Blog 27.6.14 Farewell to Scotland

3:56am Orkney sunrise

Falkirk wheel 35m upwards!!

Inside XC14AEJ towards Mull

Loch Duich walk

Nae... it's a flat walk

Skara Brae House,dresser and beds

Skye towards Isle of Raasay 

Stirling Castle..Bass relief ceiling in fantastic colour

We drive South tomorrow after almost 3 weeks in Bonnie Scotland.  So we have sampled several drams of whiskey (some with affable Scots), listened to bagpipers busking, admired knobbly knees beneath the kilt, talked to native Gaelic speakers (they pronounce it as garlic), seen thistles just coming into flower, photo’d beautiful wild orchids, watched as the hillsides slowly turn purple as the heather starts flowering, enjoyed the debate on BBC Scotland about the referendum on independence and we have avoided eating haggis (sold wrapped in plastic in the supermarket)! Sean Connery a proponent of independence gives advice from the states!!

We spent today in Glasgow, a city being made all squeaky clean for the Commonwealth Games in July. They contracted the graffiti artist, Banksie to do some of his work around the city and it is fascinating. We visited the grand University of Glasgow and while in the Hunterian Museum looked out the window to see masses of graduates leave their ceremony and process around the courtyard lead by a piper. Great stuff. This museum has a few Maori treasures brought back by Cook, although some of the Maori names were mentioned little other information was presented. Interesting to know, for those of you who studied at Vic, that Glasgow Uni has a Hunter and a Rankin building. James Watt, what a scientist….wow.

The rest of our stay on the Orkney Islands continued to be intriguing. One highlight was the graffiti left written in runes by the Vikings in the Neolithic tomb, Maeshowe. They were apparently seeking shelter for 3 days in a storm. The graffiti translated to just what our graffiti says today, for example boasts about their ability such as ‘I am the best writer of runes in the world’ and the names of local lassies. One of the sentences was written by a woman, this was great to hear and means that some Viking women were educated. The runic alphabet used is called Futhark (sounds like a good swear word) one of several forms. Certainly see where Tolkien based his.

The drive down the western Highlands was beautiful with dramatic scenes of mountains, coast and lochs. There are SO many lochs! Scotland will be exporting the world’s water in the future. Unfortunately the weather was still cold and misty so we did not see it at its best. The road is single track with passing bays and like many Scottish roads had an appalling road surface so it was a slow trip.  Best roads were on Orkney! There were lots of other campervans on the road with convoys of German or French tourists common.

We had a couple of nights on the shore of Loch Duich and the weather lifted one afternoon so we tramped up one of the hills behind the camp and got above the tree-line. This was the first time we noticed the notorious Highland midges. They swarmed around our heads when we stopped walking despite our insect repellent. They even got on the lens of the camera as we tried to take photos. One man told us that in June the midges are just getting their boots on. They sell nets for covering heads and we saw some people wearing them. Very wise…however gives a meshed view of the world!

Next came a couple of days on the Isle of Skye - this was delightful but again the mist and rain meant that we could not see all the scenery. Visited Dunvegan Castle, then on to visit a very expensive potter and ended up at the Taliskar Distillery.

Interestingly Talsiker distillery set the nearby loch on fire some years ago as a considerable volume of very high proof alcohol leaked from the distillery on to the lake and caught fire! Must have made for interesting swimming.

Had a short walk near the Cuillin Hills over the moorland and warmed up in the pub afterwards. The weather lifted on our drive South to Oban as the sun came out. Luckily we were given a wonderful campsite right on the beach with a view over the Isle of Mull, we got the deck chairs out for the second time on the trip and just enjoyed being there. What a beautiful part of the world.

On our way down to Glasgow we stopped and visited the very special Stirling Castle. They are restoring part of the castle (the Palace) to the way it would have looked in the 1500’s. New tapestries are being woven (you can watch this being done) and replica sculptures are made and painted as they would have been. An explosion of colour. We will look at castles differently in future. Great accessible summary of Scottish history was provided in one of the halls. As a balance to all the old and ancient stuff we indulged our fascination with British canals systems by going on a boat ride on the Falkirk Wheel. This 2002 structure takes boats vertically 35 metres between two canal systems and replaces 11 locks. It only took 4 minutes! Great Scottish engineering.

Despite the cold, mist and rain it has been a great visit. We often said ‘and this is their summer’. You would think this would make people depressed but every Scot we have talked to is upbeat, warm and welcoming and ready with a joke….and with out an empty bottle of whisky in hand. Our bus driver into Glasgow today said he loves summer as the rain is warmer!

We made it to the Orkneys

This is mid summer week and on the Orkneys we have daylight saving on steroids. The official sunset is at 10.30pm with dusk at 11.45pm and dawn (as the rooster on the farm next to this campsite knows) is at 2.45am! The abundant bird life here is having a continuous all night party.  An amazing place with more to see than our 3 days here will allow. Still visiting Skara Brae (Neolithic village with the stone furniture still intact) and seeing Scapa Flow have been highlights so far. Marg’s Dad was here during the war and talked of how beautiful it is. It is also very peaceful (if you discount the rooster’s morning ‘greeting’).

We have had a great 2 weeks in the van traveling North. As we are caravanning and camper-vanning virgins we have had to quickly upskill on the use of chemical toilets, fridges that have 3 sources of power, leveling blocks so we don’t get roll together at night and remembering to empty and refill the various tanks as needed. We are loving the independence and flexibility. The height is great for seeing over hedgerows. It is fully insulated and has a great heater, just as well the maximum day temp in the Orkneys has been 15 degrees so far.

On the way North we visited Whitby and Robin Hood Bay, great old towns with winding narrow streets and interesting wee shops. Great museum to Cook in the house of the family he was an apprentice for. Popped in to see Durham Cathedral in the pouring rain taking shelter in a pub during a particularly heavy shower and we happened on the replay of the first rugby test 10 minutes before the end so were able to watch the cliffhanger. Had a night at Berwick on Tweed and a wander around the fortifications of this walled town.

Visited the Rosslyn Chapel of Dan Brown’s “DeVinci Code” fame and found it’s statues really compelling no matter what the theories behind their existence is. Great few days in Edinburg which is just as cool and quirky as we remember it in the 1970’s. Found Greyfriers Bobby this time and followed a walking tour suggested in the Lonely Planet that took us into interesting spaces off the Royal mile. We saw original 1500s houses and hidden small gardens. We spent a while in the Museum of Scotland on one of the days as it was raining really hard.

Stayed just south of Inverness and did some walking and visiting Speyside distilleries. Tasting and purchasing was done and we toured Glenfiddich Distillery.  A beautiful part of the world. The drive up to the top of the mainland had spectacular views of the sea and coast and when we cut in across the Highlands the mist cleared and we could see the glaciated mountains.

Almost and nearly there

We travel down to pick up the campervan tomorrow, spend a night at the complex (they have a camping ground on site) to see if everything works then back to Harrogate to load up and hopefully head North on Thursday. While we have been waiting we hired a car and have spent a week exploring around Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland and around the Lake District.
We were based near Hexham to explore Housesteads Castle and a good piece of the wall. We did a 8 mile walk which passed some of the remains of the Mile castles and what remains of the wall. They think the wall was more for collecting customs duties than to keep the Picts out. Part of our walk on the Northern side of the wall was so muddy that the Romans did not need to bother with defences as there is no way an army could have attacked! We were going to do another walk the following day but it was very wet and cold so we went just down the road to see Chesters Castle remains which have a fairly well preserved bath house. Our visit coincided with half term holidays so lots of families were at these sites and there were demonstrations of skills of Roman soldiers demonstrated by doing things like cutting cabbages in half with swords while on horseback. All this was standing in the rain and cold so we hurried back to Hexham and found a warm cafe.

We stayed in a YHA hostel south of Hexham which originally was hostel accommodation for lead mine workers. Lovely quirky place in a place called Mohope. We had a room with ensuite with a heated towel rail. Hostels aren't what they used to be! We drove over the moors to the Lake District and stopped at the top of Lake Ullswater at Pooley Bridge to visit one of the pubs that was owned by Colin's grandmother. It is still called The Sun and looks much the same from the outside. Had a drink and a long chat to the owner and he is interested to see some of the photos we have of the pub in the 1950's. The next day we caught the Ullswater ferry at the southern end and were dropped off halfway up the lake and walked back. The 7 mile track was mostly by the lake side with great views when we climbed higher. Lots of people walking as well and a great sunny day. Had a look around Ambleside and Windermere on our way back to the hostel.

We stayed at another hostel at the southern part of the Lake District at Arnside which is on the coast. As we were trying to book during half term holiday we could not get one closer to the lakes. It turned out to be just fine and we had interesting conversations in the kitchen mainly with English families who were there for the break. It is an old school and we had the Nurses Room. As we walked along the coast there were large signs warning of the fast incoming tide. A siren sounds before the tide comes in to warn people to get off the mud flats. There is no bridge across and there is apparently a family in the town who are the 'official queen's guide' and for 500 years members of this family have handed down the knowledge of how to walk across the mud flats without falling in the quicksand. We suppose the family guided Lizzie One across and that's how they got their title.
One our way back to Harrogate we arranged to meet friends Lynette and Peter who were visiting from Welly. It was great to have a catch up. The pub we chose for lunch was a bit ho hum but it did have the saying on the beam, " Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."