durness

Camping around Scotland – the best way to do it :)

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We had the best 10 days around Scotland, the time flew and what remains now are happy memories and diary entries. The itinerary was not something we planned on, but as always it was nothing short of PERFECT.

Glasgow Edinburgh-Cowdenbeath- Gardenstown- Portsoy- Durness- Fort William- Portree- Aviemore- Blair Atholl- Cowdenbeath- Edinburgh- Galsgow :)— Distance travelled 1196 miles, total days 11, days in a campervan 8, memories made -576 photos, Fatigue factor – 0. These unedited excerpts provide a timeline to the happiness we shared with nature and just being on our own and our fantastic house on wheels.
Day 2
Edinburgh- gardenstown-potysoy 
Hiked to the old cemetery In Gardenstown. What an amazing place it is. There was no decent campsite around,a nice couple on the beach suggested we go visit Portsoy and call there for the night. Fantastic suggestion, went there and loved it.
A Lindsey Smith lost her wallet outside the bakers, by asking around town found a certain Mr Smith, who was surprised to see two strangers at his door in the pouring rain with a pink wallet in hand asking if he had a daughter called lindsey, born in 1982. He didn’t, though he did say that he would put her info (as in a wallet found outside the bakers shop) on fb  portsoy community page, and if we could drop the wallet at the local co-operative store, that would be a good idea, we did just that.  Night was spent at the beach, slept to the sound of the waves ate a healthy breakfast and we are on the road again
Bakers made the most delicious toffee cake. Outside the bakers store there was a switch that said ring for assistance, did I not think that was for us to be let in…only to be corrected by Tom, it was for people who ‘needed’ assistance.
Had the most delicious chicken in cheese sauce stuffed with sundried tomatoes and spinach at station hotel. A must visit.


Day 3

Portsoy – Durness (sango sands and smoo cave) Towards smoo cave, up north west of the country, crossing Inverness.

The drive towers durness was like we were driving on some different planet all together. Single roads for miles with nothing but lochs and mountains all around us. Simply stunning.
Spending the night at the camping site there. Beautiful drive to the north end of the city, amazing scenery with single lane roads..wonderful drive. Reached smoo cave and called at the best view camping spot…over looking the most pristine beach. Saw the most amazing cave… bbqed on our portable gas cooker in the rain and strong winds and had the most amazing burger. Mmmmiaamm

Beautiful hike up the rabbits way 🙂 -no other name would be apt to describe this place. no camera so it’s all in the memory. Counted over 20 hare, and countless sheep with their lambs.
Finished the 15k hike/walk by drinking 3 cups of tea and a shot of Bailey’s on ice:)) all sugar in my gut.
Adventure you say? Didn’t I lose my wedding band in the shower, fell right down the dirty drain, Tom comes to the rescue and fishes it out for me :-S

Day 4
 durness to glen nevis

Woke up to a beautiful day, had cereal packed up and got on the road again. Stopped by Ardvreck  castle/ruin in Ullapool.  had a delicious bacon and black pudding sandwich and then waddled through the cold water onto the castle… took some beautiful shot and slipped and fell on my ass. It isn’t easy walking wet slippery green grass and mud and probably sheep dung. We are on our way towards glen nevis where we shall be camping, hopefully overlooking the majestic ben.

  Reached the camping site at glen nevis, set up our awning and prepared dinner with the spectacular view of glen nevis at the back. Ate and headed  of to climb the cow hill summit, from where we got spectacular view of Ben Nevis. Left at 7 pm, got back at 10:30, finished the night off with chicken noodle soup and smidge all over us too ward off the little critters.

Day 5
Fort William to isle of skye

Had a lovely breakfast at the local bakery and after a quick hair cut at the local barber, who had gold plated collecting of records of John Lennon and Elvis adorning the walls of this popular barber shop, heading of to Isle of Skye. Raining and looking forward to the hike we’ll be doing today.
Spent the day walking Portree and had a delicious dinner at The Granery. Beautiful scenery and a lovely little town of portree. It’s the day to unwind.Tomorrow we will explore skye, in spite of all the rain and bad weather 🙂
Lashing rain tonight, the whole camper van is shaking and the rocking is putting me to sleep, time to zzzz, another day well spent

Day 6
Isle of skye towards the campsite in Staffin except ended up in Sligachan

Enroute to our campsite to Staffin we stopped to hike the old man of storr. What a hike it was, braving the 30mph winds and shows we reached the needle point and then took a route diversion to the table top from where the view was breathtaking, it was worth every slip of the foot and every lashing felt by the rain. We tore down running back to our little house of wheels to carry on our journey to staffin, took pic of the kilt rock and mealt waterfall along the way. Now time for a quick shower at the campsite with an onward journey towards coral beach:) via Quairaing. Fantastic and the most beautiful summit of Trotternish!!! It’s lashing rain!!!

A lovely drive to coral beach. We drove till the little village of Claigan and from there walked around 2kms to the beach. It indeed is a beautiful place with the coral hugging the coast and making it a comfortable site to see the bright cream color that it gives to it’s beach with rabbits running wild on the raised grass above and cattle grazing in front of the huge grass mound, it’ll be clearer with the picture…

We decided to drive back to Glen Nevis to spend the night at that camping site…and tomorrow have decided to head of to the Cairngorms national park…

Nope, the plans changed, we couldn’t leave this place without seeing the Neist point and so we did. We decided to head back in the direction of Dunvegan and took the road to Neist point. The lighthouse was all to ourselves..We explored every nook of it and took some memory lasting pictures:) .Now we are heading to Portree hoping to get some fish and chips for the night before we go to our campsite (Sligachan )

Fish and chips are closed, it’ll be chicken sandwiches tonight.

Day 7
Skye to Cairngorm national park -camping at ~Rothiemurchus campsite

Had a lovely coffer and cake by the Eilean Donal castle coffee shop and now we are headed off to Aviemore in the Cairngorm national park…might take the train up the summit our might hike it…
We have reached the town of avimore situated in the national park,a beautiful little town. Had a delicious lunch at the papa rock restaurant. Family own business since 2010, very well run by the looks of it, big time into biking as they have collectors items decorating their place. This little toddler that was given a helium balloon by a staff member, she let go of it for a spilt second only to find it kissing the ceiling with a dazed look on her precious little face. It was lovely to see that innocence.
Our next stop Will be to the heart of the craingorm mountain range which is 11kms from here, we shall be camping at the rothiemurchus camping site and exploring the areas around. We might just hike up the mountain today itself, we are well stuffed and happy:)

Just checked into the campsite, amazing view, in the lap of nature-like other sites were not ha!, very quiet here, the stillness and lack of any sort of wind can let you enjoy the sounds of this places fauna. Different from the sounds of winds and waves. Amazingly calm and relaxing environment. It’s so quiet here, you are scared your own inner evil thoughts might just be heard out . There is a beautiful steam that runs right in front of our parking spot, the sounds of the water along with the crisp sweet odor of the wild trees gives this place 5 stars in uniqueness and tranquility.

Hiked up to the top of cairngorm mountain, was an intermediate level hike…We were so eager to get to the top…took us under an hour but oh what a view..We were in the clouds and not even your own hand was visible. Visibility was a big zero!!! Hike down was beautiful as the whole area with the view of loch morlich is simply breathtaking.

Day 8.
 Cairngorm mountains to Blair castle caravan site.
Camping site Is right adjacent to the castle ground. Amazing setting, walked the castle grounds and did loads of trails. Decided then to explore the area around, jumped over 14 foot high castle wall to get over to the other side where the highlands bull was grazing, to capture it in its natural habitat… was chased by a bull that was minding his cows down the road towards the little farm house of Monzie..he meant business, raging at us and slobbering all over. Decided then to drive to the adjacent town of Pitlochery. The 50th highlands festival was on in the park…we instead decided to capture on video the fisherman who got lucky with a big fish,…with the sounds of bagpipes and Scotsman singing and celebrating their heritage. The town of pitlochery Is very picturesque…Now back to the campsite to enjoy the rest of the evening in the lap of quiet and nature.

Day 9
Blair Atholl to watermill bakery down the road
Woke up to sun shining and birds chirping and ducks quaking around begging for food. Fed then some branflakes and packed up. All the jumping the tall castle walls yesterday was so futile. As we were leaving our castle grounds we see two highland bulls feeding right there. So close,I could pet them. It was amazing to see these beasts so up close and make eye contact with them.
Walked down to the watermills bakery. Had been craving for a good bakery since we left Portsoy. Tried looking for a good one but were unsuccessful in finding a decent one, and this one just hit it right. Delicious breakfast and 6 fresh rolls of bread later, we are on our way back to cowdenbeath.
Just dropped our house on wheels off to it’s home location and now we are off to Edinburgh:) to spend the day/night in the city. Tomorrow it’ll be off to Glasgow.
Hmmm have to say in spite of the Watermill Bakery winning all sorts of awards and getting media exposure, in my book that little bakery in Portsoy was by far the best one i have ever been to.

This isn’t a good- bye and thank you Scotland, this is more like, Hello Scotland, we shall be back again to Island hop next time. Thank you for the memories, experiences and countless happy moments, my heart lies in nature. You have made my life richer!