Braehead Villa Moray

Evening all!

Well today is our first day on our Scottish adventure. Our day started early enough and by 9am we were off on the road. We have TWO tour guides this time around, Matt and Chris who alternate driving and pointing out all the interesting things. Again there's about 40 people on the tour, 28 Aussies, a couple of kiwis, 4 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Indian, a couple of South Africans and a lady from Turkey who can barely speak English (a la Alfred ...

... my packed lunch that Helena has made for me.
Cheers Sis!
I
make it all the way to Carlisle before stopping at Tescos for break and
some food, straight to the hot food counter for some hot chicken legs,
mmm! That will keep me going for a bit! I keep going and head to
Culrain where my next hostel is ...

... who don't have any vacancies find me a nice single room at a friend's B&B a couple of minutes away, where I'm welcomed by Peter, the giant labrador!

What made me smile today:

The freedom of not having my bag - it really took the weight off my feet

Watching the jets from RAF Tain training over the Dornoch Firth - a great job if it involved only practice...

More blackberries!

... for quite some time and my blog finally gets underway. I also get to meet their two gorgeous labradors - Keira and Indie - big softies the pair of them!

What makes me smile today:

Blackberries from the hedgerows - Mum, there will be masses in about 10 days!

Some delicious home-made gingerbread given to me by Isobel, a guest at the Youth Hostel last night

The ice-cream shop in Brora, a much needed energy boost

The seals on the beach

... there is another 50 metre stretch of path/cycle lane. Money well spent!
Finally the "Welcome to Helmsdale" sign appears but, yet again, the wind has other ideas and sweeps me off my feet! By the time I get to the hostel door, I'm a hobbling, exhausted wreck and the effusive greeting I get from the owner, Irene and her lovely collie, Molly, is incredibly welcome.
The hostel has a wood-burning stove and is ...

... and I can't see what's wrong with it.

For some reason, I come over all emotional after Lybster, it must have been the sugar! Pulling myself together, I try to make it to Dunbeath but by a tiny place called Latheronwheel the siren's call of a B&B sign is too much and I stagger to their door.

Sandy and Betty are lovely and help me hang the tent up in their garage to fully dry out, then force feed ...

So were here at the castle.. Spent the whole day doing nothing... There is not much to do around here expect walk into the woods in the extreme cold.. Castle is dead during the day.. no one around.. it really sucks not having a car. We have decided ...

... and thought it would be really cool to stay there, so that's where I was heading. (www.sleeperzzz.com) I don't know if this place was on the way or not (you'll see why in the next entry), but I had to stop and take a photo for my friend Joe. He'll understand why!

We woke up to the gentle pitter patter of rain drops upon our canvas shelters (a nice change to the resounding trumpeting of Carl and Phils snoring). Crawling outsie it was clear that the weather had taken a turn for the worse overnight. The previous days sunburn were all things of the past as we donned leggings and waterproofs. I didn't have leggings but I did have 'knee warmers' - sort of ...

A little hung over from the previous night, of course breakfast had to be at 7:45am. We got to see some spectacular scenery of Northern Scotland from the bus which took us to the fields of CULLODEN VISITOR CENTRE. This told the story of the Hanoverian victory over Bonnie Prince Charlie's Scottish Clans. From the centre we walked the paths of the battlefield that had memorial stones to the different clan names and markers where they also stood for the ...