Posts filed under 'Trips'
Hellooooo……
Spooky freaky night on the campsite… major A-road just behind the hedge and train line the other side of the field… and… Cat goes the the loo at about 5:00am and someone(or thing) trys the loo door… hmmm freaky!
We called the Glenmorangie Distillery to book a tour this morning and we arranged to be there at 1:00pm an appointment that we made easily by a wide margin of 30 seconds or so.
So… Glenmorangie…. very cool place… learned all about how to make Single Malt today which could come in useful one day and even got a free dram of Cellar 13 their light whiskey.
There are some cool photies of the distillery and the stills which are the tallest in all Scotland apparently.
Unfortunately the last member of the family that owned the distillery inherited the distillery recently and decided that she didn’t want the hassle of having it so… you would think that she would sell or pass management to a Scottish company to keep it in the way it’s been run since 17-summat but… no… sold off to the highest bidder abroad… what a total shame… what we don’t get is… you need a licence to cut a tree thats in your garden but you can sell a national treasure like Glenmorangie to who you want? hmmm… summat wrong here!
Anyhow… back on track… we decided to carry on South to Inverness via Nigg and a Pictish Trail with some Pictish stones in a graveyard and church which we took in on the way(see photos) (the Kings of the ancient people of Scotland are known as The Picts to modern historians).
At Inverness we called off at Tesco to pick up supplies… now… you would think this would be a simple task, but… as we have been travelling for a while now and have been stripped of any luxuries such as shopping in a palace such as a Tesco, people fresh fruit and veg and skimmed milk… we sados spent two hours in there wandering aimlessly up and down every aisle looking at everything from pesto to panty liners(aka tom hanks… terminal). We know… sad it is… but true and at least the 1st step in our therapy is in admitting what we have done. We got tons of really cool stuff anyway…. Tesco rocks… lol!
Now… the girly card… as many of you know we have a certain affection for Aviemore and we felt that another girly-card was in order… so… a quick call to one of our favorite hotels and a dart down the A9 puts us back in Aviemore again for tonight at least… currently sat in a nice hotel room… watching TV, blogging, bothering roomservice for ice 
,drinking our way through our extensive bar and looking forward to a totally good nights sleep.
Breakfast here is a no no as get this…. we aren’t allowed to wear jeans or trainiers in the dining room…. lol… why would you anyhow when you have roomservice… rock and roll!
So… gonna sign off for tonight and check out todays photos here.
Mrs+Mrs C 
July 12th, 2006
Hi Guys,
As you know, last evening we camped at Wick on a small site next to a river(nice river… hmmm… nice shopping trollys!) …anyhow…. better than a layby and even had a beardy-weirdy in the toilets!
We even ventured out after blogging yesterday for a walk along the river and found a playground. Now, normally this would be limited to children of ages 10 and below but… last night Cat relived some of her childhood and rode the rocking-horse for some time… and in the rain too… i have the movie, but I won’t be posting here
After cold showers we finally dragged our sorry asses our of the site at around lunchtime and headed south to one of our favorite castles… Dunrobin Castle… which we were eager to show to Clive as he likes castles and he had never had the fortune to visit this particular one.
Dunrobin Castle is just above Golspie on a map and is like a majorly impressive place with top gardens.
The inside is a impressive and as usual in castles of this age there are many dead decapitated and stuffed animals hanging on the walls, however, what makes these special at Dunrobin is that each has a little name plate stating who shot each of them and when and where…. very impressive… “a stag versus a gun”…. hmmm… fair game… NOT…. like fishing with dynamite in our eyes and maybe not something to crow about!
Unfortunately as Dunrobin has ‘Royal’ connections visitors are not allowed to take photos inside so ther aint any to show you but we have tons from outside which is totally better in our mind anyhow.
We decided to travel down towards Inverness this evening and find a campsite which we did… just a few miles above the Glenmorangie Distillery at Tain which we want to visit tomorrow which should be fun
So… that’s all for today guys… check out todays photos are here.
Mr+Mrs C
July 11th, 2006
Hellooooo Again……
We exited Ullapool via the gas station this morning (open this time)… they clipped our ticket and said that we had spent the customary 12 hours + spending in the town and now had been issued parol and could leave.
Clive was fueled up and we headed out for the Big Push…. Our campaign name for the journey North over the WHOLE top of Scotland in one day…. from West to East taking in the whole coastal trail (mostly single track roads) on the way… as usual, Clive made noise on the ascents and Cat provided the noise on the decents!
Called off on the way at a few places to take photies which you can link to later and even saw a camper+laguna collision hmmmm….. camper came off best out of the two… laguna was a defo bodyshop nightmare…. we also saw a Corsa on it’s roof in a field… oops! totally straight road… nothing to hit except for if you really wanted to flip your Corsa on its roof hop over a drystone wall and finish half on the wall and half in the field… then of course the target would be obvious!
On the way we bumped into Pete the Pheasant on a real high up remote layby who immediately hit it off with Cat and was glad of some spare popcorn… Pete has obviously got the whole ‘feel sorry for me’ routine off to a tee and this layby is obviously ‘his’ pitch and there aint no room for other pheasants (see photos).
Called into a Fish and Chip shop for tea which was another of those strange Scottish Fish and Chip Shop experiences… ie: battered everything… battered so much so you have to ask WTF the stuff in the range is… and of course…. Fish, Chips, Peas and Gravy…. wait for it….. in a cardboard box with separate peas and gravy???
Travelled to a local beauty spot along the gorgeous sandy beaches and dunes nearby to eat our tea and after tea decided to take a walk along the beautiful sandy shores…. hmmm changed mind quite quick and high-tailed it away in Clive… check out this photo here…. Dounreay strikes again… scary!
Visited John O’Groats on the way past… flying visit and a quick 40 pence spent on our bladders…. what happened to spending a penny!!! John O’groats is one of those places that you feel you have to visit but in fact when you get there there is very little there… (photo for Emma here) …hey ho… some photos took and Clives very first trip there as a married camper.
We decided we would travel until about 8:00pm today so that we could make it all the way round the ‘Extreme North’ which we did and finally settled in Wick a town on the A99 about 30 mins South of John O’Groats which is where we are right now… blogging and having a JD
Todays photos are here
All the best and catcha again real soon…. C+S
July 10th, 2006
Hi,
Sorry the day7 blog is a little late… we’ve had some issues getting online what with the remoteness of the locations we’ve been in over the last couple of day.
So… Day 7…
As you already know we stayed at Big Sands near Gairloch last night…. very cool and totally chilled atmosphere and we left there late morning for Inverewe Garden at Inverewe House a National Heritage Site.
Inverewe Garden is a large collection of gardens around a house on a headland protected by BIG trees taking in heat from the Gulf Stream so they are able to cultivate some real nice big plants here despite the VERY northerly location
The gardens consist of walled gardens, woodland walks, ponds and wetland gardens, rhodedendrum walks and various vewipoints on the headland.
Inverewe is a VERY cool place and well worth a visit if you find yourself up this neck of the woods.
Clive made friends in the car park too… a couple of cheeky little motorhomes that he had fun with and he caused a few blushes too amongst the motorhome car park residents!
From Inverewe we pushed on north (sounds like a Scott expedition lol) to Ullerpool taking in some real cool scenery on the way (see photos).
Ullapool was an unintentional stayover really as we called at the gas station upon arrival there to find that we had missed service by just 2 minutes…. they shut at 7:00pm!!!! crazy crazy crazy !!!
It felt to be honest like we had been trapped in the Villiage of the Damned… doomed to roam the streets of Ullapool for the evening searching for entertainment and somewhere to spend our hard earned cash… only to be set free in the morning should we have boosted the local economy suitably.
So… we found a campsite…. (Broomfield.. on a WINDY!!! headland on the side of the entrance to the harbour)… here too the reception was shut (afterall remember… it was 7:00pm) …so we pitched and walked into “town” to find a beer and some food and to make the quota on spending to allow our safe passage out of the villiage in the morning without the help of a Wicken Man or Bunny or alike.
So… we found a real nice pub… this we’re mentioning because it seemed a little strange to have a ‘real nice’ (like All Bar One type nice) pub and restaraunt here… pretty empty too…. odd…. will prolly take them like 200 years to repay the refurb loan!
The food was cool and cider was cooler
Walked along the harbour for a bit… looked at the boats and then headed home (Clive) for some well earned kip.
Todays photies are here and we’ll catcha tomoz.
Mr & Mrs C
July 9th, 2006
Helloooo…..
This morning we left Fairview Country Hotel and travelled around Skye on the Skye ‘Orbital’ road… lol… just like the M25 honest!
After leaving Skye we went North over the Coastal Trail via LOTS of tiny villiages and tiny roads all the way up to Big Sand which if you look on a map is on a sticky out bit on the mainland just above Skye (here is a link to it on Streetmap).
On the way over we were stopped by a Mercedes Sprinter Motorhome… an elderly scottish gentleman got out and proceeded to walk towards our Clive… now… as we had just spent some time crossing a private estate on a VERY small singletrack road and as the guy looked kinda like Archie from Monarch of The Glen we thought, maybe, we were gonna be arrested by the local laird and burnt in a wicker man for trespassing on some ancient lands or summat or looking oddly at a special salmon.
Anyhow… the guy comes up to the window and we winds down the glass and he’s stood there with his smart sweater, bushy eyebrows and quiff and he opens his mouth and says… “Do you speak English?” …obviously we found this very funny!
Now, apparently what he actually meant was as Clive was sporting his favorite “CH” sticker on his ass that we may in fact be Swiss and be looking for somewhere to stop and he and his wife were offerring their services to stay together apparently for “Safety In Numbers”…. awe… what a nice man… offerring to pull the wagons round into a circle and make a stand with us… what a guy!
So, thanks to Archie and his wife for the offer to look after us!
We actually did another hour and travelled north via Girloch to Big Sand (which was a bit too far for Archie as it was 5:30pm after all).
At Big Sand there is VERY nice and there is a very nice campsite built into the dunes at the edge of the beach.
The site has it’s own beach too and because we’re so far North we were still able to walk on the beach at gone 11:00pm in daylight…very cool!
Here are some photos from today and we’ll be back online soon with another episode of… “Camper from Mars”.
Mr & Ms C
July 8th, 2006
***STOP PRESS***
In the last hour Clive, a 1989 VW Camper has launched his very own photo gallery. Clive likes to be seen ‘around town’ and loves attention. Clive has revealed at his latest press conference that he will be posting his favorite photos of himself, in the best and most unusual places to his personal gallery on a regular basis. So, watch out for ‘Clive-About-Town’ and check back regular for more Clive-ness in Scotland. Clives Gallery
***STOP PRESS***
A message for Dean (all the way from sunny/snowy Switzerland)… thanks for passing Clive onto us… we will take real good care of him and promise to show him some sights and endulge his joint passion of vanity and photography for a very long time to come… feel free to call by again and check out Clives Gallery where Clive posts all his favorite photos… all the best… Cat and Steven
July 7th, 2006
Helloooo….
Today we left Fort William under a cloud of midges… hmmm… Cats bites are interestingly sci-fi in appearance(stew and vic… like when harvey ate fuchia bush!).
Wev’e been to Loch Ness then left up to Eileen Donan castle(one of Cats favorites) and then on to the Isle Of Skye.
Took tons of photos today… 308 in total a selection are here.
We’ve never spent much time actually on Skye… in fact we’ve been on and off it so many times and never actually travelled to the far reaching corners and never really appreciated how nice it actually is.
We’re in Portree tonight which is kind of about 2 o’clock on a map of Skye as recommended by Stew and Vic… good one too btw!
Well… the only thing is… our campsite today is just awful… truly bad… lol… honest… NO!
Ok… honestly… tonight we pulled the first ‘girly card’ and booked into a mini Wedderburn castle… totally nice hotel on a hill(weird it being a house on a hill as the shower curtain is very Norman Bates too) overlooking the bay here in Portree surrounded by gardens and stuff.
Just had a full silver-service dinner which was nice and kind of a change from the grill and four rings service we’ve been used to recently
It’s a bit like Fawlty Towers here really… kind of all residents together… i’m sure the Major will be running round with a blunderbuss later… there were some ‘nice americans’ in the drawing room earlier who toasted our marriage
This place is full of dead stuff… tons of stuffed this and stuffed that… hmmm…. kind of wrong but also kind of weirdly crazy too.
Still no TV… can’t believe it… a hotel with no TV’s… hmmmm…. and still no signal for the freeview thingy on the Mac.
So… thats about it for today folks… todays photos are here and we’ll catch you with an update of breakfast tomorrow.
I still think it was Colonel Mustard with the tart in the cupboard… i’ll ask him later when he’s finished with Miss Scarlet
Mr & Mrs C
Todays photos are here
July 7th, 2006
Well the trip on the Jacobite steam train didn’t quite work out as expected, basically a couple of million midgies at around midnight approx’ an hour of no holes barred killing in the form of jumping around clapping and slapping each other and then up half of the night scratching like flea bitten mutts.
Anyhow, many many bites later we decided to have a bit of a lie in therefore missing the train, for those who know us and our train catching track record theres nothin unusual in missing one every time we plan to try to catch one.
Ok for today…
Basically the day started off looking pretty nice out , that soon changed to rain, good old Scotland .
We nipped into Fort William to pick up a mozzie net but instead found Sheila the sheep, now best mates with Frog, Clives other inhabitant, big eyes but doesn’t say much thought he needed a travelling companion.
Got some lunch, who would of thought a plate of chips and sausage n chips would cause us to need to remortgage, lordy!
When we got over the shock of lunch we headed down to Oban, calling off on the way for a coffee and a slice of choccy cake with our friend Ben Edom, the guy that played Celtic Soul Music on the guitar for the ceremony at our wedding, lovely guy and nice cake!! (Happy Birthday Ben 21 again )
For our trip back to Fort William we went the long way round via Glencoe using the road running all the way round the Glencoe park, taking in the pass and the hills of the ski centre on the way…whooooaaaa Big Stuff!!!!
Got back to Fort William afer 9pm so missed the shop to pick up some avon SSS as recommended by Ben, apparently wards off the evil midge, could do with some too the little buggers have still somehow found their way into Clive again tonight, somemore slapping in order we thinks
Ok guys keep checking back and we’ll see you all tomorrow, C & S x
Take a gander at todays photos here.
July 6th, 2006
Today we travelled up to Fort William to stay there for a couple of days and on the way we callin in to see the Wolves at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig.
There we saw Wolves, Bison, Boars, Otter, Badger, Deer, Rabbits and tons more… very cool place (see photos).
We’re staying at Glen Nevis campsite just outside Fort William which is a nice site at the foot of Ben Nevis so views are a-plenty!
Made a few modifications to Clive while here too…. few screws and cables and things so he is even more the all-encompassing-rolling-honeymoon-suite.
Still no TV signal though which is a bit of a bummer as we’re going crazy not knowing WTF is happenning on Big Brother???
We are both loving married life and Cat used her new official title today to check-in at the campsite here in Fort William… Mrs C.S.Culshaw… very cool… smiles all round!
We took tons of photos today during the trip and at the Wildlife Park 287 in total, obviously we cant upload them all on a GPRS connection but as usual we’ve uploaded a small selection for you guys to look at.
Todays photos are here… (check out the photo Cat took of the bug that was on our windscreen… very odd!).
We’ll… tomorrow(if we are out of bed in time this is) we are planning to walk into Fort William and catch the Jacobite Steam Train which will take us to Malaig for the day. Parts of the route have been used in the Harry Potter films so it should be very cool and I think they sell Scotch en-route too
Right now we’re sat in Clive bloggin at the foot of Ben Nevis… isn’t it great when technology actually works!
Update over for today and we’ll catch you tomorrow for the next installment of… ‘Married Life In A Camper… Featuring Cat McCulshaw and Mr McStevie’.
Todays program was brought to you in conjunction with the letters V and W and the number 69
Catch you later…. C+S
July 5th, 2006
Hello…
Today we walked into Aviemore for BEERS… it was a real sunny day here and the icy cold cider was slipping down just lovely.
Oh… we also bought a map and some felt-tip pens so we could work out where we wanted to go… Cats lovely nails were painted multi-colours(well felt-tipped anyhow) oooo…. nearly forgot… bought and ate sexy cake too!
In summary…. WAKE, WALK, BEERS, SHOP, FOOD, BEERS, CAKE, BEERS, FOOD, BEERS and….. MORE BEERS… WALK(hmmm) all in all a nicely rounded day
Todays photos are… here
Travelling on again tomorrow… dunno exactly where yet but prolly nip and see the Wolves at the local wildlife park on the way.
C+S
July 4th, 2006
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