Leaving the soul-less campsite in Rhyll we headed for Otley to meet up with Foo and Neil. It was birthday celebration time!!!!!! The weather, however, decided not to come to the party but this did not put a dampener on the proceedings. Voluminous amounts of beer, gin and wine were drunk, good food was eaten, the clock finally striking midnight to herald in the 69th year........bugger those 68 years went fast, too fast. Thanks Foo, Neil and Gary for a memorable two days - and the fuzzy headache!!!!!
Otley, overlooking Ilkley Moor on the Yorkshire Dales, was quite a delightful, old village where pork pies, scratchings, flapjack, aniseed twist, Catherine wheels, walnut whips, black pudding, 2nd hand clothes and many other memory jerking goodies were purchased but, the fait accomplie was Gary's birthday present to me......a beautiful watch. I just love it....thankyou.
Next time we meet up again with Foo and Neil will be in Cebu in the Philipines at Christmastime but for now onward and upward to Scotland.
First stop Dalston over the Yorkshire Dales (rolling hillsides and stone walls - beautiful); through the Lake District (Lake Grassmere, Lake Windermere) Staveley and Keswick. Little stone cottages peppered the hillsides and I have to admit the scenery was spectacular.
From Dalston - just outside of Carlisle - we headed for Luss passing Gretna Green and NO, we didn't! Temporary signs littered the road sides saying "Tough Mudder" "Tough Mudder". These went on for kilometres and finally we discovered it was advertising a "mud run"!!!!!! This must be a Scottish antic perhaps?
Luss is another charming little village on the edge of Loch Lomand but grossly over touristed with huge coach buses continuously ramping in and out of the centre. One street is devoted to how village life in Scotland used to be - charming old stone cottages, rambling Old English perfumed roses and Wisteria decking the outside walls - but it swarms with tourists and the quaintness is lost. How the people living there manage I am unsure.
We caught a local bus to explore Balloch and it's local market but, I guess, we haven't found the good spots of Scotland yet and the weather hasn't been in our favour - neither the campsites.
And so we move on - to Scone where something amazing and weird was about to happen - little did we know!!!!! But I digress.
Following Kate (the GPS) our 2hour 14mins journey was slightly extended to roughly, all in all, 6 hours???? But.....it was the most beautiful journey I think ever. Over the Highland Rannock Moor, past waterfalls, lakes, lookouts, skifields, the "Green Wellie Shop" and much much more. Rolling hills, alternating sunshine, rain and high wind but the scenery was indisputably Scottish. We were pleased we "got lost in Scotland". Turning around and retracing our steps for approximately 90kms we travelled through Lochearnhead, Loch Earn, Comrie (absolutely stunning) and Crieff (where Scotlands oldest distillery exists), via Methven through Perth and onto Scone. How many of you feel a lot of Scottish placenames parallel New Zealand or thinking about it it could be the other way round??? The new van was perfect, so different from Molly and I secretly believe Gary enjoys driving "it" although he insists he still misses Molly.
We met a gorgeous Scottish couple at La Garrofa, albeit briefly, but also later in Almeria for lunch - Mary and Jim - so we decided, when we arrived in Scone, to make contact to see if, when we got close and if they were not jaunting away themselves, we could catch up for coffee or something. Immediate reply - WE LIVE IN SCONE!!!!!! It was like 2 years had not flown by and was so, so awesome to catch up again. Jim and Mary thanks so much for your time, energy, beautiful food and hospitality. Your turn next in New Zealand!!!!!!
Next stop St. Andrews - where Wills met Kate and yes......where there is a famous Golf course. We wild camped here beside the golf course, beach and sand dunes - walked into the historic town, around the castle and cathedral and along the seafront and beach. It was a beautiful sunny day and we loved this vibrant city. Graduation was in progress over a 3 day period so the place was humming with graduates and their families. It was special for Gary too as his niece attended St Andrews University a few years back and had stayed in her flat.
Whilst here we had a message from a friend saying whilst on this coastline we had to go see 3 places - so off we set to do just that.
Crail - lovely harbour village but difficult to park and gain access to.
Anstruther - another lovely coastal township and free parking right down by the sea wall. Parks a little small but photo opportunities good and a cafe for coffee as well. Such was our mortification on realising we had driven into a Golf Club - yes another one - and the cafe was the elite "members club lounge". Tail between legs we hightailed it out of there pretty quick.
Elie - breathtakingly fantastic. As quiet as when we arrived. Mobile bank truck welcoming all on board set up in main street - shame they weren't giving anything away otherwise we would have been in there. Walking down to the harbour, apparently all roads in Elie lead to the beach, we went in search of "The Ship Inn". This place is quaint and so depicts the picture I have in my head of what Scotland should look like. Along the lower roads closest to the beach but still much higher than the sea wall, beautiful quiet areas with seats and gardens were available for people to quietly sit and take in the peaceful scenery in front of their eyes. Small, very very small, baches cling to the hillside too. Stone walls - Highland style - run along the roadsides and there, there in the distance is the Ship Inn where the seawall is your table and delicious fresh haddock and chips are the order of the day for lunch. Perfect. Thanks Jane for putting us on to these three places. We had the most amazing day and feel we are now seeing the real Scotland accompanied by surprisingly perfect weather.
Our destination for this day though was St Cyrus and a small, also perfect, campsite directly over looking the beach and North Sea.
And so we are here, wifi is free and we are drinking gin and typing the blog. How could life get any better?
See you. xxxxx
PS. Denise if you are reading this blog we passed a pub in Arbroath called "Tutties Nook". Thought of you. X
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