Van life continues .......

Happy Thursday to you ........

I hope you're all well.

I'm back again, with more updates from our vanlife adventure. 

I can't believe it's June already ....... time flies when you're having fun! 

Today is Day 87 in the van ....... Day 87!!!!!!!!!  and we're still here in the Scottish Highlands, although we are starting to make our way south again, slowly.

At then end of my last post we were getting ready to leave the beautiful Isle of Skye, and what a send off we got .......

even Remi stayed up late to watch the sun go down!

We headed off the following morning, and decided to re-visit the lovely little Caravan & Motorhome club site we'd discovered earlier in the week ......

Morvich is a lovely site, nestled amongst the hills in the Scottish highlands, it's so peaceful.  They even have a fresh fish van that calls every Tuesday so we had to check it out, would have been rude not to I think!

Caught that morning ....... monkfish tail with fresh, still in their shell, prawns ..... yum!

Unfortunately it hasn't all been blue shies and sunshine, far from it, but even with grey clouds and stormy skies this part of the world is just breathtaking .......

Our next destination was Inverness, and our first stop was at a place called Ardtower, not far from the Culloden Battlefield.

Lovely site, great facilities, and most of the pitches had views over the Moray Firth.  The clouds seemed to follow us there ......

very atmospheric in the evening .......

Being an 'Outlander' fan (TV series), Culloden is somewhere I've wanted to go for a while

Quite an eerie place to be .......

We're now just outside the city of Inverness and the weather has not been kind to us.  We've had some sunshine but it's been mainly wind, and rain, and even hailstones yesterday!  Flaming June eh!!!

We have had a few things that we needed to do whilst we've been here, housekeeping (van) stuff mainly, washing etc., so the weather hasn't been too much of a problem.

Hubby needed his regular B12 injection so we had to source how to get that which wasn't too bad, and would you believe ........ he's started a new job!  

Yes, you heard correct, he's working again.  Only part time though for now, and it's only a few hours per week (Monday and Tuesday) and it can all be done from the van so, no need to cut short our trip just yet.  Let's see how things go.

We did manage a lovely walk along the river, over to the Ness Islands.

A collection of natural islands sitting in the middle of the River Ness, connected by lovely Victorian footbridges

 

It's a lovely walk, through the trees, some of which are huge .....

There's plenty of carved benches and places to sit and watch the world go by, and there's even a Nessie sculpture, made from a fallen tree which is quite fun.

Once you're across the islands I think you can walk all the way into the city along the riverbank.  Maybe next time.

 

It's time to start packing up the van again as we're on the move tomorrow, heading further south to Pitlochry.

We've heard from quite a few people we've met on our travels that it's a really lovely place so we're looking forward to getting there.  And with hubby now working two days of the week, we're having to think more about good internet and Wi-Fi signals so fingers crossed it's OK.  Plus we need the internet to stream live coverage of the TT races that are going on back home.  We've been keeping up with all the action, and the delays due to the weather.  It's been making me a little bit homesick to be honest, I miss the island ...... and the family of course!

Thanks for popping by, enjoy the rest of your day.

There's actually a bit of blue sky outside, time for a stroll!

Cheerio until next time .....

  

Hello from bonnie Scotland ..........

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend to you ..........

We're on Day 10 of our Scottish adventure and, true to form, the weather up here is, shall we say, a little changeable!  As Billy Connolly once said ...... 'there's only 2 seasons in Scotland, June and winter!!'

We can't really complain though, up until the last few days it's been glorious.  Sunshine and blue skies, and it's been lovely and warm too. 

In my last post we'd just arrived at the little town of Killin, and it was as lovely as always.  The Falls of Dochart were beautiful in the sunshine.

and there was a little bit more water in them than the last time we were here .....

I also had my first haggis of this trip ........ yum!

watched over by this handsome boy ......

We drove up through Glencoe and started our journey up to the Isle of Skye.  

Night 1 was at a place called Invercoe, a small campsite on the shores of Loch Leven 

Not a bad view from the front of the van

We then drove up through Fort William, with a quick stop off to refill the food (and wine) supplies and we spent Night 2 at the Morvich Caravan & Motorhome Campsite.  What a lovely little find this was.

Nestled in a wooded valley with plenty of walks and loads of wildlife around.  The staff were really friendly too.  We only spent the one night there but, we have booked in again on our return journey from Skye.

After leaving Morvich on the road to the Isle of Skye, we decided to stop off at the famous Eilean Donan Castle, one of Scotland's most iconic sites.  

Located on its own little island, at the point where three great sea lochs meet ...... Loch Alsh, Loch Duich and Loch Long, and surrounded by the mountains of Kintail, it really is a beautiful place to visit.

It was then time to cross the bridge, over the sea to Skye.

It was back in May 2019 when we were last on this beautiful island, and I think it was here that we finally made the decision to buy a motorhome, so it was only right that we came back to visit in Remi.

We spent the first couple of nights in the little town of Broadford, the second largest town on Skye.  

When I say town, it wasn't very big.  A few shops, a small supermarket, post office and a few nice places to eat.

The day we arrived was glorious so we had a walk around the town.  Good job we did because day 2 was so, so different.  The winds came, and the rain, and it was cold!!!   We were fine though, warm and cosy in the van.

Day 3, we headed off again, going north up to a place called Dunvegan.  The weather still wasn't great but, hey, this is Scotland!!! 

It was a little grey the day we arrived .........

The campsite is right on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, and is overlooked by MacLeod's Tables, two very distinctive flat topped hills.

As you can see we managed to get a pitch overlooking the Loch ........ this was Thursday

and this is today ....... Saturday.  Beautiful!

We start our journey south again tomorrow so fingers crossed this weather holds.

Thanks for popping by ....... enjoy your weekend.

Back home on the Isle of Man, the 2024 TT Races are about to get underway.  It's been a few years since we were off island for the TT fortnight, it seems really weird not to be there.  

Practice weeks starts on Monday ...... fingers crossed, apparently the weather's not great over there either.

We'll be keeping up with the racing, watching live on the internet when possible 

Cheerio until next time ........ 

We loved the Yorkshire Dales ........

Happy Thursday to you .......

Well I think it's Thursday!  I'm having a little trouble keeping track of the days at the moment.  We only really need to know what day of the week it is if we're on the move and need to be in a particular place or campsite.  That's vanlife for you!

Last time we spoke we were off to the Yorkshire Dales.  Oh my goodness, what an amazing place.  We spent seven days surrounded by stunning countryside, dotted with beautiful little towns and villages.

Our first stop was a lovely little campsite, Meadow Falls, just outside of Ingleton .......  just look at that view!

The village was lovely, we wandered down there and found a fantastic little Italian restaurant ......

There was also a great little pub just round the corner from the campsite called The Marton Arms which I would highly recommend if you're ever in the area.  They're only open Wednesday to Sunday though at the moment, and on Bank Holidays.

The food was amazing ........ 

Braised Cumbrian Lamb Shoulder, tenderstem broccoli, dauphinoise potatoes and a minted lamb jus ..... yummee!

It wasn't all good food and nice wine though, we did do a bit of walking to burn off some of those calories.

We were really lucky with the weather whilst we were there, so we went off to find the Ingleton Waterfall Trail ....... a 4.3 mile circular trail that takes you through beautiful woodlands, across stunning countryside and as close to the edge of two rivers where possible to get great views of the waterfalls

The woods were filled with bluebells and wild garlic, and the smell was amazing.

The waterfalls weren't bad either considering there hadn't been that much rain recently .....

And this was a welcome sight about half way round the trail ........  

Our next stop was Hawes, a little market town in Wensleydale.  One of England's highest apparently, at 850 feet above sea level, and of course, it's home to the delicious Wensleydale cheese (food again!)

We had a stroll around the town, did a spot of shopping and found a lovely place to eat ..... The White Hart Inn .........

Fish this time ...... halibut, king prawns, mussels and samphire served on a bed of sauteed new potatoes with a roasted lime and white wine veloute.  

This was soooo good.  We had just been on another walk and I was very hungry but ........ OMG!!!  

We will definitely be back there.  We've already decided we are coming back to the Yorkshire Dales, in fact we've booked both campsites we stayed at again for later in the year.

The walk we did whilst we were in Hawes was to the Hardraw Force ..... the highest single drop waterfall in England. Not only that, it's also famous for 'that scene' in the film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, where Maid Marion spies Robin Hood bathing under the waterfall

Sadly no Kevin Costner on the day we were there but, the waterfall was still worth watching!

With our little stay in the Yorkshire Dales over, we headed north for the Scottish leg of our adventure.

We've spent the last couple of nights in a little place called Moffat in the heart of Southern Scotland ....... famous for it's toffee apparently

And then this morning, we were back on the road again heading further north.  

We're now in Perthshire, in the central Highlands of Scotland, in the village of Killin.  

We've got blue skies and sunshine, perfect for an afternoon stroll I think!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time  .......