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  .......

We're slowly heading North ..........

Happy Monday ........

I hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend if you're in the UK.  We've been lucky and had some sunshine which has been nice.   

We're still enjoying 'van-life', learning new things everyday.  We've had a couple of minor things to deal with along the way, but nothing that Google and Facebook groups couldn't cope with.  The heating decided to stop working one night but we managed to sort that out and fingers crossed it's now OK (hoping we won't need the heating that much now ..... it is May after all!)  Then last night the freezer wasn't working as it should ..... the ice cubes for the gin weren't frozen!!!!!! 

Again, it was Google and Facebook to the rescue, and we decided that we might have had a little too much in the freezer (it was pretty full!).  So, we re-jigged things, we're on chicken for dinner this evening,  the wine coolers had to come out and we sacrificed the jumbo ice cube tray just to see if our theory was correct. 

This morning everything was fine.   Freezer working as it should, we just need to use some of the stuff in there so I can get the wine coolers and ice cube tray back in there.  A G&T without ice is just not right ...... thank goodness the tonics had been in the fridge!!! 

Anyhow, since my last post we've done a few more miles.  

We went from Dorset back up to the Cotswolds and stayed on a lovely campsite in Cirencester.  Both hubby and I love this area but it was our first time here ..... won't be the last!! 

Apparently, Cirencester is known as the 'capital of the Cotswolds'.  It's a lovely market town with amazing places to eat and it's fabulous for shopping.

The campsite I think, is actually part of the Bathurst Estate,along with the Cirencester Park, just on the outskirts of the town.  It was a lovely easy walk through the park right into the centre

 We had a good old mooch around, 

Lost the other half in here .......

well, actually it was more like in here ......

Then we found a little Tapas bar for lunch ......

OMG!!!!! ..... the food was amazing ........

We really enjoyed Cirencester, but hey it's the Cotswolds, what's not to like!

From there we headed to Broadway, and guess what ..... the sun came out!!!

Finally we had blue skies and it was warm. 

We got a pitch by the railway track overlooking the countryside ......

and in the evenings we watched the sun go down ......

I do love this place .......

From there we headed north to just outside Chester for a few nights.  Spent a day in Liverpool where we met up with Lauren and Alex, and then we've spent the Bank holiday weekend relaxing and visiting family.

 

Tomorrow we set off on our travels again, heading for the Yorkshire Dales.  Hopefully the nice weather will stick around and we can get to explore the area a little bit.  There's also a rather nice looking farm-shop on the way that I wouldn't mind stopping off at!

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

Cheerio until next time .........