Scotland!
This is where the wife and I trip to another part of Scotland for her birthday in expectation of good luck and good weather, well...
We delayed and provarocated about this one and booked 7 night away to tour the west side of Scotland, Isle of Arron, Skye and then to the 'interior' to the Lake District and home in the Boxster.
Then the fuel 'crisis' fell and so in equal measure the bloody rain, not sure which would hamper the most.
The night before departing we nearly cancelled the lot, but, nope, we WILL see the anger of the West and see if it quals the anger of the East and everywhere inbetween!
All the gubbins of the hols into the front and the back was a tighter squeeeeze as I added 4 gallons of 99 octane Shell in two cans, just in case of course, 'be prepared'.
We were accompanied by the gentle aroma of petrol most day as one obviously weeped everso slightly, but comforting.
First leg was a good long run up the M6 and more to Troon close to Arron. It poured. Car sipped fuel @ 35 mpg and we even found petrol!
Lots of small and large stations were all out of Diesel and petrol was regulated @ £30 only, E10 of course, but this time we got fully filled so a good sigh of relief.
Now I know how EV drivers feel looking for a charge point.
We never made it to Arron, the ferry was full but the sea was angry, the skys were too, so the choice of hotel was welcome.
My wife has the abundant skill to sniff out good hotels with secure parking and walk-in showers! Very traditional Scottish hotel, dark wood panels, but good food and good craft beers, so great.
Missing the Island of Arron, we splashed about the local area and moved on north on my favourite Scottish road, the dramatic A82, just love it, as we headed to Skye.
However, nearly every motorhome made loved it too.
A one night stay, traditional hotel, good food, craft beer (see the pattern?) at Invergarry and the Boxster parked on a slope. Never a good thing to do.
Following morning, and the Cold Start was here, Verrrrooom and NO white smoke. Must be the cold damp wet start.
We had, by now, decided to cut this trip short, the rain was persistent and the fuel issue deepening though I still had my smelly back-up in the boot.
We splashed our way to Sky following a road hailed as THE best Scottish driving road, the A87. They are right. What a splendid road with tarmac laid by the best snooker table makers, wide and you can see for miles and miles as the Who would sing, you can even OVERTAKE!
This fab run was punctuated by the splendid castle at Eilean Donan and the sight an sound of a Dorlorean and a GT3 RS. The overtaking pace of the GT3 RS was something to see.
The hotel was just out of this world, what a cracker. One of those hotels you simply cannot fault except you have to pay the bill sadly, just great.
Such a shame to leave it, but the very long run down to the hotel in Kirby Lonsdale beckoned the following day.
Cold start..NO white smoke! good grief. A quick visit to the comprehensive antiques shop at Doune and we hit Kirby about5.00pm, a long drive, 36.2 mpg and spotted a Gulf station just down from the hotel.
Nice hotel and frequented by about 9 3 wheeler Morgans into the Lakes for their regular day out. All wore cloths suitable for Scot of the Antarctic as they braved their way out of the car park, non were younger than me!
So, that leaves today and the run down to Wolverhampton. Filled up to go, but not until we did a bit of splashing around North Yorkshire with a dash of sun, a tsunami of rain and on it went.
The M6 was full of grief as usual and we peeled off asap, 36.1 mpg, 4 gallons wiffy in the boot buthome.
The car was simply fabulous, drove through everything so sure footedly and burbled and thrilled all in the same sweep of the lovely Scottish countryside flanked by huge mountains with ribbons of water falls rushing down their faces and lush green grass dotted with fell walkers pretending this is great!
Nice trip despite the weather and the worry of fuel outage.
Big Car Wash tomorrow.
that crossing can be rough in fact I was on it once and was ill before we set off on the 45min crossing .Arran is nice for a few days, a couple of nice hotels and the reason people come is the scenery cant beat it . Sky is beautiful even in the rain spectacular scenery ,note you visited Doune there used to be a car museum where the coffee /antiques shop is and the hill climb is next to it ,Doune was also the place they filmed one of the Monty Python films .Hopefully you will be back soon to sample more Scottish hospitality Haste ye back .
That’s Skye for you, and all part of the enjoyment!
