Our next holiday came about because Maurice's nephew, Mark, decided to cycle the length of the country, ie Lands End, Cornwall to John O' Groats, Scotland. Mark actually lives in Australia now and flew over specially to do the cycle ride with some old friends. Thus, we couldn't resist motorcycling to Scotland and meeting them in John O'Groats!
As we live on the South Coast of England (straight down from London), we had a lot of miles to cover. We organised our route and hotels and B and B's along the way. Our first stop was in the Lake District, just 5 minutes off the motorway. It was a lovely country hotel, and after a lovely dinner there we found this lovely canal just opposite.
We set off early the next morning as we wanted to see Hadrian's Wall, a wall built by the Romans which spanned the north of Britain. We went to a really great visitor centre called 'Vindolanda'. We found it really interesting especially the Roman tablets which were found there quite recently. They are one of the few surviving examples of Roman handwriting.
We still had a long way to go for our next overnight stop at Loch Lomond, in Scotland. We had booked a farm B and B, and we were not disappointed! This is the view from the dining room!
Our host was really friendly, and we spent some time talking to her about the sheep farm before heading into the little village of Luss for dinner. Luss is a pretty 'conservation village', situated right on the shores of Loch Lomond, and is full of pretty cottages and flowers.
The next day, after a lovely breakfast with some fellow German guests, our travels took us through Glen Coe, a famous glen where many battles between the clans of Scotland were fought. The mist covering the tops of the hills made it more evocative.
Further on north we stopped at the town of Fort William for lunch. Whenever we are here we like to stop at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, which overlooks the training grounds used in World War 2.
We were now well and truly in the Highlands of Scotland, but still a long way to go! It was a long gutty ride after this to get to our next night's accommodation. Eventually, we turned off the main road on to the Mam Ratagan pass and were treated to some glorious views. The pass is about 10 miles of single track road. It must be an interesting road in the winter!
We arrived in the little village of Glenelg, situated right on the coast at the narrowest point between the mainland and the Isle of Skye. We stayed the night in this inn, and were treated to a fabulous cèilidh band while eating dinner.
It was a gorgeous morning and we woke to this view across the strait of Kyle Rhea to Skye.
We decided to take the little ferry across to Skye and ride round and back across the Skye Bridge. The Kyle Rhea ferry is the last operating manual turntable ferry in the world! It is just a few minutes ride across the narrow strait. The water races through here and there are very strong currents.
Onwards and upwards - we rode right up to the top of Scotland for a night's stay on the north coast at Durness, stopping at Ullapool for lunch. Durness has the most beautiful white sandy beach! The weather over the summer had been hot and sunny, and even the north of Scotland had temperatures in the high 20s! Lovely for all the RV holidaymakers up there. We had a lovely dinner in the RV camp, and a sunny evening stroll along this magnificent beach.
The following day was the day the cyclists were on their last leg - and here they are cycling the last few hundred yards into John O Groats! They had completed over 900 miles in 12 days, starting at the most extreme south-west of the UK, to the extreme north-east. I am in awe!
So we were not sorry to leave Aberdeen early the next morning on our way to Falkirk. We wanted to see the Kelpies, two 30m high horse heads built to liven up the park by the Forth and Clyde canal. They are awesome, and certainly lifted our spirits! These photos give you some idea of the scale.
We also wanted to see the Falkirk Wheel, a rotating boat lift linking the Forth and Clyde canal with the Union canal. We had tickets to go on a boat trip and had time to take photos and have a coffee before it was our turn. It is quite a feat of engineering!
The view from the top
Our holiday was coming to an end now and we left Scotland the next morning. We decided to stop near the town of Dudley so we could visit the Black Country Museum, an open air living museum. I have a family connection, as my great grandparents were chain makers near here in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. We were especially interested to see the chainmaking demonstration, and I was thrilled to see an exhibit about the lady chainmakers strike in 1910 for a minimum wage. I wonder if my great grandmother was involved? Something I am interested to research further.
And so we made our way home. I hope you have enjoyed my whistle stop tour of Scotland (with a little bit of England). I have really enjoyed writing this and looking back on our holiday. We did a lot of miles, and it was long days of riding on the bike. There were other places we would have liked to have stopped at along the way, but we ran out of time! I am glad we did it, especially meeting nephew Mark and his cyclists, but I doubt that we will go back up to the very north of Scotland again. It is a very long way!
