Winding Through the Highlands

The weather had been gorgeous, Scotland was spectacular and the Mog was pulling his weight in terms of comfort and self-sufficiency

Our first two weeks back on the road were, broadly speaking, going well.

But life was very different from travelling in Henry and there was a sadness to that which I was struggling to get my head around. We were spending every evening inside, we cooked every meal inside, we no longer sat outside enjoying the fresh air and the view. Instead we admired what we could see of the view through our windows

But much of this was due to the weather and the fact that we no longer needed to stay in expensive campsites. Could life have ever stayed the same outside of Africa? Probably not. Are we tough enough to withstand the hardships of enforced outdoor living no matter what the climate? I’d say yes of course but I might have my rose coloured spectacles on.

It had taken me an incredibly long time to plan what to do and see in Scotland as there is so much on offer. My spreadsheet of places to visit was longer than any I had ever put together for a country and when I marked all the locations on Google maps with my little yellow stars, the map was too full to show them all

I realised that I had no idea how long we would be spending here. My guess was anywhere between 4 weeks and 4 months. Now, after two weeks, we were still in the Forth Valley less than 80 miles from the English border. We had a long way to go yet. 4 weeks was looking distinctly unlikely!

In order to cross from the east coast to the west coast we were following the line of the Roman Antonine Wall – a series of hill mounds and ruined forts. We spent a day seeing as many of them as we could.

Our first stop was Croy Hill Roman fort. It was a long and beautiful walk from the car park across the hills

And when we arrived there was little to see other than some information boards telling us what used to be there, but that was fine, we hadn’t expected much more.

We walked another mile or so across the hills to find a statue of a Roman head

And took the long route back following the canal

Our daily step-count was becoming quite respectable these days!

We made a quick lunch in the Mog then headed off to the next stop – Bar Hill.

We parked in an industrial estate at the start of the trail and hiked up a far shorter but much steeper path that gave us fabulous views over the Scottish countryside

And when we reached the top we found a few more ruins to admire than at the last place

The remnants of the old bath house were particularly interesting

The sun was out, the birds were singing and James’ back was still aching from his fall a few weeks ago so we took the opportunity of relaxing in the warmth

We had hoped to find Lennox House next, another ruined mansion house eaten up by forests. But despite valiant efforts, and a rather stressful drive around a small housing estate with giggling children pointing at us, we couldn’t find any way there.

So instead we went to the New Kilpatrick Cemetery where there were remains of the Antonine Wall foundations

Interesting as these were, James found the cemetery itself much more absorbing, reading all the grave stone inscriptions

Just down the road were the remains of a Roman bath house that are surprisingly in tact – as far as Roman ruins ever get. They were discovered during excavations for a housing project so are inevitably in the middle of a town surrounded by blocks of flats

As we returned to the Mog a young man called out to us in the car park ‘what is that?’ We smiled out of the window and explained it was a UniMog. He asked what it was used for and we told him it was an expedition truck about to go around the world. His jaw dropped to the floor, he shook his head and said we’d made his day!

Many, many lifetimes ago I used to work for IBM and made some very good friends there. One of them was a vivacious lady called Annie who was the life and soul of any and every party. Sadly Annie and I lost touch after she moved away and had only chatted on text a few times in the last 15 or so years. When I had been sitting in the workshop in Durham planning this trip, something brought her to mind – hadn’t she moved to Scotland?

She had indeed, in fact she lived near Glasgow and that was exactly where we were heading. I had been keeping her updated with our movements and she was now expecting us to arrive any moment and had cold wine and pizza ready and waiting.

She had a beautiful, detached house in a street which could have been designed with a Unimog in mind

We pulled up in a large layby and I threw my arms around my old friend.

Buddy the dog stared up in amazement at the new-comer that had landed in his territory but he and BigMog soon became firm friends

We spent a wonderful three days with Annie. We had take-away pizza one night, ate out at a steakhouse the next and she cooked a fabulous roast dinner for us on our last night. It was almost though the previous 20 years apart had never happened.

On our second day with her we decided to go into Glasgow for the day. She drove us to the railway station and gave us lots of good ideas where to go in the city.

Glasgow is, in some ways, very like Edinburgh – beautiful architecture and lots of history

But in most ways it is very different. The architecture is far more eclectic and It is more of a working city. The ground floors of all the majestic old buildings are modern shops, restaurants and bars

The streets feel more like a vibrant city than a historic show piece and there is street art everywhere

The old squares are bustling with people and traffic

But no less beautiful for that

We walked to the old cathedral which was very impressive both inside and out

And high up on a hill behind it was the Victorian Necropolis, designed to be a grand and stately place for people to honour their dead

It certainly met its brief

We wandered back to the train station via a pub where we had pizza for lunch and jumped on another train out to Partick where the University and museums are located.

This part of the city had a very different feel – green, peaceful, very calm

There were lots of museums and galleries to see but we only had a couple of hours before everything closed for the day so decided to concentrate on the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

The building itself was very grand

It was arranged in two halves – art on one side, museum exhibitions on the other. We decided to split up and I engrossed myself in art whilst James went to search out history….of sorts

The gallery housed a famous Dali painting of Christ on the Cross

And I found a Van Gogh that looked very familiar

Outside we came across a war memorial

We could see another grand building behind the museum and decided to go and find out what it was. I hoped it was the Hunterian Gallery as we would have had just enough time to pop in and see something of it. But it turned out to be a private University building

We arrived back at Annie’s in the early evening and settled in to our roast.

That last night with Annie and Buddy was a very late one and I didn’t get out of bed until after 7am. I did my morning training in her perfectly manicured back garden and by the time I finished and was ready to face the day it was already past 9am.

We said our goodbyes, promising to return on the way back down south after our trip, and set off to see what else we could find in Scotland

Our first stop was the southern part of Glasgow and a visit the Burrell Collection housed in the beautiful but sadly closed Pollock Park.

The Burrell Collection is a historic art collection, acquired over the course of 75 years by Sir William Burrell between 1883 and 1958. He collected everything that interested him from Gothic European art to Medieval stained glass and armour to Chinese art to Manet, Cezanne and Degas. The entire collection was donated to the City of Glasgow by Sir William and his wife Constance on the condition that it was housed in a countryside setting where it could be appreciated by the people

There is something here for every taste and I could not even begin to imagine the value of it all

We spent over two hours just on the ground floor but then had to admit we were too exhausted to do the pottery and crafts upstairs.

So, quite unlike us, we left the gallery unfinished and sped off to the nearby ‘House for an Art Lover’, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and now an arts centre and café.

We had a wonderful lunch in the garden

Before wandering around the house itself

I didn’t know much about Mackintosh until we arrived in Glasgow but was now becoming a fan

This house was beautiful, one of those spaces where you felt as though you could stay forever

Part of the joy of travelling the west coast of Scotland is doing a bit of island hopping and we had big plans to get to as many of them as we could – with or without the Mog. Annie had helped us to decide which ones to try and our first one was to be the Isle of Bute, a very small but pretty island almost exactly west of us.

We had booked tickets for us and the Mog for the following day so headed towards a car park on the beach front just ten minutes up the road from the ferry terminal in Lunderston Bay. It was a gorgeous, hot, sunny day and the week before Easter so the schools were on holiday. None of this had occurred to us until we pulled up at the entrance to the car park.

It was absolutely rammed with cars parked everywhere including up and down the road on both sides of the entrance. The beach itself was full of kids drinking beer and playing music as well as families and couples.

We had hoped to stay the night here but it initially looked as though we would be out of luck.

With nowhere to turn around, we pulled into the car park in the hope of being able to drive out the other end and go back down the road but it turned out to be a dead end.

Just as we were trying to reverse back out, a van pulled out of a space just behind us and we managed to squeeze ourselves in

There was no chance of putting our steps out though so getting into the living quarters was not an option. Instead we decided to join in the fun and walk along the quieter end of the beach

It was lovely. Everyone was very good natured and simply enjoying the sunshine, sea and sand.

We wandered up the beach for a while then turned around and walked the other way along a countryside path

Eventually we had gone far enough and turned back towards the car park. By the time we returned to the Mog more people were starting to leave and we finally had enough space to put the steps out and settle in for the evening.

As I was sitting on the steps enjoying the last of the sunshine, three young girls came up to us asking whether we had any plasters on board. I looked down and saw that one of them had blood streaming from her leg. Apparently she had caught it on thorns in the bushes – I didn’t ask any further but she went away happy with a hand full of plasters!

The ferry over to Bute the next morning was quick and easy. BigMog sat there doing his Elf impression again

And we had a large number of people coming to chat us about him and giving us advice on where to go on the island.

As we docked at the main town of Rothesay we admired the pretty buildings and felt a sense of calm from the place.

The main attraction on Bute is Mount Stuart, an impressive house built by the 3^rd Marquess of Bute in the 19^th Century and now owned by the Mount Stuart Trust. But it’s closed on Mondays so instead we took a drive around the southern part of the island. It was absolutely beautiful

One of the people we had spoken to on the ferry had suggested spending a night or two at Erksine Bay so we stopped off along the way to check it out. It was only lunch time but the weather was so good and the bay so beautiful that we parked up, finally got our camping chairs out, and stayed all day

It was peaceful, warm and relaxing – just perfect. I even got my nose sun-burnt, it was just like being back in Africa…

There was one very strange thing though. That morning a Sperm Whale had washed up in the bay and we could see it in the distance. Late in the afternoon we decided to take a walk to get a closer look

You don’t realise just how big these creatures are until you see them up close

It was so sad to see such a magnificent animal like this. Apparently the authorities were struggling to work out what to do with it and the current thinking was to chop it into smaller pieces and tow them out to sea…how awful

The next day we went back to Rothesay to stock up on food and tried to find somewhere to fill up our water tanks. In the future all we would need would be a tap but we had not yet bought our own hose pipe as we had not decided what sort would be best. So we needed a tap and a hose pipe and it was proving more difficult than we had hoped.

We had assumed most fuel stations would have a hose pipe but that had turned out to be wishful thinking. We tried a caravan and camping site near Rothesay but they wanted £10 and grumpily told us to go away and come back at 3pm. We decided that would be our last ditch option if we didn’t find anything else in the meantime and carried on our search. Eventually we found a haulage business who wanted to help and directed us to a local garage. Finally we were in luck, the guys there were very friendly and happily connected us up.

It took a long time to fill our 217 litre tank and even then we were only 75% full – we had been in the way of their other customers so didn’t want to sit there too much longer. The logistics for filling our tank looked as though they needed more work.

With food and water now topped up we headed back to Mount Stuart

What a place!

The exterior was impressive enough, the interior was something else.

From the grand entrance

To the main hall

And the vaulted ceiling and stately balcony

The dining room was vast

And the drawing room ornately detailed

The library was packed full of books from floor to ceiling

And the bedrooms were welcoming without losing the sense of the magnificent

There was even a conservatory on the first floor

And the family chapel was pristine

In fact the whole thing was immaculately maintained.

After our tour we stopped in at their café for a lovely lunch but sadly they had run out of scones…

We tried to drive around the northern part of the island but after just a few miles discovered that there were no more roads – it seems that a third of the island is forest and private farms, inaccessible by vehicles.

We turned around and drove a couple of miles back to a large layby we had seen on the way up. It was perfect for the night so we settled in and made ourselves at home

The next morning we tried to drive to the northern part of the island the other way but were again stopped when the road turned into a private gravel track. So we gave up and drove back to the ferry, deciding that Bute was lovely, peaceful and relaxing but very small and we had done as much of it as we could.

As we waited for the ferry to arrive, the ticket lady told us that we should use the public toilets

Apparently they are the last remaining original Victorian toilets in the UK and the men’s was still decorated with the original fittings. She assured us that women were welcome to go in and have a look, just as long as no-one was using it.

So I did!

James assured me that not all men’s publics toilets look like this!

Back on the main land we made our way to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs down wonderful, windy roads through picture-perfect Scottish landscapes

At the end of Duke’s Pass we stopped at the visitor centre car park to make bacon sandwiches for a late lunch then carried on to the Three Lochs forest drive where we had booked a camping spot for the night.

The forest drive is only 14 km long but is one way only and the gates at the entrance and exit close at 4pm. It was already 3:30pm by the time we arrived so we decided to find our camping spot and wait to do the drive the next day.

Our pitch had nice views but the camping areas are basically just laybys on the side of the road and ours was steeply sloped up and down as well as side to side – and we were perched on the edge of a steep drop. It was not a comfortable evening nor did we get a good night’s sleep – nothing was level and I kept rolling out of bed!

It had started to rain overnight and by the time I was up and training it was still pouring down. The forest drive was very pretty but at first the edge was taken off it by the fact that we could hardly see the views through the mists and the rain

But eventually it cleared up and we could enjoy lovely scenery around the loch and forests

We continued on to Loch Katrine where the famous steam boat the Sir Walter Scott takes visitors out on half-day trips. We missed its morning sailing but managed to get on a smaller, sister ship that did a one hour trip that was much more to our liking

The clouds were low and grey and the views of the loch as we steamed along were gorgeous and moody in true Scottish style

And when the clouds lifted slightly we could even see the snow-covered peaks of Ben More and the Crianlarich Hills

After disembarking we climbed up to the viewpoint and looked over the far reaching landscape

As I stood admiring the scenery the Sir Walter Scott came steaming into view

And was waiting back in the port by the time we had climbed back down again

At the visitor’s centre we read all about the famous poets and writers who visited the area in the 19^th Century and are credited with kick-starting Scottish tourism.

From there we took another breath-takingly beautiful drive almost all the way to Bracklinn Falls with the mountains dominating the skyline as we went

We couldn’t make it up the last mile to the Falls as the road was closed to large vehicles and it was raining again so we decided against walking it.

Instead we carried on to the Falls of Falloch where we managed to park nearby and walk up to see the pretty little waterfall

To complete our tour of the Trossachs we drove down the west side of Loch Lomond to the town of Luss where we found a perfect layby just off the road to spend a quiet night.

Luss itself is a quaint little town full of history and character

We spent the next morning wandering around, poking about in the church

And looking out over the pier

On the way out of the national park we stopped at the ‘Rest and be Thankful’  viewing point for a fabulous view back down the glen

As we were making ourselves some lunch in the car park the owner of the farm in the valley drove up to see us and chat about the Mog. He was a fascinating source of local information and told us that he hosts a hill-climbing event in the area for classic cars. We talked to him for hours.

The Mog was proving almost as good as Henry in terms of making new friends!

We pressed on to the small village of Kilmartin where some tomb stones dating back to the 16^th Century had been discovered – known as the Kilmartin Stones

We spent half an hour or so admiring them and wandering around the old graveyard

Admiring the views across the valley

Kilmartin Glen is, apparently, one of the richest prehistoric landscapes with stone circles, standing stones, burial chambers and artifacts all over the place. The Kilmartin Museum houses many of the discoveries and is nationally renowned to the extent that even Tony Robinson has visited.

We wanted to do the walking tour organised by the museum but it was only being run the following day. So we drove a couple of miles out of the town to a wonderful spot for the night next to a huge expanse of protected peat bog

When we first arrived we had three groups of dog walkers come over to chat to us about the Mog, including one couple who had been leaving as we pulled up but drove back to the car park to see us!

We walked the short woodland trail to the edge of the peat bogs the next morning and then headed back into town for our neolithic history walk

It had been drizzling when we started so we turned out coats up and put our hoods on. But half way through, just as we were in the most exposed meadow, the heavens opened and we were deluged. We were absolutely soaking wet and freezing cold

The guides were hilariously bad at presenting their undoubtably extensive knowledge and we were the youngest on the walk by about thirty years!

But, despite it all, we had fun and learnt a lot about stone circles and pagan rituals.

That afternoon we jumped back in BigMog and drove straight to the large town of Oban, the hub of the ferries to the western islands. Our mission to do some Scottish island hopping had started well in Bute but we were planning to go much, much further…..