Back on the (NC500) road again

 Since we have done almost half of the NC500 by accident, we decided we may as well finish it - well most of it, so off we go. Everywhere here we stopped and chatted to someone and mentioned the NC500 they asked which way are you going? Their answer ( as we are going anticlockwise) was always “Oh you have the best to come”. We’ll see! When we lived in London I always thought east is best, so it will be interesting to see if in fact the west coast is best.

Having been on a site in Orkney, we were happy to look for free park ups again, heading across the top of Scotland, it certainly was beautiful, stunning in fact.  As we travelled along I was chatting to my friend Jane about her childhood holidays visiting family and we found ourselves passing Dounray Power station, just after Jane mentioned she visited as a child… I adore Jane’s mum and dad, they are very much part of my growing up and we've been travelling roads very familiar to them. So Jan, Tom, Jane, here it is, in all its glory!

Having taken a detour to find a park up we once again found ourselves in a little harbour; Kinlochbervie is set up for motorhomes to stop, with water, electric hook up (for those who need it) and toilets, all for £10 a night.

It's perfect. It’s a busy fishing port

but the harbour for motorhomes is just across the road, and down a hill past the shop and cafe quiet, and stunning.

We found ourselves parked up with about 10 other vans and soon started chatting. We noticed a really unusual van we had seen on Orkney, so just had to say hello and ended up pulling up our chairs and chatting away as if we’d known each other for years. Our neighbouring ‘van’ were a local(ish) couple, braver than us, they had stuffed a blow up mattress in the back of their van and decided to have a night away. The dog, the garden chairs and a smoker for their fish. Granted the man was a fisherman who used to fish out of here, so is used to much rougher conditions than a warm van and a sunny harbourside, but still. I was impressed by their commitment!

As you can see we have a little beach, and plenty of birdlife - so much so there was no chance of concrete drying before the feathered friends landed. This did make me smile - I just hope they didn’t have heavy feet as they took off!

Lunch the next day was at Loch Dubhaird Mor just at the side of the road, but beautiful as ever.

We had however started to notice as we turned south to head down the west coast the scenery began to change, more rugged, more mountains and the road began to deteriorate. The pot holes were awful, at one point we thought we Agy might sustain an injury! We weren’t going fast as we had lots of single track lanes and passing places, or steep hills that we had to climb slowly, but we were doing fine. While we were at Kinlochbervie one of our other fellow travellers who was going the other way round had mentioned how hard they had found it to find places to stop on the west coast. Apparently there are very few stopovers and most sites are fully booked, so we were a bit anxious. Luckily they mentioned a site off the beaten track they had stayed at, so we headed to Mellon Udrigal beach and managed to bag the last pitch on site.

We’d heard about sea otters and whales visiting this beach, but no luck for us, although it was a beautiful white sandy beach - although very windy!

To be honest the next day we were a bit fed up with the west coast. The roads were in an appalling condition, in fact for bikers they were positively life threatening. We slowly rattled and bumped along, Ian doing his best to avoid the holes and bits where the road had completely worn away. The mountains were amazing, but we finally admitted to each other, we didn’t like it. We couldn’t wait for it to finish. The mountains didn’t feel majestic to us, they felt dark and oppressive. It was a slog, a real slog. We just kept going because we wanted it to be over. I can see what people loved about it, but we didn’t, for us, east is definitely best.

In fact we decided to keep going until we got to Skye, we needed to be out of the mountains and see the sea again.  As we left the NC500 route ( which heads back to Inverness) we took a slight detour to see Eileen Donan Castle - you know the one the BBC had pictures of for a long time. 

As soon as we were down from the mountains we began to feel better, the sky was brighter, the land rolling, wildlife returned and we saw colours again, we also saw the Skye bridge - so over we went.

Skye is beautiful, stunning in fact, our campsite - Camping Skye was brilliant,  just what we needed.

Clean and close to the village of Broadford  where we decided to go out for dinner. Having checked at the local shop the hotels are the place to go, so we headed to the Dunollie hotel. It was the perfect antidote to the oppression of the last few days. A lochside view from our table and yummy food, including Haggis (this was my starter!) and delicious it was too.

I’m fairly sure we would have stayed longer on Skye if it hadn't been for the midges - oh the midges, they were - according to Smidge watch, the website for midge updates/levels, few in number. I’m sorry, if this is few, I hate to think what ‘many’ is! They come in through the fly screen, and they eat me alive! I am covered in bites, itchy, blistery, nasty lumps. The fly catcher was out, but the sharp fanged critters still got me. I swear I am extra tasty and they share the news with all their mates. Ian has one bite. Clearly not as yummy as me! And so we left, promising to return, out of midge season. 

To avoid the midges we either needed to go south or east, so we decided to head south.

Ian is really tired having done about 1000 miles driving, and although amazing, moving almost every day, searching out places to stop, to empty the loo or fill up with water is tiring ( I know, I absolutely know it isn’t the same as slogging away at work) but we decided we wanted to stop in one place, on a site with showers and a restaurant, where we can stay for a few days and rest, BBQ, sit out and read, not have to drive, or get up and move on first thing. Having found most places fully booked despite half term being over, Ian had a brainwave.  We found somewhere that works route wise and had space for 4 nights, so we set off south back into England, passing Ben Nevis on the way,

with a very quick overnight stop here, the Kelpies to break the journey. 

I’ve wanted to see the Kelpies and we have both wanted to visit the Falkirk wheel for a while, and since they were practically on route, with parking at the Kelpies for a small fee, it made sense. They are stunning by day and night. The midnight visit was well worth it, so we could see them lit up. The Kalkirk wheel the next morning was less impressive to be honest…

And so ends this Scotland adventure, We’re sorry if we didn’t get to visit you when we said we would try, we never really know where we will end up, or what will drive the next stop, so we are a bit hit and miss, but we will be back - we already know some of what we would like to do, so hopefully next time! The joy of van life is not knowing where you will go next and how long you will stay. It’s wonderful - and also very strange for people who like to plan and research everything!

We’ve landed in heaven

That ferry we mentioned is calling, Scrabster here we come!

We were incredibly lucky with our voyage across the sea. It may have been misty, but it’s calm and every so often the sun pops out. It’s cold, but what would you expect this far north. We were hoping to get a glimpse of the Old man of Hoy, but it wasn’t to be, he was shrouded in mist, but we did get a fab view of Hoy itself though with its beautiful coloured rocks.

Before we knew it Orkney was in sight and we were docking in Stromness. 

Arriving during the evening we needed a park up that wasn’t too far, so we could rest up and plan our next few days. It turns out you can stay for free overnight in the carpark of the Ring of Brodgar.

If you don’t know about the Ring of Brodgar,  the Stone Circle and Henge is part of a ceremonial site dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. It had a ring of stones, burial mounds and a deep ditch. It’s nothing like the size of Avebury or Stonehenge, but it is spectacular. Especially when you have it all to yourself. There is an atmosphere that’s very special, I don’t know how to describe it - spiritual, certainly, but also warm, comforting, welcoming. It felt a real privilege to have it all to ourselves.

The stones are weathered, one was struck by lightning and has a huge split in it, many are covered in lichen. They are beautiful, majestic, and a place everyone should visit once in their lifetime.

Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we packed up early and headed off to look for Puffins. I've always wanted to see Puffins and I’d read that they might be found at Marwick Bay.

With a tiny car park, we were ucky to get a space, but we did, having asked if another couple could move into the smaller car spaced spot, so we would fit in the last van size space. Before puffin hunting we spotted a sign for fishermans cottages and thought we’d have a look. Just along the coast from Marwick Bay walking along a stony path you find Sand Geo, a sheltered spot with a shallow bay. Perched up high above are three old stone huts, built to house boats and equipment, and to provide shelter to generations of Birsay fishermen.

The huts have small, shaped windows, and driftwood beams at the doorways. There are nearby   winches for hauling boats up during the winter months and other pieces of equipment salvaged from the wreck of a ship along the coast. They were built in the late 1800’s, and early 1900’s. The fishermen caught Cod and Haddock, mainly to feed themselves, but occasionally to sell. 

We never did see Puffins here, despite climbing the cliff path and hearing chicks in the nest but it was worth coming, despite the lack of Puffins.

Our next must see was the Italian Chapel, The only remaining structure of Camp 60, Prisoner of war camp, constructed towards the end of 1941. 

The Italian Chapel consists of two Nissen huts transformed into a chapel by Domenico Chiocchetti and his colleagues, Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa and transported to the Island of Lamb Holm in Orkney.

In October 1939, a German submarine under the command of Gunther Prien entered Scapa Flow and sank the British battleship 'HMS Royal Oak' with the loss of 834 lives. Winston Churchill, at that time First Sea Lord, visited Orkney and the decision was taken to construct barriers to close off four of the entrances to Scapa Flow to make the base for the home fleet more secure.

A shortage of manpower to construct the barriers coincided with the capture of thousands of Italian soldiers fighting in North Africa, so a decision was taken to transport 550 men to Camp 60 on Lamb Holm. Following a request from the camp priest, Fr Giacobazzi, it was agreed that two Nissen huts would be joined together to provide a chapel. Among the Italians in Camp 60 was an artist, Domenico Chiocchetti, and he was given the task of transforming the two Nissen huts into a chapel. He was assisted by other tradesmen - in particular Giuseppe Palumbi, a blacksmith, and Domenico Buttapasta, a cement worker.

Domenico Chiocchetti carried in his pocket a small prayer card given to him by his mother before he left his home in Italy, and it was the image on that card of the Madonna and Child by Nicolo Barabino that Chiocchetti based his painting above the altar in the Chapel.

When the Camp Commander, Major Buckland, realised that the prisoner was a very talented artist he was allowed to continue painting to make the building more attractive.

They even made lamps from tinned meat cans.

 

Another place full of emotion and history, well worth a visit.

Having spent a fair bit of time in Agy travelling the island looking out at beautiful scenery we decided we needed a walk, and Mull Head and the Gloop was our chosen spot. ‘The Gloop’  probably named because of the sound the water makes as it  sloshes through the hole in the rock at high tide.

But as often happens the thing we went to see wasn’t the star attraction. Once we were there, we noticed a path in the grassy moorland with the most beautiful scenery, sea birds, cliffs, tiny flowers growing in unlikely places, and cairns.

This time we weren’t quite alone, we met a couple of other people at the entrance, but that was it. Mainly just us and the birds.

Neither of us are very knowledgeable about wild birds so I have been using an app called Merlin; you enter a  few details, size, location, colour etc. and it gives you suggestions for what they might be. I’ve managed to identify the bird every time.. Brilliant!

On our final day in Orkney we wanted to visit The Standing Stones of Stenness, a Neolithic monument thought to be the oldest henge site in the British Isles. It is very close to the Ring of Brodgar where we started our Orkney trip, and although smaller, just as beautiful.

While we were there, we noticed a footpath with a sign to a village next to the stones. Little did we know this is another neolithic village like Skara Brae, if we had known, we’d have walked along.. But we didn’t know until we’d left Orkney, so if you are visiting… walk along and tell us about it please!

Orkney has been amazing, we didn’t visit a distillery (which we had anticipated doing), but it captured our hearts. It is beautiful from the bird life, rolling hills, cliffs and history, a fabulous place to stay. And we did see a puffin… flying past us as we drove along.

Back on the ferry it was a glorious day, so we finally were able to see the Old Man of Hoy - why anyone would consider climbing it, I have no idea, but it is beautiful.

Thank you Orkney, we are sure we will be back.