DAY 164 - HASTE YE BACK!

It’s on the sign posts at the beginning of any major roadway or motorway.  Don’t know why, but I found this really funny!  I think it means – WRONG WAY  - GO BACK!

Rosie in da homeland.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Scotland.  After catching the Ferry from Dublin to Stranrear and an amazing drive along the coast to Galway we set up camp in the 24hr TESCO supermarket for 2 days and then got told to move on.  (Tight arses!).

Glasgow was so pretty, I wasn’t expecting much after visiting Ireland and feeling a little disappointed but was so excited to find that Glasgow was so much more than I expected.  To top it all off,  Brad Pitt was in town filming a new movie so I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!

The buildings, the shopping, bagpipes & that sexy Scottish accent….we both fell in love with Scotland immediately.

Rosie in da Homeland

We then headed north along Loch Lommond towards Isle of Skye and to my surprise, although my brother and sister-in-law did tell me, we stumbled on a little place “Gollanfield”.  When we first saw it we were driving along this awesome scenic route between Onich and Fort William and just saw the sign out of the corner of our eye.  The roads in Scotland are narrow and really windy and private property goes right up to the main road so slamming on the brakes, and finding somewhere to pull up to get a photo was interesting.   We eventually pulled up on someone’s front lawn…our whole big 28’ motorhome that is towing a motorbike on trailer….ran down the road to get photo’s, ran back and took off like lightening before the owners kicked up a fuss and gave us a mouth full.  I can just imagine Daniel and Ingrid having to do the same thing when they found it…so funny and felt so nostalgic too.

The drive from Fort William to Isle of Skye is one of the most scenic beautiful drives we have ever done.  It’s still one of the best driving days we have had.  We spent the last 2 days in & around Isle of Skye, and rough camped it at some amazing spots.  Then drove towards the highlands and followed the northern route to Inverness via Garve.

Paul caught a brown trout about 30cm, when we were rough camping in Isle of Skye, so we pulled up along a loch near Garve, set up camp, tried for some more fish (no luck), and stocked up the BBQ, so awesome and one of our most enjoyable days so far. 

Paulie with dinner

Before leaving England, we bought a generator so we can pull up anywhere and have power to watch telly etc. without the need of a campsite.  Which is great as of cause all the best views are off the beaten track, but also means communicating can be hard via phone networks & we also have no internet?

Inverness was really nice too, after wild camping in Garve we headed a little south again so we could do the scenic route to Inverness via Loch Ness, we didn’t see no monster but was a really  pretty drive and such a buzz to see Loch Ness which is the legend of so many stories.  Inverness is really pretty along the river and is also the major city near the Gollanfield where my family is from.  We rode our push bikes along the river and in and around the city and sat down to have lunch on the riverbank only to be attacked by ducks who wanted our food more than we did.  It was so funny, they were nearly sitting on our laps trying to eat the food out of our hands and fighting with each other to make sure they were as close to us as possible and their mates where at the back of the line.

We totally fell in LOVE with Edinburgh.  It’s such a cool city….so pretty, so much history and just really funky and happening place.  The buildings are great and you get the feeling your actually walking into a bit of living history (like London and Rome).  I’d love to be there during the Fringe or some other festival one day.  I could live there…if it wasn’t so bloody cold.  It’s now by favorite UK city and has bumped Oxford and Bath off the map.

My only regret about Scotland is that we only got to spend 10 days there and wish we didn’t spend so long in Ireland.

in the middle of no where....on a high mountain pass we found this guy blowing his pipes