Heading north - before everything went pear-shaped

Picture-heavy. Happened on 16th July

After a 300 mile drive to Culloden, a fabulous 'rest day' at Clava Cairns:










Then I headed north towards Gill's Bay where the ferry leaves for South Ronaldsay. There was a very necessary stop on the way - the stunning Càrn Liath broch.











In a time before all the modern conveniences we now take mostly for granted, I think a broch would have been a warm and cosy place to live. Even with only a couple of metres of wall intact there was a feeling of calm and enclosure inside, and total protection from the wind.














This was followed by a quick stop at Duncansby Head whose carpark was busy for a damp Sunday afternoon. Which is how I got the "last" parking space at the furthest end and Blue Bus became (for a short while) the most north-easterly vehicle on the mainland:









Then a short drive down to Ferry View, a small and thoroughly idiosyncratic campsite within walking distance of the ferry terminal. If you are more comfortable with 'normal' campsites that have full facilities and are ordered and regimented then this is not the place for you. If you're OK with Findhorn meets Glastonbury then this is a charming, quirky place to pitch, and Vikki & Royston will do anything they can to ensure you have a great stay. Lovely, lovely young couple, I wish them every continued success.







Supper freshly cooked once you have ordered, so there was time to read, and get through perhaps a little more vino than intended, in a converted bus as a very comfortable dining area. By this time I already knew I was not sailing at 08.30 the following morning 😢 .

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

Phew - landed back at Bag End around 4.00pm yesterday.

Blue Bus and I had a very relaxing drive down from Fort William taking a different route than that I usually follow; ignoring the A82/Loch Lomond and heading further east before I turned south was a brilliant decision and probably the quickest and most relaxing journey back from Scotland I have ever had. Of course it took longer than really necessary because I drove past a huge Antique Centre and it would have been rude not to pop in. 😊 😊

I have now got a huge quantity of laundry to do, a van to completely clean inside and out, and much thinking to work out how to organise 781 photos and share the best bits here. For now I will start with the last picture I took at the campsite this time yesterday morning when I stepped out of the van to complete silence:




It appears I holidayed in the one part of the country which has had relatively little rain over the last two weeks. Here it has rained a great deal and the garden has positively exploded in my absence. Good job that the entire month of August has officially been given over to "house and garden maintenance" with Husband supposedly signing up to help.

“ The View From “

My view from the last campsite of what has turned out to be a wonderful couple of weeks, especially considering there was no pre-planning whatsoever.

Blue Bus and I have to endure (ha ha) this view for just two nights before I head back to the Lake District.

Hardship?

It currently does not feel like much of a hardship to have made the decision to change plans:

This is where I stopped for lunch:






This is where I pulled over for a short while before checking into my campsite for the next three nights:




To steal from the wonderful Supertramp - "Hardship, what hardship?"

and pivot . . .

On Sunday afternoon I learned that, not for the first time this year, Pentland Ferries were having "difficulties" and had cancelled their services.

As a result Blue Bus and I were not on the early sailing Monday morning, or the next one, or the one after that. Much of Monday was occupied with text messages, emails, phone calls and a lot of stress. Not just the stress of having my careful plans thrown into disarray but the major stress of travelling across one of the most 'lively' stretches of water in the British Isles on a vessel operated by a company whose safety record was becoming increasingly questionable and in whom I sadly now have very little confidence.

At the end of the day I finally made what I knew, deep down inside, was the right decision for me, even though it was incredibly difficult, and completely changed my holiday plans - something of a 180° pivot. I am staying on the mainland, on terra firma, keeping my feet - and my Bus wheels - on solid ground. The help I received from Sian in Orkney, the many local people to whom I spoke during the day, and the Caravan Club prevented a complete panic attack and meltdown and I will forever be grateful to all of them - especially Sian. xxx

Of course I am deeply disappointed but I have really, really enjoyed the Orkney planning and anticipation so overall the exercise has not been completely without merit. I now have an itinerary which takes me down the west side of Scotland (no, I am NOT doing the NC500 ☺️) and unless I have to make more changes I will still be away for the planned duration.


I did not want to spend all of Monday just sitting around waiting so I went off for a drive along the northern coast of our country. I found it very bleak, very flat, very exposed and extremely windy. Ended up at a tiny, ruined Medieval chapel (c. 1100 AD). Whilst a lot more recent than the sites I expected to visit it was still a lovely spot and I thoroughly enjoyed my walk to get there.










Once in the middle of nowhere out of sight of civilisation there was noise, quite a lot of noise. I could not help but think " bluddy hell, on top of everything else today it sounds like I am being shot at" and I knew it was live rounds, they sound very different to blanks.

I had binoculars with me to bird-watch and in the distance I could see people in camo clothing and ear defenders. I could also see what was obviously training/guidance being given to men in civilian clothing with hand guns. Turns out I was next to the Live Fire Training Area for Dounraey Nuclear Police. You couldn't make this up!

If I was being particularly silly (or had opened another bottle of Malbec) it could be inferred that I have avoided potential drowning and a possible gunshot wound today. Goddess help us, this was meant to be a relaxing holiday.

End of the road?

At 3.00pm today, Blue Bus was the most north-easterly vehicle on the British mainland.




Duncansby Head was fairly busy, a bit damp & grey and very windy. A stark contrast from this morning's coffee stop at Càrn Liath where I had the place to myself in bright sunshine.

Mind completely blown, and I am not even on Orkney yet:

To whet your appetite (and mine 😉)

With Sian's permission, there is now a link to her lovely Orkney site on my sidebar and this is the sort of beauty you will find if you visit:

Life on a (nearly) Small Island




Busy playing fridge Tetris . . .

Happily mired in list making

Right now I have lists all over the place. The best places for my lists are notebooks and on multiple pieces of (organised) paper because if I try to keep everything in my head it all goes horribly wrong. I have always been a List Maker and not going to change now - this is what works for me, your mileage might vary.

There are lists for campsites, clothes, places I want to visit if I have the time, places I ~have~ to be at a precise time because I had to pre-book a ticket, but the biggest and most complex list is for food.



Me and eating is not simple, oh how I wish it was. A combination of borderline diabetes, semi-vegetarian and a couple of things I have to avoid because they make me feel like shite* means I cannot just pop into whichever cafe/restaurant looks nice and order whatever I fancy off the menu.

Whilst it would be lovely to make the spontaneous decision to order fish & chips because they smell sooooo good walking past a chippie (and I'd probably enjoy every mouthful) I would not enjoy feeling like cr*p for hours afterwards so most of the time it is far less stressful and easier to take my own meals wherever I go.

(* have you noticed how much Rapeseed Oil is in our food these days . . . sigh)

All the regular pre-holiday lists pale into nothingness when compared with trying to get my head around two weeks worth of three meals a day plus snacks with a just two gas rings, a very small fridge and even smaller freezer compartment.

But it will be so, so worth it especially as once I have settled on the first 7 or 8 days I will just put the cycle on rinse & repeat, AND know that I have created a blueprint for a [not-yet-booked-but-being-thought-about] September trip, and each adventure thereafter. Once I have organised everything for Orkney I don't need to reinvent the wheel each time I go away.

Which is the P-L-A-N, but if you remember the old Bag End garden/house/dog blog you will know that plan is a 4-letter word!

Talking of dog . . .

The one where Blue Bus gets some bling, and loses some weight

Firstly, Happy "Birthday" to my dear Bus. She came to live here one year ago today. 🎂 🎉 🍾

Blue Bus already had bling. Big 20" bling in the form of massive after-market wheels which were fitted by Hillside as part of the conversion to a campervan. I must 'fess up to blaming the previous owner for this unnecessary upgrade but I was wrong.

    (purchase day last year)

These are wheels which I hated with an irrational passion because having such a big rim means less room in the wheel arch for the really important rubbery stuff and as a result I had low-profile tyres which I dislike intensely (and are really where the irrational hate and loathing is directed).

I have muttered and grumbled about changing the wheels on my sweet van ever since I bought her, but done nothing about it other than occasionally look online at alloy wheels, utter some ear-blistering swear words accompanied by "you're having a laugh, right?" when I see the price, and then abandoning the idea for another three months. This situation would have continued for some considerable time if Himself's Aunty had not passed away last year. Unbeknown to us she had left money to each of her nieces and nephews and recently we received a small but unexpected cheque. Himself decided this should be split between us both and that as it was not enough of a sum to make a big difference to our lives it was perfectly OK to spend it on something frivolous.


He rapidly purchased some new computer equipment which I know he has wanted for ages but could not really justify and then persuaded me to get the wheels I wanted, or rather wheels of a size that meant I could have the tyres I wanted, because in my world-view tyres are one of the most important parts of a vehicle as they are what connect me (and my brakes) to terra firma. Fun Fact: I have a history of changing wheels/tyres on pretty much every vehicle I have ever owned and can get rather obsessive about it all. The staff at our local tyre specialist are either so nice to me because it is safer than disagreeing or are so nice to me because I've spent so much there over the years!

It is quite possible that no-one else will really notice much difference, but ~ I ~ know that the handling is better, the ride is smoother & more quiet, and I have twice as much tyre sidewall as before which was the whole point.



It also helped that I came across a VW parts supplier selling brand new, genuine wheels for a fraction of what the 'specialists' charge. I'm not normally one for linking to other companies but this firm have been a pleasure to deal with, they are wholly owned by a massive Audi/VW dealership in Crewe. My purchase was not straightforward and the measure of a good company is how they handle an order when things are not quick and simple. These guys were fabulous.

On the weight issue, Blue Bus came with the ubiquitous Fiamma 45S awning cassette bolted to the side. Not used it in a year, not easy to wind out on your own without risking scratching the side of the van, not my thing (and contributed to wind noise when travelling). At nearly 25kg I was concerned about my ability to help Himself remove it but the arrival of a helpful friend one afternoon meant that in less than ten minutes the offending item was off Blue Bus and sitting on the drive. Hurrah!





At some point I will need to make a decision about whether the awning stays off and we take off the brackets (which would involve filling holes and I expect the paintwork underneath them will turn out to be damaged) but that can wait. In the meantime I have covered them with some vinyl car wrap stuff which doesn't look too bad. Whether it will withstand the weather is another matter entirely (and yes, try saying that 3 times, very fast 🤣).