John o'Groats and below

Drove all the way up to John o’Groats today. Nice day, sun shone all day, first time it’s done that in Scotland. Stopped at Shin Waterfall, nothing particularly spectacular, but would be when the salmon are running. So just imagine the salmon leaping up this waterfall and it looks amazing!

Took a photo of another group in front of the John o’Groats sign, they of course then reciprocated proving we’ve done the length of the country! Notice that it has New Zealand on the bottom of the sign – no other countries! Gus is pointing to Napier. We have now travelled 2,350 miles in the Enterprise! It has certainly been no hardship doing that distance. Just so easy when we can take our time and stop for the night as we please. Not like some of the drives we’ve done in New Zealand; getting far north or far south in one or two days, especially with bored children in the car! (No offence Liam & Hayden, we do miss you really!!)

We were surprised at how close the Orkney Islands are, you can easily see them in this photo, with the high cliffs. We tossed up briefly about going across for a day trip tomorrow but weren’t sure how interesting it would be, decided to save the money for something else.

Tonight we’ve found ourselves a lovely spot well off the main road, first time we’ve free-camped. Have thought about it a few times, but either haven’t had enough water or gas or haven’t been able to find the right spot.

Drove on through highlands – very bland for a long time: heather and more heather; but then got into some dramatic scenery. Lochs, munros (small mountains), sandy beaches. I must read up more on the land clearances because they were apparently the reason that the highlands are so empty now. It’s hard to imagine how big numbers of people would have scraped a living here anyway, with all their clan culture etc.

Stopped in to see Smoo Cave, as we were passing, weren’t expecting a lot but it was beautiful, even had a waterfall right inside.

Saw a herd of deer, have seen a few individual ones before; one in the Lake District. This was the first time we’d seen a stag with his hinds; can’t be many countries you can photograph wild deer from the road without getting out of the vehicle!

Oh and of course we saw another castle, the sign said there are two ghosts who live in the castle; one in the castle itself and one on the beach. So this photo is of me peering rather nervously around the corner as I approach. Luckily I don’t really believe in such things :-)

Getting back to civilisation at last, after a full day’s driving, we came to Loch Ness. Is a long narrow lake a bit like Lake Whakatipu, with high mountains on the other side. No sign of Nessy :). We’re staying two nights now near Fort William, within sight of Ben Nevis. It’s not the most excitingly huge mountain, a bit smaller than the Hawkes Bay ranges but it’s the biggest mountain in the UK so we won’t murmur a mutter! Looking forward to no driving tomorrow and hopefully a bit of biking/walking. Having great weather, hoping that holds too!

Well they do say be careful what you wish for! The day dawned beautifully so we set off to bike from Fort William to Gairlochy, and at least part way up Loch Lochy. There were seven lochs at the beginning called ‘Neptune’s Staircase’. We have found these locks a constant source of fascination, the way they are so simple but so clever. We hadn’t actually seen one working yet so were fascinated to see some boats going through. There were ocean-going yachts going through this time, not narrow boats. The canal was beautiful, had a lovely flat path next to it, the ‘tow path’. The biking was really easy and pleasant and I was feeling good so we decided to keep going.

We came upon Loch Lochy and that was gorgeous, a few small hills, but still a good track so no problems. Gus was starting to make murmurs by now about how far we still had to go back, but I was determined to get to a town or at least a shop to have something to eat first. We had only brought a banana each with us because we fully expected to find something to buy – you always can in the UK (maybe not so much in this part of Scotland).

Anyway by the time we got almost to the far end of the lake, I started to realise there was no way I was going to be able to turn around and bike back. The track had got a lot tougher and it had taken a lot longer to get there than either of us envisaged, we had to bike an extra 5km diversion because of logging, which involved a steep and rough forestry track. There was no town at the end of the lake; it turned out there wasn’t one for another 10 miles(!) but thank whatever you may believe in, there was a barge pub. I think the lady was a little taken aback at my enthusiasm to have found her!! We decided the only thing to do was for Gus to bike back and get the campervan and come and pick me up – we had been biking for 4 hours and had covered 39kms! Gus was able to get back to the camper in under 2 hours and came back to rescue me in the Enterprise, my hero... Anyway the new rule is, I don’t bike more than 2 hours away from the Enterprise!!

Today we’ve driven down to Loch Lomond, it is really beautiful. We took the scenic route around the coast so passed lots of lochs (most really inlets but still called lochs) on the way. The good weather has kept up and now is really starting to get hot. We ate tea outside for the first time in our camp chairs, looking forward to more of this weather! It is incredibly flat water, apparently it’s often like this, because of all the hills around us, and they have set several world speed records on this lake in the past. If we could just zap our boat and Liam & Hayden over here, they would love it!! The water is still a little chilly for our liking, we put our toes in but that was about it. Tomorrow we're thinking of another bike ride...