Summer holiday

I’m not long returned from a few weeks holiday in Scotland with Jan and Daisy and the van.  We began by going up to the far north and the beaches of the Durness Coast for the first week.  This is a wonderful area with litter-free, pristine beaches.  There’s no rubbish at all, not even in the tide-line.  We found just golden sands and blue skies.  The forecast had been for some rain every day but it turned out to be great weather nearly every day.

It was Daisy’s first encounter with the sea.  It was interesting to watch her learning to treat it with the respect it deserves.

One day I thought I had spotted the curved back of a number of diving otters but, when they resurfaced, I realised they were cormorants doing a bit of fishing.  It was good to see the cormorants but we have seen otters in Scotland before and still hope one day to see them again.  We also spent some time dabbling around in rock pools.  It’s a great way to spend a few hours as long as you keep an eye open for the tide coming in!

We then went to see friends who live with a view of Skye.  It was his birthday so we enjoyed his party and the next day a large group of us had a good hill walk to celebrate.  We had intended to do a ridge walk but it was just too windy and wet so we settled for a round walk.  The mountain is going nowhere so the ridge can wait for another day.

Eventually we moved across to Ardnamurchan.  The weather was beginning to change but Ardnamurchan is a beautiful area and I cycled around each day.  It gave me an opportunity to get fitter for a coast-to-coast cycling trip that came at the end of the holiday.

Then we drove back south to Gretna where I met a group of friends for the cycling.  Beginning at Gretna we cycled via Kielder across to the east coast and then back to Bellingham on the first day.  We camped overnight and then continued back to Gretna on the second – a total distance of 180 miles.

It was a good trip.

Daisy here:

I’ve been on my holidays.  It was great.  
I’ve been in the van with Roy and Jan.  It was fantastic.  
I’ve been in the sea. Ugh!  I don’t like the sea.