then back to our parking space for a walk around the woods. The woods are excellent – a community run project with various walks, loads of information boards and features. We did a couple of the trails including the ‘All the time in the world’ one which included information about how old trees were, how we can date seeds from peat bogs to discover how long various species have been around, cross sections of tree trunks so you could see the rings, a peat bog, sculptures and woodland art including a massive birds nest complete with egg that we clambered inside, giant spiders, slugs and other creatures made of wood hidden in the trees. We came out at a play area where we paused for a while and then took the path to a view point, which was quite a climb but well rewarded with a view to the north one side and then higher up a view to the south, both beautiful.
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Back down again we took the path called ‘are you brave enough’ which was over rivers on log bridges, through close trees and over rougher terrain. We all decided it would be a good path to do as it was getting darker. On looking at the map we saw there was a second car park to the woodland so decided to return to Willow and drive to it to see if it had a better view than the carpark we were already in. It’s only a mile up the road and unfortunately has no signal on phones or internet but the view is indeed lovely so it’s worth it for one night. On the very short drive along the road I looked up at the mountains and saw two red deer silhouetted against the sky so we stopped and looked at that for a while, rather spellbound. I’d been saying to Ady I wanted some ‘majestic’ poses from the eagles and deer and this was very majestic indeed J.
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We decided to have cooked breakfast for dinner so a feast of sausage, bacon and eggs was cooked up and very much enjoyed and then as it was properly dark we grabbed our head torches and went off for a late night walk in the woods. Ady swiftly decided it was not a good idea but got shouted down by the rest of us and we did 100 paces into the woods then all turned our torches off. It was almost totally dark but the stars were amazing and our eyes quite quickly got accustomed to the light and we could see shapes and outlines. We all stood back to back and turned our torches back on again but didn’t see any wildlife. We walked back up the road a little way too as it overlooks a loch but although we heard some owls too-witting we didn’t see anything other than some bats swooping around. Still, always exciting to be out in the dark with torches J.
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Ady went back in the van first to get the beds sorted, always easier without anyone else in the van, and the kids and I stayed outside star gazing. We all snuggled up on the bed chatting for a while before they went up to bed. I’ve been doing some research online and with various leaflets I’ve collected and our map and have plotted out a rough idea of places to visit for the next week or so – all free, mostly walks or nature reserves and all with just short drives between them each day to conserve petrol. This coming 10 days will be tough as our budget is now very tight having already spent lots on petrol (about £150 this week I reckon) but we have done loads more of the miles we were due to do already so in theory that will balance out. We do have sufficient tinned and packet food to see us through so we’ll be fine but it will be more critical than usual that the tenants don’t mess us about with the rent this month.

Lots of driving today.

We started at Keodale when after a night of very heavy rain we were already sure the cave tours would not be running. Scarlett and I had a long discussion about brushing her hair which was starting to look very tangled even to my rather tolerant eyes, which ended with it being brushed 😉

We drove back to the caves and went into the waterfall chamber with proper coats and shoes on and then walked along the beach there. I noticed some of the larger stones on the beach looked like the ones we’d been splitting on a fossil hunting event back at home last year with a local expert so we split some open to see if we could find anything interesting. We didn’t, but it is always fun hitting rocks with other rocks 🙂
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We got petrol from the very expensive attendant served single pump and stocked up a bit in the Spar shop so we have enough food for about a week now if money runs very low / we can’t find shops. Stuff like tinned steak which I can make a pastry lid to do a pie with, some tinned fruit and veg, some instant mash we can use to make fish cakes with etc. We drove along to Balnakeil Bay which is easily the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been on and Davies flew his kite while Scarlett and I took pictures of each other inside a rainbow – the sand was so white it reflected everything so the rainbow above looked like an eye with it’s own reflection beneath. Davies is getting really good with his kite too 🙂
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We stopped there for lunch and then drove back to Keodale to see if the ferry or bus was running to Cape Wrath. Neither was today (although they may have been earlier in the day, it was nearly 3pm by then) so rather than wait around til tomorrow and spend nearly £30 on getting to that north west most tip we decided to carry on.

The road starting due south is an A road but still a single track with passing places. It continues through loads more landscapes in a twisty, turny fashion with a new breathtaking sight round each new corner. I know we have used loads of petrol this week but I really would be happy just driving up and down these roads on a constant loop. Autumn is really rolling in this week with bursts of sunshine inbetween showers, rainbows everywhere, the leaves on the trees and the heather turning all shades of gold, red and burnt oranges and there is the constant promise of exciting wildlife to be looking out for – eagles in the sky, deer or wildcats on the land and otters, seals or even whales and dolphins in the water.

We drove quite a way without really seeing anything other than views and then crossed the Laxford Bridge and headed down to Unapool. We saw signs for Lochinver so decided to head for there for the night and chose the sign promising the ‘scenic route’ at only 7 miles longer. It took us on a little B road all the way around the coast, up and down huge hills but the views were totally worth the extra fuel cost. Plus we saw a red deer! I’d been singing my song – I have this song that I sang last week to call the dolphins and it worked so well I have adapted it for other Scottish wildlife. It brought me eagles yesterday and the red deer today 😉 even if no one else believes me I know Kirsty does!
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Photo is rubbish because it was so well camouflaged by the heather but there it stood, staring at us all ogling it from the van :). Davies and I also think we saw another eagle landed on a fence post but by the time Ady had reversed back to where it was it had gone.

We started to look for somewhere to stop for the night and nearly stopped at Stoer lighthouse but I had no signal on my phone or mifi and there was a burger van parked there which we were worried might be upset about us so close to his pitch in the morning so we carried on.
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We almost stopped again near Clachtoll but came all the way down to Lochinver in the end and suddenly hit proper civilisation again with people walking about in the streets, shops, banks, restuarants and even flashing neon lights! We struggled to find somewhere to park, it was getting dark and everyone was hungry and had been sitting in the van driving too long really. We finally found a carpark at the end of a windy path which is for a woodland walk and were encouraged to stay by another campervan parked up for the night with all it’s curtains already drawn – safety in numbers!

We’ve had a nice evening playing music, eating dinner and reading stories and I’m already a bit sad to have left the north coast behind. I’m going to research some of the many touristy things on my map and hopefully find a good few days worth of stuff to do very nearby to make up for all the driving and petrol spending so far this week.

From a word doc typed in desperation last night, because those words have to go somewhere 😉

So it might be hard blogging in two places at once but being unable to blog in either is really torture! No internet signal here tonight (although phone is fine) so having to compose this for blogging later.

This morning we were all up around 830am and had leisurely breakfast admiring the view. We had noticed we were parked next to a sectioned off area with a sign saying ‘Marie Curie field of hope’ so we decided to lob some of the seed bombs Davies had brought along in a kit from the seed bomb workshop we did last year. Davies made them and we threw two in – one for Eira and one for Ady’s sister Deborah. Then back to the van for tea / coffee and Popmaster which has become a daily routine. The kids join in too and we keep score and everything – it’s the closest they are getting to a structured education but does involve holding a pen and adding up! 😉

I’d done some research of tourist places we may come across and had a couple on my list. The nature reserves tend to be plots of land owned by RSPB etc. which are interesting for a few weeks or months a year as migratory birds pass by, nest or breed there but are otherwise unoccupied by people / visitor centres / anything obvious to the casual observer. Some of them are SSSI because of the different butterlies or wild flowers or even type of heath / moorland or whatever which is excellent, but not actually that interesting to just go and observe, so we have found less places to go and spend time. We did stop at Strathnaver and grabbed some leaflets from the tourist office and peeked at the museum but it was one with an admission charge which although I am sure was worth it crosses it off our list of places as there are so many excellent free ones and even the signs along the roadside are full of information and educational to stop and read for nothing.

We did stop at a viewpoint taking in mountain ranges including Ben Loyal and Ben Hope from a distance and we had a drink and read a booklet we’d picked up somewhere about the history of Sutherland and the woodlands. Then we spent ages watching a bird we were fairly sure was a golden eagle. I was really slack about chasing free stuff before we headed off this year but the two bits of kit I’d have love to have gotten hold of retrospectively are decent binoculars and a good camera, even to loan / borrow / hire. I wish I’d thought of that before we left… We studied it’s flight patterns and sillouette though and then poured over our various bird books and decided it was almost certainly a golden eagle which was very exciting – top of Scarlett’s list of things she wanted to see J.

We stopped at a public toilets to empty the loo and fill up the water bottles – this is a routine we will have to do at least every other day really but is easy enough – Ady takes the cassette into the gents and deals with that while I go to the ladies with the 5ltr bottles and a beaker.

We stopped for lunch in Borgie – stunning views of lochs and mountain ranges. We passed various places which would have been great to stop at with footpaths down to the gorgeous sandy beaches but the weather has been really changeable today and severe downpours of rain were every half an hour or so and we were not sure where we’d get to to park tonight so we headed on. We did the long drive past tongue and the crossing of the Kintyre then all around Loch Eriboll with it first on the right of the van and then on the left. We drove past Ben Loyal and Ben Hope and the scenery was just stunning. I kept taking photos although I knew none of them would do it justice. The heather and gorse is starting to change to autumn colours and it is as gorgeous with sun illuminating it as it is with rain lashing it and the resultant rainbows every few miles just added to the beauty. I almost wish I didn’t use all these words so often as I fear people will think I am crying wolf about how lovely it is!

As we rounded the corner towards Durness we suddenly saw a large bird soar and hang in the sky before dropping right close above the van, close enough to glimpse the plummage and definitely identify it as a golden eagle. Ady was able to stop briefly so we could all watch it for a little while before it swooped off over the hill tops.

I had Smoo Cave on my list of places to stop at so we did although it was gone 5pm by then. We went down the steps and into the first waterfall chamber and all got soaked. We’d not expected it to be so wet or amazing and were all in flimsy fleeces and silly shoes. We pledged to try and park near enough to head back tomorrow properly attired and with fingers crossed that the tours will be running too.

Sure enough we have stopped at Keodale in a carpark overlooking Balankiel Bay so the plan for tomorrow is back to Smoo for a proper explore and maybe a tour, a look to see whether driving to Cape Wrath is possible and if not checking out alternative ways of getting there before starting to head south again along the west coast. We need to do some proper research regarding where we want to stop and visit and also work out some food stops and petrol purchasing based on next weeks budget. We have definitely spent more than I expected on petrol although we have also travelled further than I anticipated too. We’d debated briefly heading to Orkney yesterday but decided the ferry cost was too much with Willow (£30 one way trip plus passengers). Food budget is doing well though with nothing spend yesterday or today (tonight we had fish cakes made with two tins of tuna and the remainder of Kirsty & James’ potatoes and a tin of beans for Ady and Davies – sum total of about £1 given they were value tuna and beans) but we have now run out of cheese, fruit and veg so will need to get some supplies in tomorrow and may blow more budget on Cave Smoo tour (it’s a tenner for the four of us) if they are running. So far though we have done really well and already ticked loads of things off our list.

particularly with limited power, and I really want to update the WW one daily as much as possible while we’re on this leg of the journey.

So I’ll post here my fervant hope that we don’t get blown away by the gale howling around the van tonight, my joy at Davies thanking me earlier for bringing him on this exciting adventure and telling me that he loved WWOOFing but he really loves this bit! My sneaking suspicion that the seals we saw frolicking today at Gills Bay and John O Groats were indeed sent by Kirsty and my glee that Willow made it all the way up here despite so many people thinking she’d struggle to get out of Sussex!

We had dinner tonight in the carpark of Dunnet Head viewpoint, the most Northern point of UK mainland – we’ve reached the top! 🙂

This morning we left our overnight stop with a view to stopping in Helmsdale for maybe a couple of nights as our map looked like it may have a few interesting places to be. We missed the two best looking walks, which is a shame but we are cagey about leaving Willow fully loaded for any length of time while we go off walking in the wilderness, she is just too vulnerable with all our belongings in her! We stopped at a small town to empty the loo in the public toilets, refill all our water bottles and check out the local Thrift Store (two pairs of trouser for Tarly for £3 – hurrah!) and Co Op (loads of reduced to clear fruit and veg for lunch / dinner – hurrah!). We got to Helmsdale and looked at the various information points, collected some leaflets and retreated to the van for lunch. We decided against the Heritage Visitor Centre on the basis that there are so many excellent free places to see and learn we don’t need to blow most of the days budget on admission to one. We pondered our map a bit more and decided we are just biding time on the east coast really when we already know the west coast is where our hearts lie and the north coast is where we have not yet explorered so we’d head to John O Groats and stop if we see anything interesting but carry on along the top if we don’t.

That led us to Badbea which I had looked at online and was very interesting (I’ve linked to all these places on the WW blog, don’t have enough battery to do it again here), then Lybster where we started thinking about stopping for the night as it was close to 5pm but nowhere looked promising. On a whim we decided to head back to the A9 towards Thurso (north coast) as we wanted to see the Flow Country and had marked a couple of other small places of interest along that road, find somewhere to stop for the night, explore there tomorrow and then go back to the east coast towards JOG.

This proved interesting – what an amazing contrast the flow country is – so very, very flat! We saw wind farms, crofts, loads of buzzards (we’d identified birds we’d seen earlier today and knew by their colouring and flight habits were not buzzards as ospreys) but not a lot else! By then Ady was stressing about petrol and we’d not found anywhere suitable to stay overnight so we decided to head all the way to Thurso. We found a Tescos and a petrol station, called into a Co Op as they reduced a load of meat down in price (so that’s tomorrows dinner sorted 🙂 ) and then decided to head back towards JOG to find somewhere to overnight. We were very taken with Dunnet Bay – will try and be there in daytime on the way back and spend some time / get some pictures, it was stunning, but no overnight parking signs were everywhere. We then spotted a brown sign for Dunnet Head viewpoint so climbed up the steep and winding road towards that. We saw deer, Ady saw something that may or may not have been a wildcat shoot across the road and we saw two other campervans parked up in the only likely spaces along the way. At the very top we were treated to a stunning view, the lighthouse, RSPB signs about wildlife (mostly seabirds, mostly out of season now) and it being the most northern point of UK mainland, and a big yellow NO OVERNIGHT PARKING sign!

It was getting dark so we decided to pull over, park and cook and eat and then travel on to find somewhere to stop afterwards. We debated putting the bed down so at least the kids could sleep if needs be and I think in the future we may well do that but it was only 830 by the time we’d eaten, washed up and were ready to go again so they watched a film while we drove on looking.

We’ve ended up next to another campervan in a layby at Gills Bay. I have no idea what sort of view we’ll wake up to as it was totally dark by the time we arrived, although the stars are some of the most stunning I’ve seen yet. The wind is howling around us but we’re snug and cosy in Willow.

About to lose battery for this evening and have already blogged over on WW but a quick post to say

We saw the salmon! We saw the salmon!

Monday morning the road did indeed get busier not long after 5am and it woke Ady up. He offered me a cup of tea, I looked at the clock, told him to sod off and went back to sleep. I think he offered me a cup of tea every hour afterwards until I accepted at 8am and got up! It was a gorgeous sunny morning and we had croissants for breakfast with home made jam from the smallholders gathering we’d been to at the last hosts before packing up ready to head off just after 9am.

We wanted to get most of the food supplies for the week so we would not need to drive anywhere so we headed for the supermarket in Inverness and did that on the way. I think we arrived at the campsite at about midday. It was raining but we stood around in it chatting and debating which way round to pitch everything and park the van and then Kirsty and James arrived.

We got the awning up – no mean feat given the need for rock pegs and then un-evenness of our pitch and the inflexibility of the site manager for us to shift the van to the other side of our pitch so the awning was on the higher ground rather than the lower. It has been tweaked and is still not perfect as the door rubs anyway even when on level ground with no wind so it is rubbing even more this week but as we only open it first thing in the morning and close it last thing in the evening it is not too much of an issue.

The kids disappeared onto the beach, just coming back for food and to eventually confess to being very wet and sandy. I lectured about the need to not get every single item of clothing wet and sandy when they have ample waterproof clothing and ended up doing a washing load when I fell over myself and also had a pair of wet, muddy jeans 😆

We had a walk down to the point and saw dolphins and seals before dinner and stayed up chatting til late. I peaked rather early with the wine and woke in the night desperate for water and glad I was in the van with a tap!

Tuesday morning started with awning titivation which quickly got tedious. Marcus and James had planned a whisky tour and Ady was torn between wanting to go and not wanting to go. In the end the tour was booked and he was pretty much kidnapped. He had a good time and was glad he’d gone to be with friends but says he still doesn’t get whisky! 😆 Mich, Kirsty and I walked to the point with the kids but it was cold so we walked back again. We all had lunch in respective tents / van and I had a strop with Scarlett about spending money on sweets, then we walked the other way into the village to visit the deli and spent some time at the little park before the blokes came back and we returned to the campsite.

Not sure where the evening went to but we ended up eating in the dark long after everyone else had finished food. I possibly didn’t help by being in the van making cinnamon rolls while Ady was getting dinner sorted…

I cried off fairly early as I knew Davies would be early to rise and I had present wrapping, van decorating, card making to do. Back at the van I ushered the kids to bed, pulled their curtains across and got busy with sellotape :).

Wednesday Davies woke at about 330am to ask if it was time to get up yet, we replied in the negative and told him daylight was the earliest possible rising time. He held us to that pretty much and by 7am we were all on our bed with cinnamon buns in the oven and a pile of presents to unwrap. Davies had got some PotC Lego, a stunt kite and a compass from us, some tissues (novelty packets printed with £20 and £10 notes on them that he’d been coveting in a gift shop) and a fridge magnet from Tarly bought with her own money and a little gift box from Peter (the son at our last host) containing £5, a DS game Davies had enjoyed playing and a chunk of amber.

We had breakfast and he was given more gifts from Marcus and Alex, then we walked along to Chanonry Point. We saw some dolphins but were getting hungry and it was a bit cold and rainy so we retreated back. Those who stayed were rewarded with more dolphin displays.

We did birthday cake and Chloe presented Davies with their family gift to him of a tackle box and various fishing related bits. He was very pleased 🙂 He also got cards from my parents, brother and grandmother sent to the campsite and a phonecall from his cousins.

Davies spent time fishing on the beach and then flying his kite which he loves :). Chloe had collected driftwood for a fire on the beach and this was declared the night to do so. I made dinner (home made pizzas, so took various chunks of time during the afternoon) and we were very kindly presented with a couple of mackerel that one of the other campers had caught but didn’t want to cook on our fire. Ady did a gutting demo for all the kids and some of them were keen to actually take part and get their hands all bloody – some less so ;).

Davies and I (and then Scarlett and a couple of others) spent some time lying on our backs on the beach looking up at the stars. It was a gorgeously clear night and the stars were just amazing, all the better when viewed totally above. We rejoined the others and there was marshmallow toasting, some singing, some poking at the fire and plenty of just enjoying being with good friends in a gorgeous place. Davies said it was an excellent birthday 🙂

Thursday More at the point in the morning, dolphins were hiding though. We walked to the deli in the afternoon – again, it was becomming a routine :). I think that was the afternoon we left the kids in the park and walked back without them, giving them instructions to follow us along half an hour later. More fishing, more kite flying. Evening gathering became Marcus and Michelle’s awning for adults, our awning (complete with DVD player) for kids which seemed to work well. I *think* this was the first night we all met Eduardo…

Friday Off to the point in the morning, this time there were no dolphins to be seen at all. There were seals but some people seemed less than impressed with them ;).

We’d taken food and drink (including hip flask) supplies and ended up staying in the gorgeous sunshine for hours, chatting and laughing and collecting sea glass, despite the invisible dolphins! In the afternoon most of us went on the Fairy Glen walk which we’d not managed last year due to my broken ankle. It was very pretty with lovely waterfalls and I enjoyed the nature spotting – we found pine marten poo and otter footprints. I was less interested in geocaching ;).

In the evening it was our Haggis Night and responsibility had been divvied up with us in charge of ‘neeps’ or mashed swedes. I did the peeling and chopping, Ady did the cooking and mashing. Despite having the easier to operate stove and not running out of gas halfway through we were the ones last to deliver although we did take on extra gravy responsibility. Kids ate in our awning, adults in M&M’s and it was a very delicious meal 🙂 I love that tradition – hope we can continue it next year and maybe even grow it to include more friends :).

Saturday our last full day. We persuaded Michelle to come to the point with us for dolphins but she proved not to be the good luck charm we’d assumed and they didn’t show up. Although it was slightly sad not to have seen dolphins every day like we did last year it almost makes that more magical looking back. We did see loads of seals and marine birdlife though and we’d not gone particularly desperate to see dolphins this time anyway.

Back at the campsite for lunch I had pasta and used a jar of pesto that had mold round the top. I’m sure it was fine but it played on my mind and laid heavy on my tummy all afternoon meaning I mostly lazed on the bed reading and feeling grumpy. This mood was not helped by attempting two loads of washing and drying which should have been straightforward if overpriced but ended up being rather an epic saga as the washing machine wasn’t spinning properly so clothes came out sopping wet and then took an age to dry. I was still in there nearly 7 hours later feeding it £1 coins and getting agitated. I had a minor run in with an old man and was forced to engage in conversation with someone who Ady had slightly fallen out with earlier in the week too. Grr. M&M had packed up their awning so evening arrangements changed to Kirsty and James hosting the kids and us hosting the adults – we all had fish and chips for dinner and although it was an earlier night all round it was lovely, if very rainy and a bit cold.

Today – hurrah, I’ve caught up – will add in some pictures at some point.

M&M were packed up and ready to go before I was even awake meaning I gave goodbye hugs in my nightie with no bra and no make up! Kirsty & James were not terribly far behind although I had showered and dressed (and had a spectacular row with Ady and cried all my eye make up off again – since resolved!). We left it til the last minute before actually leaving on the basis we had nowhere specific to go so would stay charging everything up til the last possible moment.

We headed back to Inverness to fill up with petrol and get some basic food supplies before coming north. We have now got a decent map of Scotland including tourist spots marked so have a loose plan to reach John O Groats by next weekend, Cape Wrath the following weekend and then slowly work down the west coast to Mallaig between then and November 1st. We had Falls of Shin marked as somewhere to be tomorrow so wanted to be between Inverness and there tonight. We crossed the firths (Moray, Cromarty, Dornoch) and stopped at a seal point (didn’t see any, honestly when you want a seal!) and drove to Tarbat Discovery Centre on the basis of some rave reviews online. We blew part of the days £10 budget on admission which on reflection was possibly not worth it but had an interesting hour in there looking at various archaeolgical finds, looking at the crypt, learning about the evacuation there in 1943 (the town was used to practise D Day manouveres as the coastline and beaches are the same as Normandy) and finding out about the Picts which was interesting. We drove out to the very tip of the peninsula hoping we might be able to park there overnight near the lighthouse but there were No Overnight Parking signs everywhere so we decided against it. We drove around the town but there were no parking signs there too so headed north again. We then decided to head for the Falls and stop at 7pm in the most suitable layby. We have ended up doing just that, just over the Bonar bridge in a layby just off the actual road (which we all feel safer in) with woodland on one side and water on the other, very pretty.

We kept to our budget with a cheap meal of Tesco value pasta, a tin of tomatoes, a packet of bacon and some herbs and pesto for a nice dinner. I read a couple of chapters of How The Whale Became to the kids – not read to them for ages and we’ve all missed that, while Ady washed up and then we set the bed up for them to go to sleep.

I’m hoping to be able to charge my laptop each day off our big battery thing (it’s basically a car battery with various features, you charge it off the mains and it can jumpstart a car, run a light, pump up tyres etc.) along with an invertor for a mains plug off the cigarette lighter when we’re driving and freeloaders for mobile phones. Finding power this week may be challenging but it will be interesting to see how we fare. On which note the laptop is beeping at me now which means I have to consider myself caught up with the blog!

We left the hosts by about 10am this morning, pushed forward by me, I hate that last bit when we are about to leave and always just want to be off and away and not prolong it really. We were given a lovely card thanking us for everything and a card and present for Davies’ birthday next week which is very sweet. They have been lovely hosts :).

Our plan was to try and get within about 30 miles of Rosemarkie and Loch Ness falls within that area so we’d decided to head for there and see if we could park up alongside the Loch for the night. We stopped in Fort William for food supplies for lunch, dinner and breakfast and then carried on. We stopped at one point for a cup of tea near Ben Nevis just because one of the great joys of having a campervan is that you can just pull over and have a cup of tea so we try to frequently when the view calls for it :). The threatened gales have not hit us (yet!) but it has rained non stop all day from when we set off and were packing up the van to just after we stopped. At 5pm we were alongside Loch Ness and found a decent parking space right next to it with no ‘No Overnight Parking’ sign up so declared that home for the night and pulled over and put the levellers down.

We sat and enjoyed the views and sang along to songs on Davies’ MP3 player. I suspect a pretty good definition of bliss would be singing along to Daydream Believer with your favourite three people in the world sitting in your campervan looking over loch ness with a rainbow in the background :). You can keep your lottery wins, I don’t think life gets better than this!

We’d decided on pizza for dinner tonight, cheap, easy to cook in the oven, warms the van up nicely and we’ve more than earned a few days of junk food from 2 weeks of incredibily healthy eating ;). In the next few weeks food will be far more on a budget and made ourselves rather than pre bought and processed but tonight it was supermarket pizzas all round. We all had dinner, complied the blogpost of the last host for the WW blog and watched rain stop, the skies clear and a gorgeous moon rise over the loch illuminating everything. There is the odd car still going past which rocks the van a little and I suspect the road will be busy from fairly early in the morning but this view is a pretty amazing beginning to our pulling over when the mood takes us for the night phase of the adventure.

Fingers crossed for a peaceful few hours sleep and some stunning early morning views before we move on tomorrow to Rosemarkie.

I enjoyed a lie in this morning and Ady came and presented me with the WWOOF book when he woke me up. The WWOOF book is something we have encountered at around half of our hosts and is simply a guest book. Sometimes we have struggled not to fill the whole book with gushing, at others we have struggled to find something nice to say. Here I struck the balance between raving about the gorgeous scenery and the warmth and kindness without mentioning the fact we’ve been hungry a lot and the work load has not really been very WWOOFy!

Ady and the kids walked down to the village for a few bits and I ended up totally distracted by reading what previous WWOOFers had written.

Ed was out all day today at a Gaelic choir festival, Davies and Scarlett were playing with Peter, Ady was busy with various things so I spent a lot of time up in our bedroom which was actually very nice and peaceful. We all reconvened for lunch and then a walk was planned. Carina had said we would need leggings and Scarlett*hates* wearing waterproofs and wellies so I put to her the choice to wear them and go or not wear them and stay behind. I expected her to grudgingly wear them but having just been told off for something else she was stroppy and said she just wouldn’t go then. I elected to stay with her so the others all headed off and we had a long chat about cutting off noses to spite faces, sacrifice and compromise. All very amicable and reasonable but still tough to talk through. We decided to head off after them so did don waterproofs but we were probably 15 minutes behind them by then so didn’t catch them up. We tracked them for a while by footprints but kept getting distracted by the view and then decided to not climb any higher incase we were heading the wrong way.

All week Davies has been after a packet of tissues with bank notes printed on them in the gift shop so Scarlett and I had been planning to nip into the town to get them for his birthday so we popped back to the house to take waterproofs and wellies off (I hate wearing them as much as she does) and walked to the town. We got the tissues, Scarlett had her now customary dive under the shelves in the CoOp and netted £3.67. We had started to look like really dodgy people in there acting all furtive each day so I explained what she was doing to the staff who were giving her odd looks speadeagled out on the floor peering under the fixtures. Another shopper was most excited and she got down too to see if she could reach £1 that Scarlett couldn’t. She has had nearly £8 off the floor in there this week :). She blew her £3 on a packet of tissues for Davies and a tartan sheep fridge magnet he has been eyeing up in the tourist office so is pleased to have bought his birthday presents herself :).

We came back and snuggled up together on our bed, Scarlett DSing and me playing Air Traffic Control which I am slightly addicted to on Ady’s tablet, while waiting for the others to get home.

Ady and I had a walk out to the castle when we saw the flag get blown off the pole in the wind. We sat on the bench looking over the harbour and chatting and a young girl came along looking all upset. We budged over and she shared the bench with us and told us all about her boyfriend getting all shitty with her so she’d walked out of the flat, she was 29 and worried that if it didn’t work out with him she didn’t know if she’d find anyone else. We got a potted life story of her and her boyfriend and were ascertaining if she had somewhere else to go when suddenly the boyfriend arrived looking for her. He seemed pretty reasonable and calm so after a brief chat we left them to it and watched from a safe distance to ensure they were okay. All looked well and they sat cuddled up talking for a while before heading off together, so fingers crossed they sort themselves out. It was odd because we’d been saying that really we’d been biding time here today having originally planned to head to Rosemarkie but not doing so because of the cost so stayed here an extra night. Maybe chatting to her and giving some advice was why we were here today. Funny how you may effect the path of someone’s life by an odd chance meeting.

Back at the house Ady and I had showers, Ed arrived home and we all sat down to a later than normal dinner by candlelight. There was much toasting of great WWOOFer and WWOOF hosts, we had dessert and then all crammed into the kitchen to play a rowdy game of Cranium together before all heading outside to see if we could spot the Northern Lights and do some star gazing (zero light pollution round here).

Everyone headed to bed and I intend enjoying my last night in an actual bed for many weeks to come.

Davies woke me this morning and had been up really late last night creating anniversary card and gifts which included a little pink ribbon tied into a bracelet for me with ‘Nic Loves Ady, Ady loves Nic’ written around it and a voucher for a kiss (Davies stopped kissing us about 18 months ago, he is still really affectionate and cuddles and everything but kisses are reserved for very special occassions!). Scarlett said she’d been far too tired to make anything so just gave me lots of cuddles instead 🙂 I love the way Davies had created stuff out of rubbish really – the card was an old envelope, the ribbon and voucher had been a swing ticket on a new bra I’d bought.

Our first job this morning was to move an old dog kennel from the garden onto the trailer to go to the new house where there are plans to use it as a chicken coop. It was *quite* heavy but Ady and I could have managed it. Ed however is very weak – I can easily out-lift him but he won’t let me try and lift anything so it was a bit of a kerfuffle getting it over the wall and into the trailer. And it was raining. Ady and I kept laughing and saying ‘well it’s not Vegas!’ to each other 😆

We drove to the new house and it had stopped raining and was clearing up so we lifted the kennel off and went in to do some painting. Today we painted the ceiling in the front room using extendable rollers which are all sorts of fun. We ended up covered in paint, particularly Ady who was foolish enough to keep getting in my way (okay, it was deliberate!). There was a guy there doing some carpentry who also works sometimes at the garage and is a part time fireman too. He’d been reading our blog last night (as recommended by the garage) and seemed a little starstruck by us, made a real point of shaking our hands when he left and saying goodbye to the kids. I don’t think he understood that anyone can publish a blog on the internet – or maybe we are that awesome?! 😉

We had a wander down to the beach for half an hour or so while Ed finished tidying up which was lovely, we really do love it here lots :).

Back at the house we had time for a quick shower and got changed before walking into the town for dinner. Ed and Carina had booked dinner at one of the several local restauarants which serve all local food. It was a limited early bird menu and Davies and Scarlett were rather disappointed to be presented with the kids menu containing chicken nuggets or sausages. Scarlett did have the chicken (although she ended up not eating it as it was battered and rather greasy) but Davies had fish off the adult menu – frankly he has a bigger appetite than Ed and Carina so I understood him being put out although they both did well at staying polite and grateful. Ady and I had steak pie which was very nice. It was lovely to be out on our anniversary and toast it 🙂 Ed and Carina have been fab hosts, really grateful for all we have done (which in our opinion has been very little really!) and we mark their last WWOOFers in their current house and last scheduled WWOOFers as they are taking a short break to settle in to their new house before booking anyone else. We’ve been invited back any time – as friends, not WWOOFer, which is lovely :).

We walked to the exercise playpark and all had a go on the equipment and spent time looking at the moon (almost full and very big and bright) and the bay before walking back. Tea and coffee and a bit of TV watching for the kids before bedtime.

09/09/99
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and they said it would never last….. 😉

Today and tomorrow have been shuffled round so we get to spend our last working day at the new house. This meant this morning we were off to the healing garden. This was a funded project, opened four or five years ago in the grounds of the towns medical centre and includes fruit and veg, willow structures, contemplation space, herbs and plants with medicinal uses, information boards and more. There is funding for a part time member of staff and a full rota of volunteers work in the garden as well as it being the site for various course.

We were cutting down a very high privet hedge which is preventing light from entering the garden, restricting the view down to the harbour and village from within and blocking the view of the garden from outside. Permission had been given take it down to about 3 foot high (it was about 10 foot high when we started) so we spent the morning doing that.

It was most enjoyable, the sun shone, the work was hard but worthwhile and with an obvious look back and see what you have done appeal. We had a teabreak in the potting shed and Scarlett and I nipped to the Co op for a packet of biscuits. Scarlett had looked under one of the shelves in the Co Op yesterday and found a pound coin so was obsessed with the idea there was more cash lurking underneath the fixtures in there. Sure enough she came out with two more pound coins and some coppers. Very lucrative 🙂 She gave half her findings to Davies too which was very sweet :).

Carina was working inside and came home filled with glee at the receptionist who had invited the kids in to play with the toys in the waiting room but Ady had declined telling her they should be outside working with us and then she walked by later and spotted Ady cutting one bit of hedge and me cutting the other which had loads of brambles in it. She’d been horrified at what a nasty man he seemed which is obviously laughable and entertained Carina no end 😆

Ed arrived with a message from the garage that Willow was ready and they were just giving her a run to test her, we then saw her drive past which was quite strange with someone else driving :).

We finished the hedge – a remarkable difference. I think every single person who walked past stopped for a chat with us which was just lovely, there is such a community spirit here in Tarbert, it really does feel like living in Balamory!

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We came back to the house for lunch and then walked down to the village to collect and pay for Willow. The man said he had spent the morning reading our blog and done a few extra bits (reset the timing, tuned the engine) and would only charge us half price as he loved what we were doing 🙂 He had also written a little good luck message on our invoice 🙂

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which was very lovely 🙂

We headed back and spent an hour chainsawing and stacking some logs before heading fishing for an hour or so. We were the only people on the pier today and it was windy and a bit cold but Ady got a catch!

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The blokes in the background were doing some repair work to the pier and said we’d been the only people to catch anything all day :).

Back to the house for dinner, fish cakes :). Julie rang so we had a long catch up chat and Ady and I walked down to the Co Op for a bottle of wine while I was still on the phone. The village is lovely at night, all twinkling lights over the water.

Tomorrow is our last working day and Ed and Carina are taking us out for dinner 🙂

Ady took Willow to the local garage this morning as they had ordered in HT leads for her which was the latest thing Ady was fretting about. He has this list, carefully ranked of Things To Worry About and currently HT leads for Willow was at the top. Previously contenders for top spot have been Willows Brakes, The Rent, Whether Willow Will Start and more. He likes to have worries kept in reserve and currently has a big enough list of sub worries to have this one crossed off the list 😉 Is that me being flippant? Yes I rather think it might be.

So the garage have said they can get the leads replaced for about £30 which seemed a small price to pay for fret allayance so Ady took it down there and they are supposed to be sorting it. It turned out when we walked down later to collect it that the wrong leads have been sent so it may well end up that nothing gets done to it but considering Willow started after the amount of rain we’ve had and that Ady has been using some special silicone damp start stuff anyway I personally am not remotely worried about her starting anyway. So if the leads turn up it’s a bargain to stop Ady worrying, if they don’t we probably didn’t need them anyway!

We did lots of hanging around the house this morning, partially waiting for a load of washing to finish. Carina and Peter are not going away this weekend after all, so no house to ourselves, baths every night, cook what we want, wash all the clothes party for us which meant getting a wash done today on the basis that the weather forecast is for wet days from now until, well springtime really so we needed to be sure it would be dry. Carina is a very different character to Ed, rather like Ady and I. I like her 🙂 (not that I don’t like Ed).

Ed went to the new house on the bus as he had a meeting with the building inspector and was hoping the final certificate would be signed off today on the build. We drove along in the car and were flagged down at the entrance to their road by a Large Amercian Couple in a BMW with a flat tyre. They were lost, stranded and rather scared bless them. We got out and swung into action with Ady starting to jack their car up and locate the spare tyre, me ringing the woman’s emergency phone number from my mobile and Carina helping with explaining where they were to the person on the other end of the phone. The building inspector chose that moment to reappear back down the lane and Carina’s car wouldn’t start so he was blocked in. We all pushed Carina’s car out of the way so the building inspector could get between the broken down car and the flat tyred car to escape 🙂 It was rather like a Fawlty Towers episode :). Carina and I left Ady to it helping the Americans and took the kids up the hill in the car that would now start again to find out how the meeting had gone. They have not been signed off yet and still have more stuff to do. I got on with some painting.

Ady eventually arrived back up the hill having seen the American couple off. They had bonded to the point of exchanging email addresses, heard all about our story and were very excited about us, offered us to stay with them in Florida anytime we like (and can get out there) and insisted on foisting £30 on Ady for changing the tyre. He tried really hard to refuse it but they insisted they’d be offended if he didn’t take it so he did and it will probably cover the cost of Willow’s leads so feels balanced I guess. Ady is feeling bad about accepting it despite all my reassurances.

We did more painting, Ady and Carina dug up the rest of the spuds, we had lunch and then we all came back. They dropped us off in the village to see about Willow and we picked up a bottle of wine on the way back (can you tell I’ve been drinking?!). We got back to an email from the agent to say the remainder of the rent has now been paid – hurrah! I had a lengthy phonecall to my Dad about renovation costs of houses and then after dinner I had a bath which was gorgeous and hot and bubble and I even took a glass of wine in with me :).

As a result I am rather stupidly giggly and really should go to sleep where hopefully my alcoholic stupor will sleep through Ady’s coughing.

Today is the 14th wedding anniversary of our friends Pauline and Jim. They got married on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral, quite possibly one of the most surreal days in my living memory for all sorts of reasons. Today feels a bit like that.

Today in this current life the weather has been wild, windy, rainy. The views have been stunning, breathtaking, life affirming. We have spent time looking at property online and found various places where our dreams could start to come true. Ady and I spent about half an hour laughing our heads off outside in the crazy weather trying to get a big sheet of polythene over a stack of firewood to keep it dry while the wind whipped it from our hands and splattered the nasty smelly water that was covering it all over us. I love the elements, the idea of living here and being a tiny insignificant part of this landscape excites me so much, makes me feel alive.

Today a friend died.

Not a close friend, but someone I made memories with, someone who has children the same age as my own, someone who was a bright, beautiful, happy, laughing, loving, alive, vibrant person and now they are gone. Her legacy lingers on, in those children, people who loved her, memories of people like me whos lives were touched only briefly but touched just the same.

Today I have worried about rent going in, told my children off for being rowdy, eaten, drunk, slept, laughed, cried, loved, kissed and cuddled, worn my dungarees for the first time, sneakily scrawled my name on the underside of a windowsill in someone’s house as I painted the wall so a little piece of me remains there. Today I have lived.

When I heard Eira was ill I sent her an email.

Eira, I don’t know what happens after life, I have my own beliefs but
the thing I am most sure of is that however long a life is you have to
make it count, live it fully and above all make a difference to the
world by having been here. You have done all of those things, touched
others, been an amazing mother and partner, a wonderful friend, an
inspiring and guiding person. I feel priviledged to know you and call
you my friend.