Slowly on our way back to the ferrie

Yesterday morning we said goodbey to the North Coast 500 route and went on our way back to the ferry. We didn’t want to rush so we have a few days for the 460 km drive. We decided to go right trough the middle of the Cairngorm national park. We know the area a bit because we spent lot of weekends there.

I started the day with my first drive ever in Tos, must say I didn’t too bad. Eventhough I only drove it out of the camperpitch and campsite. Then I switched places with Tanguy again. But at least I know now that I can move the van at all, had some doubts about that.

Liane’s first drive with Tos

It was the first day of cloudy skies and rain of the holiday, but the surroundings were still lovely. The hills could be very steep, up to at least 20%, but we made it! We even got trough Devils Elbow 😈

Ski lifts


The steepest slope of the holidays

Tanguy found a campsite via Google. The site said that they would re-open in summer 2017, so to be sure we gave them a call. The campsite was still not open, but we could still camp there, free of charge. It was at an unnamed road on the edge of the Cairngorms. Sounded good enough, so we drove there. It was very small but okay. 

Unfortunately the rain wipers didn’t feel to enthusiastic today. After not being used for so long they just needed a little bit off help every turn. So to help the wipers on their way back we both had to bang on the windscreen to help the wipers over a death point. It worked, but needed to be looked at.

Just a few miles from the “camping” we needed to cross another cattle grid. We crossed a lot of them already this holiday so we weren’t prepared for what happend next. When we got off the grid Tos got luanched! All four wheels came from the ground and we fell back down with a hard bang. We were both in shock, what the f*ck happened? We weren’t speeding, the road was okay, but there must have been a dip just behind the grid with a launch platform right behind it. After some seconds we stopped to check the car. The camper part was okay, except for some books who fell down. But the cars exhaust had gotten the full blow. The exhaust is at this stupit place quite low under the nose of the cars, so it’s always the first to hit the ground when anything happens, also this time. Luckily Tos still runs fine, he only makes even more noise than normal. We decided to leave it for now and fix it when we are back home.

The camping which hasn’t been open for over a year


Our camping spot for the night

After we arrived Tanguy had a look at the rain wipers and motor, turned out to be (another) broken wire. He fixed it and now it works perfectly.

That night the wind began to blow and today was sunny but with a very hard stormy winds gusting up to 9 bft. Hard work to keep Tos straight.We passed Edinburgh and are on a campsite in Dunbar on the east coast. It is still very windy but we wil fire up the BBQ later on for the last BBQ mail of these holidays. Tomorrow we go to Newcastle and have a night out.

The bridge near Edinburgh 

Windy, but sunny

Preparing diner

Steak on the way

Preventing the bbq from blowing away

Enjoy 😋

Car problems and whisky

Yesterday evening we booked a distillery tour at Balblair, we wanted to be sure we didn’t miss out this time. The tour started at eleven so the plan was to have breakfast at the local Cocoa Mountain (there are only two shops in the whole world and we found the second one) and after breakfast we would go to Edderton were the Balblair distillery is stationed.

Things turned out differently. After a quick shower Tos was packed well in time and we were ready for that delicious mocca hot chocolat from Cocoa Mountain. So we jumped in the van and drove off, NOT!

For the first time this holiday Tos did not want to started 😢. Turned out the battery was empty because the dynamo did not do what it is supposed to do, charge the battery. We had a quick look and decided to change the starter battery with the extra one for the camping part. It didn’t took too long but we still had to skip the hot cocoa for breakfast to be in time at the distillery. I was a little disappointed by that, but we had already booked the tour, so well, these things happen. 

We arrived well in time at Balblair. And one of the nice things about a campervan is that you can allways make coffee, and so we did. We had coffee and a croissant for breakfast at the parking of Balblair.

Breakfast in front of the distillery

At eleven it was time for the tour. Due to new health regulation laws it is not allowed to make photos inside the distillery, so no pictures from the making process. But it is a nice small distillery, not the most beautiful one we ever visited, but nice.

Cask filling - 45 seconds for 250L whisky

Cask on its way ti the warehouse

Inside the warehouse

After the tour it was tasting time, and of course we bought a bottle. A very special one this time! It is a single cask whisky which we bottled ourselfves. Our names are in the bottle and in the archives of Balblair. So we made a little bit of history today 😊. Bottle 228 of cask 711 from the year 2006 is bottled by Tanguy and Liane Cagé.

We are on the kable and in the books






Pouring the bottle




Labelling


And there it is

After making our own history it was time for some serious Scottisch history, the Culloden battleground. The way there was beautiful again, green and full of Furze (Brem in Dutch). 

Culloden itself was impressive, as to all wars there’s more of a story behind it than just the Scottish against the British. It was the Jacobites fighting for their king Stuart, against the British Government. Both armies contained Scottsmen and British men, but the Jacobite army also contained French and Irish soldiers. Culloden was the last full-scaled battle to be fought on British soil, and meant the end of the Scottisch Clan culture. 

1800 soldiers were killed here within one hour






Fraser - One of the important clans during the battle

We spent quite some time an the memorial grounds, not even trying to imagine how it must have been there on 16th of April 1746.

Being still a bit impressed, and thinking also about the problems with Tos we diceded to leave Inverness behind and started our way towards Newcastle. So we found a nice campsite in Craggie and had a look at the car. We think we fixed the problem with the dynamo for now, and cleaned the bougies. It will hopefully take us home now. And there we will take some more time to solve the problems more seriously.

We had dinner outside in the sun 😊

Taking 365 steps downstairs to an old harbour, and back up again

This morning when we left the campsite we spoke to a Flemish couple.They told us about Whaligoe. Whaligoe is an old fishing port, dating back from 1786. To get to the naturally shaped port you have to go down the 330 steps counting stairs man made back in 1786.  It used to be 365 steps wich the fisher ladies had to climb carrying baskets of herring on there backs. It got its name because of the whales who used to wash up ashore there. Goe means cliff, hense the name.

Before taking the challenge of Whaligoe we visited the whisky distillery of Pulteney and bought a nice bottle of whisky there to take home. Tos is getting pretty filled up by al the trophies from our holliday. On the way to Pulteney we came by the shortest street in the world, officially recognized by the guiness book of records, Ebenezer place. Only 2,06 mtr long but officially a street since 1887.

The entrance of this hotel is officially a street


Entrance to Pulteney distillery

“Dunnet Head” limited idition

So after this little sidetrip we drove to Whaligoe. Thanks to the good directions we’ve got from the Flemmish we found the steps quite easily. There is no sign or anything to find them.

Before we went down the man who takes care of the steps now stopped us to tell us the history of the steps and the port. His grandfather was one of the last fisherman to go to sea from this port. His story made the visit even more interesting.

Liane looking out over the cliff


Tanguy had to climb to higher grounds


The stairway down to the harbour

The winch that used to pull the fishing boats onto the quay. 

Looking out for whales

Down the steps was easy, getting back up a bit harder. Think of how hard it must have been for the women back then with all that fish on there backs.

Unfortunately the restaurant on top of the stairs was closed on Monday’s so we drove furher towards the south.

At the little place of Lybster we made another stop to visit the harbour, once the third largest harbour of Scotland, al that remains now is a visitor centre and a few boats.

The harbour’s lighthouse


Visitor Centre


Mini fishing boat

We payed the visitor centre a visit before heading to the second distillery of the day,  Clynelish.

Clynelish Distillery

The whisky they sold was the same as we could buy in Holland and far more expensive, so we left without a bottle here.

Tos is acting up a little, puffing and plopping a lot, and being way to thirsty than we are used. So we decided to find a campsite and give him some attention. On the way we spotted some seals ending up later as planned on the campsite. Tos has got to wait till tomorrow.

Seals sunbathing

After diner we made a walk along the beach before having a last drink outside the van. It is still a bit chilly but better than it has been in days. We lit a candle to keep the midges away.

Sunset over land - We’re on the east coast

Good night