As I type this I’m sitting in the backseat of our car as we drive through the Scottish highlands.
It’s been a fairly borrrrrrring day of driving and weather. We left Morecambe before 9:00 a.m. and except for one stop at a stone circle have been heading north ever since. I did ask Patrick (who does ALL the driving) how he can keep driving so well when everything seems backwards to me. He said he just keeps saying to himself “left, left, left, left.”
We’ve seen sun, mist, rain, hail and yes, even snow. It’s 3:00 p.m. and we’ve still got an hour to drive to get to Inverness – tonight’s destination.
Nessie @ Castlerigg
We did stop at the Castlerigg Stone Circle and it was pretty nice. I think the biggest problem now is that we already saw Stonehenge (fabulous) and now we’re comparing everything to that. I think a smart traveler would see Stonehenge at the end of their trip instead of in the middle. The Castlerigg Stone Circle is near Keswick in northern England. It’s 90 feet across, 5,000 years old and has 38 stones.
As we entered Scotland it seemed a bit like southwest Washington – rolling hills and trees. Now that we’re further north there are still hills but fewer trees. I’m thinking that what we’re in is the “heath” – rolling open hills with only very low vegetation. I’m also guessing that what we’re seeing is heather (?) but right now it’s all brown and looks quite dead.
Funny thing though – in last night’s B&B garden and along the road earlier today there was a lot of what looked like good ol’ yellow scotch broom – although I believe it’s called gorse here.
We stopped twice today to fill up on Costa coffee – it’s pretty good and Patrick and I like it. We also filled up the car with diesel. Gulp. It was £65! That works out to $97.50. Egad. It was $8.00 a gallon. No wonder we see so many tiny cars here…
It’s hailing again and there are still spots of snow left from winter. I’m glad we’re in the car right now and not trying to do any sightseeing.
We’re all tired and grumpy – it’ll be good tomorrow to be staying local and seeing things within Inverness. We’ll have a chance to catch up on food other than (veggie) burgers and fries and hopefully get some sleep. My cold is about gone but Amber’s got a sore throat and sniffles, and Patrick has a sore throat now too.
My Room @ Dionard Guest House
Later… Goggle maps says we’ve driven 564 miles in the past two days (over 300 miles just today). We made it to our B&B just fine – great directions! It’s named the Dionard Guest House and all I can say so far is: jackpot! I’ve got a huge room with a bathroom big enough to turn around in! I’m in heaven! Of course, we’ll have to see if the bed is comfy or not, but so far, it’s good. After a tiring two days on the road we made it here without any manslaughter charges (ok, ok, ok in all fairness, it was close a few times), so I think it’ll all be sweet from here on.
