Saturday – a minor hitch in the leaving smoothly operation when Fliss’ conservatory was locked which rather scuppered the planned arrangement to leave Bonnie in there. Fliss was arriving home on the same ferry we were heading off on so we thought that would be the smoothest transition all round. That set back meant we were distracted from the other task on route to the pier which was to collect our freshly washed and dried towels to take with us which were at the castle.
Safely on the boat we had a smooth crossing albeit a lengthy one with the ferry going first to Muck, then to Eigg before finally to Mallaig. Plenty of folk to chat to though- from Rum there was Jinty and Bad Neil, from Eigg on the way there there was Camille and Celia and on the way back there was Sue (who was our WWOOF host on Eigg) so it went quicker than it could have done for five hours aboard.
I had planned to drive the first part of the journey from Mallaig to Fort William as it is a really twisty turny road and I hate travelling it in the back and Scarlett says she prefers my driving to Ady’s. I thought it would be a good test of how my ankle stood up to driving too and had kept my wellies on as they are really supportive. We hit snow about half way to FW but the roads were clear and I was doing OK with the driving so carried on as I am more familiar with the road that way having done it twice (now three times) more than Ady and I am pretty confident of the route. It was not a nice drive, the passenger side headlight on the car was really feeble (and infact would have been a MOT failure) and it was literally just the actual two lanes each side of the roads that were clear with snow piled up both sides and in the middle. But the other three mostly dozed and Ady had been really stressed and not sleeping very well the few days leading up to going so I thought if he was tired he’d be better sleeping than driving and I was fine.
Petrol was getting very low by the time we were nearing our Premier Inn and a friend had told us there was a Tesco just off the motorway on the junction before so we came off to get petrol and a couple of other bits arriving at the PI finally around 10pm. Not too bad but a long day of travelling with 5 hours driving and 5 hours ferry. Glad we did it in one go though as it meant on Sunday we had no stress at all. Phoned my parents to say we’d arrived safe as they’d been worried about the weather and traffic reports, ate our picnic tea, had baths and went to bed.
Sunday – when we were finally up and about we headed into Carlisle which was only a couple of miles away to find the cinema for later that evening, find some good parking, scout out where the KFC was for dinner and also track down the Halfords where the car was booked in for a MOT the following morning. We parked up for a couple of hours and walked into the town. None of us were really that arsed about the shops really so we found a barbershop open and Davies got a much needed haircut then we went back to the room to watch crap TV.
In the evening we had a meal at KFC which is our family favourite fast food by far then went to see Sherlock at the cinema. It was ridiculous really to pay over 40 quid to sit and watch something we could have seen for free at exactly the same time on tv but being a) off island and b) so close to a cinema showing it sort of spoke to me late one night back when I had cash in the bank account (and I think it was a day when the ferry hadn’t come and I was feeling distinctly as though Christmas was being delayed so we might as well stretch it out even longer!) so I’d booked it. Davies was thrilled, Scarlett was delighted to illegally see a 15 certificate when she is barely 14, Ady loved the comfy VIP chairs and I very much enjoyed all of them enjoying it and the actual screening too. So win, win, win, win, win!
Monday – Ady and I were up and out leaving the kids snoozing to take the car for it’s MOT. We had really limited funds by then so had everything crossed. Ady was filled with doom and foreboding, I was filled with my characteristic eternal optimism. Thankfully on this occasion I was right! It needed a headlamp bulb changed (which despite having no mechanic training I could have told them from my drive in the dark all through GlenCoe and around Loch Lomond of a few days previously!) and that was it. We were so excited and grateful that we foolishly bought some overpriced oil from the nice man in Halfords as he told us it was pretty low despite us having oil back at home. Never mind…
We went to Aldi and got very budget food supplies for the next few days to take with us to Centerparcs and then collected the kids from the PI and headed off to CP arriving about midday. I had realised that I had failed to write down the booking number having already booked us in online and was hoping they would be able to find us by searching under our name or postcode or something instead of having to unpack my laptop from the boot and find the email confirmation. When we pulled into the under cover bit though the woman said ‘Goddard party?’ and some black magic car registration recognition was obviously at play. We debated digging out swimming things and going for a swim before we could get in our lodge at 330pm but it seemed really really busy so we decided to just have a walk around instead. We went and got two extra wristbands (everything there now is wristbands which are the key to your lodge and your lockers at the swimming pool and can be used to book stuff and if you pre-load it with a credit card/ debit card you can also use it to buy small stuff like drinks and sweets while you’re there. Very clever and handy and of course excellent for them harvesting loads of customer info about what you do, where you go, how you spend, what time you leave and come back to your lodges and so on. They only give one band per bedroom though so we got two extra ones for a refundable deposit for the kids to have one each too so that we could all come and go as we wanted.
We spent some time messing about in the playpark and roaming about a bit but my ankle was hurting so I was not really up for wandering too far. At about 230 we headed back to the car and sat in the carpark for a bit joining the increasing queue to start driving around once they opened the gates at 330. We got to the lodge, unpacked, had a cup of tea and then grabbed our swimming stuff, took the car back to the car park and went swimming. We all went on all the slides and then Ady and I found the hot tub and sat in there chatting while the kids went on the slides more. At about 7ish we were all starving so we headed back to the lodge for dinner.
A bit of TV, baths all round and a fairly early night.
Tuesday – we had arranged to meet up with Lynda and Stuart while we were down so far way back when we first booked CP last year and they regularly go to a timeshare holiday park place 50 miles further south. They had arrived on the Sunday afternoon but we’d only had a brief window before Sherlock and had car MOT uncertainty meaning Monday was not a safe bet so initially the plan had been for them to come to us for lunch on the Tuesday. However when I looked into it CP charge £25 per person to come in for a day to visit people staying there. Obviously this entitles you to use the swimming pool and so on but all L&S would have done was come to our lodge for lunch so it was not worth it. Instead we drove down to them and they took us out for lunch instead. It was 100 miles we could probably have lived without driving and two more hours in the car but worth it to see them for a few hours. It’s been 2 years since last we saw them.
When we arrived back at CP we had our swimming stuff with us intending to head straight to the pool but I rang my parents to check on their progress (they were arriving late due to a babysitting for Frazer arrangement which ended up falling through anyway…) and they had just arrived so we headed for their lodge instead. Dad and the kids took their car back while we had a coffee and catch up with Mum then we all walked into the village centre together, we went off swimming and arranged to meet them in the car later for a drink. More hot tub / slides for us then a couple of beers with Mum & Dad in the bar where Dad was delighted to be surrounded by small children and the kids disco blaring out! 😆
We all went back to our lodge for pizza dinner. Mum had far too much to drink and was taken home rather wobbly…
Wednesday – Dad arrived at our lodge before I was even up! Mum was the worse for wear obviously. We had arranged to go back out to the supermarket for food / drink supplies so I went off with Mum & Dad to do that. We came back for lunch and then Ady, Scarlett and I went swimming while Davies stayed behind with Mum & Dad at our lodge, with Dad ending up staying there watching snooker (and annoyingly turning the radiator on in our bedroom and closing the window I had left open as I struggle to sleep in hot rooms). We met them in the bar again for a pre dinner drink and had a meal in the American diner style restaurant before heading back to ours for after dinner drinks. An earlier night as Mum was feeling the after effects. The kids and I stayed up pretty late though.
Thursday – Both Mum and Dad were in our lodge before the kids and I got up… We saw around a lot in the morning before heading out to the Pancake house as Scarlett had been desperate to try it. Ady, Mum & Dad all had savoury pancakes, Scarlett and Davies had sweet pancake stacks and I had waffles. It was all delicious. Really enjoyed it.
Back to the lodge to walk it off a bit and have a couple of last day afternoon beers – plus Mum had brought up a bottle of champagne she had been given as a present. We left them there to go for our final swim and met them in a different restaurant for the last dinner. They came back to ours for a last drink and we said goodbye that night rather than arrange to meet up again the next morning as they intended to be away fairly early having a longer trip home than us for once (well sort of, obviously they got home the same day whereas we had an overnight stop!) Last baths all round.
Friday – Ady went to fetch the car and the rest of us packed up. I managed to leave our nice travel cups, both containing perfect cups of hot tea brewed specially for the journey sitting on the counter in our kitchen – grrrr. We loaded the car up, stopped briefly at the same Tesco as the way down to fill up with petrol and were in Fort William by 3pm. A nice straight run north, very different in daylight and with no snow. We had a quick whizz round the FW shops, the kids went back to the room while Ady and I went to Poundstretcher as we needed new pillows for the kids and I wanted to get some onion sets and seed potatoes. Back for some lazing in the room and then McDonalds for dinner, followed by a Morrisons food shop to bring home and a last night of baths and TV.
Saturday – I drove us back to Mallaig and we arrived just sufficient time to do a last minute CoOp shop dash which meant no more room in the back of the car for any passengers. A smooth trip home with I think just 8 people on the boat and straight to Rum this time so only 100 mins trip. I drove off the boat while the others walked, reunited with Bonnie and the Jeep. I had a quick catch up gossip with Bad Neil and Jed at the pier and then Ady and Davies took stuff to the freezer while Scarlett and I dropped some fish off at Lesley’s and collected the weeks post from the village before meeting back at the fork to park the cars. We transferred everything into the Rangerover which we got across the river and just onto the Croft so five trips worth of emptying it was much easier by having it so much closer.
All was well at home. One small chick (who none of us could believe had lived as long as it did, born so late in the season and staying so tiny) died the same afternoon we came home both otherwise everything was fine. We put the window back in where the plywood catflap had been, unloaded and put away everything and settled back in to being home. I slept so, so well that night!
Sunday – I had arranged to help Lesley make the haggis in the afternoon so headed down to do that and have a catch up chat with her and David. I dropped some bits off at the freezer that we had missed taking there the day before. In the evening I booked flights for Scarlett and I to visit a friend in Northern Ireland at the end of April / beginning of May for a weekend. So looking forward to that 🙂
Today – I had planned to do outside stuff this afternoon but it was so cold outside that I failed to get back out there again after lunch – I was productive indoors instead though! In the morning Ady and I went down to the village, I had some stuff to post, we collected some bits from the freezer and processed some laundry. Ady dealt with a scarily huge animal feed bill that had arrived and sure enough it was a mistake – 20 bags of bird feed instead of 2! I finally sorted out the car tax which has been looming in a complicated fashion for ages, organised to go and photocopy and get certified by Debs the school teacher some ID so Davies’ bank account application can finally be sorted – we’d taken it all off with us to present at a branch only to discover there were no branches where we were. D’oh! Buoyed up by this I filed Ady and my tax returns, replied to a potentially hassly text from Julie and emailed a pushy volunteer to make it very clear that no, we really are not looking for anyone long term to come here and suggest things like heating for the caravan making it easier to host volunteers in the winter!!!