We awoke on Sunday morning to a wonderful view across the beach but sadly we needed to be on our way. So, after a lazy start, our first port of call was Gruinard Beach which was nice enough but not as spectacular as our overnight stop at Mellon Udrigle.
Then onto the Falls of Measach at Corrieshalloch Gorge, which was a lovely woodland walk to a suspension bridge over the gorge highlighting the falls.
Continue readingWe had a lazy morning yesterday as we wanted to visit the Talisker Distillery shop but that didn’t open until 10.00 so we were there as they opened the doors! On our way off the island, we stopped at Sligachan Old Bridge and picked up some scrummy seafood for lunch from a shack by the road.
We couldn’t quite understand why everyone was leaving our lovely stopover at Neist Point until two things happened. One, the sea fog rolled in so you couldn’t see in front of you and two, they closed the road down to the village!
Calmac Ferries had very kindly told us on Tuesday that they had cancelled our booking from Mallaig on the Scottish mainland to Armadale on Skye. When we looked to rebook, we found that there wasn’t a ferry running that actually took campervans! Very helpful. So, our plans needed to change as we would now be going over the road bridge to Skye. We still wanted to do the ‘Harry Potter’ things so we needed to go to the Glenfinnan Viaduct (steam train) and Loch Eilt (Dumbledore’s Grave). This meant we would now be doubling back on ourselves but we thought it was worth the effort and in some ways gave us more flexibility than adhering to ferry sailing times.
We knew we needed to get to the Glenfinnan Viaduct at least an hour before the train was due to cross over at 10.45 to get a parking spot such is the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise. However, there were several places we wanted to stop off at on the way from Loch Lomond so we were up and away by 06.45 on Wednesday morning. We had a glorious scenic drive along Loch Lomond and through Glencoe, scene of the famous MacLeod massacre by the Campbells.
We finally set off on our Scotland adventure on Monday, April 7th just after lunch some 5 days later than originally planned due to Jo’s pre-op hospital appointments in preparation for her knee replacement surgery at the end of April. We got as far as Lancaster and stopped at a pub, the Greyhound at Halton, for a delicious dinner and overnight stop in their car park (S4S-S476745).
When we got back from our recent travels, we found that our engine battery was very low but to be fair our tracker company had been letting us know it was low. Anyway, we plugged it in (not easy given where it’s parked) for 24 hours to charge up but thought a run would be beneficial.
Friends of ours, Maria and Jane, wanted to visit the WW2 code breaking centre at Bletchley Park, which is less than an hour from us so we decided to join them. We got the campsite, Old Dairy Farm Camping at Stoke Hammond, around 13.30 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a pretty cold and miserable February day but we were cosy in their Adria van catching up over a cup of tea whilst Liz was on an environmental training course. We cooked in both vans that evening but ate together. As it was so cold, we made sure the heating was on low overnight, especially as Liz was coming down with a cold.
We realised that we hadn’t been out in Dora for a while. This was mainly due to family commitments and Jo having knee surgery in late September. A while ago we had signed up for a rally with the Adria Owners Club down in Dorset. We hadn’t been on a rally with this lot before but thought we should give it a go. It also included a brewery tour so what’s not to like?
We left late on Thursday afternoon thinking that we would get caught up in all sorts of traffic but the run down was uneventful and in good time. We thought we wouldn’t arrive until around 21.30 but we were on our pitch at South Lytchett Manor Campsite (S4S#224625) well before 21.00. Dinner in the oven and bottle of wine opened. All very civilised.
We love going away for short (or long) breaks in Dora. We aren’t proud! So, when an ex-neighbour was celebrating his 60th birthday in Tintagel at the weekend, we thought why not? Jo had volunteering on the Thursday afternoon and we also had tickets for the recording of the BBC Podcast, The Kitchen Cabinet, in the evening so that meant a Friday morning start. However, everything took a bit longer than anticipated which meant that we didn’t leave home until after 11.00. We were also driving via our friends in Hampshire to pick up some artwork they had kindly brought back from Denmark for us. We turned down lunch as we had already had biblical rain on our way down and suspected more was to come, slowing our journey down.
Continue readingWe needed to leave the Edinburgh campsite by midday on Tuesday (August 20th) but we only had a 90 minute drive to our next site at St Andrews. So, we decided to take a detour to Falkirk to see the Wheel and the Kelpies. Luckily, they weren’t too far apart and both had fantastic parking for campervans with just a short walk to the attractions.
After a slight delay due to seeing a consultant about Jo’s knee and her subsequent steroid injection, we set off to Edinburgh late Tuesday morning (August 13). We needed to be at the site just north of Edinburgh by 20.00 so we only stopped for coffee refills and the toilet during our 400 mile drive north. A quick stop at Keele and Tebay services meant we arrived with 45 minutes to spare. We had taken the scenic route along the A702 from the A74 and it was gorgeous in between the rain showers! Onto our pitch and we were soon heating up the lovely pies we bought at Tebay Services Farmshop. We were shocked how cold it was in comparison to down south. There must have been at least a 10°C difference in temperature and it had started raining from Stafford onwards. Relatively early to bed as it had been a long day.
A long weekend was in store for us to celebrate Brighton Pride in early August so we left home around 19.00 on the Thursday evening. We arrived at the Caravan Club site just north of the marina two hours later having driven through horrendous thunderstorms and parked up in the Late Night Arrivals Area with another van and caravan. The site were very kind and checked we were ok despite being outside of their working hours. A quiet night and as soon as the office opened at 09.00 we were booked in and settled on the pitch but not before we ensured that the appropriate bunting was hung out!
In early July we had a few days away in Henley on Thames whilst the Royal Regatta Rowing week was on. We had booked a couple of nights at the Four Oaks Campsite just a mile outside of Henley town centre. We had taken our bikes to make it easier to explore the best vantage points to watch the races. We didn’t have tickets to any of the enclosures so we were mixing with the common people.
We had been invited down to Weston Super Mare to visit friends but as they had a full house, we took Dora to make life easier as we could sleep in her. We left on Sunday, June 2 around 13.15 after Liz had done her bit volunteering at a nearby wetland park and had an uneventful but slow journey down. We found a large enough spot to park right outside their flat which was extraordinary given we were close to the front and it was a lovely sunny day! We had time to catch up with old friends before eating out a local Greek restaurant, The Thatched Cottage, that evening.
For those who would like to see where we actually went….
It seemed like only yesterday that we left the UK but our time away was coming to an end. We needed to start heading west from Würzburg on Friday, April 26. We had one last palace on our list to visit first and that was Heidelberg Schloss (Schloss is palace and Burg is castle). It was pretty tricky driving through the narrow streets up to the palace and we could see why people parked in the city and caught the funicular! We managed to get into the car park (P4N#161562) and walked down to the palace. We both thought that it would be less of a ruin than it was so we walked around the gardens and took in the views but didn’t bother to pay to go into the courtyard. It might have been that we were ‘castled’ out as well.
It was wonderful to wake up to the view of Hohenzollern castle above us on Wednesday, April 24. We were the only ones in the car park and it started snowing (just for a change)! We had booked to go on the first tour of the day at 10.00 so there were very few people with us on the shuttle bus up the steep climb to the entrance. The castle dates back to 1267 and became the seat of the Kings of Prussia. It was pretty cold at the top but with great views across the countryside.
As we didn’t have a Swiss vignette, we kept to the minor roads as we headed north from Vaduz, Liechtenstein back towards the SW of Germany. The Swiss roads were quiet on a Saturday afternoon (April 20) and it was lovely to gently make our way towards the German town of Konstanz. The town sits on the southern side of Bodensee (Lake Constance) despite the rest of that part of the lake still being in Switzerland. We had originally thought we would stay there overnight but we didn’t like the look of the place so we caught a ferry across the lake from Konstanz to Meersburg. What a difference!
Continue readingOnce we made the decision to drive to Liechtenstein (a country in its own right since 1719) after lunch at Kristall Thermal Baths at Schwangau, we made good progress but had to be careful that we didn’t accidentally get sent onto any Swiss motorways as we didn’t have a vignette. 40CHF (Swiss Francs) seemed a hefty cost for basically using a couple of motorways. Our vignette for Austria still had a day left (thanks W&S) so we were okay for that part of the journey. We crossed from Germany into Austria and Switzerland to get to Liechtenstein. The weather was pretty atrocious with snow, hail and rain. We headed towards Vaduz, never knew that was the name of the capital, and stopped at the Royal Winery on the way in for a quick tasting before purchasing a case of very nice rosè.
We left Dachau on Thursday afternoon, April 18, around 15.30 in a somewhat somber mood. We headed south west towards Füssen, still in Bavaria, close to the border with Austria. On the way, we went to see the village of Oberammergau up in the Alps where the Passion Plays are performed every ten years. Jo’s parents went there in 1990 so she was keen to see what it was like. The weather was still a mix of rain, sleet and snow but thankfully it stopped whilst we walked around the village with its painted houses. We had parked up near the centre so only had a 10 minute walk into the centre (P4N#417898).
Dora The Explorer 