Friday was a glorious day! I had an appointment to get my ankle looked at and Gav bought some Undies, from Dundees finest underwear establishment. Then we rendezvoused and went over to St Andrews . Straight to the driving range we sent golf balls flying in all directions. Lunch at the Victoria Cafe, followed by a stroll through the town to the cathedral and castle ruins. Back to Dundee we packed and waited for Kim to get back from Uni. We left Dundee for Granton around 4:30pm with a small detour to pick up a mystery parcel from the post office. We had a nice sunset on the drive up near perth. We stopped at Tesco’s in Aviemore for supplies and in Granton for Fish and Chips. We arrived at Justin’s cottage, unpacked and got straight into the fish and chips. We followed this up with a first to three games challenge of Mexican Trains, which Kim won in a tight contest.
Saturday we awoke earlyish and hit the road. Another fine and frosty day was on the cards. First stop was Culloden battlefield where Jacobites fought the government in a bloody battle (17th April 1746). Between 1500 and 2000 men lost their lives, most of those being the Jacobites, who pretty much got slaughtered. Unfortunately the visitor centre was closed so we wandered the battlefield reading the plaques standing on frozen puddles and imaging the scene of the battle. Next plan of attack was to find the loch Ness monster for Gavin. So we had a drive by of Inverness before heading down to Loch Ness . We pulled over at a Lay by and read the information boards and took some photo’s before carrying on a little further to a cafe. Gavin was craving a coffee, Kim chocolate and myself sultana scones as we watched a video about the history of old Nessie! From the tourist shop we also bought some Scottish tablet and some postcards. Further down the lake we saw Urquhart Castle from the carpark, before heading to find a mystery waterfall, where we stopped for Lunch (cheese and ham rolls). After lunch we decided to head to Castle Stuart and Fort George. We stopped at Fort George, an active Military Base, which was built in response to the Jacobite uprising in nearby Culloden. It occupies a huge area, (42 acres) at the tip of a peninsula it controls access to the port of Inverness. However it was never really used as it was intended, cannons were never fired in anger and a good few soldiers whiled away the hours there. We carried on through Nairn to a historic distillery Dallas Dhu near Forres. We were the only car in the carpark and managed to rush through a tour, followed by a whisky taster. I bought a bottle of single malt whisky brewed in 1982, to imbibe on my 30th. Back to the cottage we had simple meal of baked potatoes and beans and a few beers to wash it down. We had a game of quiddler/ quidditch before heading into town, to take Gavin to a UK pub. We had a great night, there was lots of friendly banter with the locals and Gav and I teamed up on the pool table and managed to take down some of the them. We headed home around 11ish in the freezing fog.
Sunday, A bit of a sluggish start, I popped in to town for a few errands (fuel/gift/cash), while Gav and Kim sorted out the cottage. We left 10:30ish heading home. We stopped near Aviemore at a place called Loch an Eilean hoping to show Gavin some wildlife. A picturesque place, we had fun sliding rocks on the frozen parts of the loch, but alas, we saw no red squirrels or majestic eagles swooping fish out of the lake. The walk lasted about two hours even with a ‘small wrong turn’, whoops! By the end of the walk we were starving, so we headed to the closest cafe, for some Scottish tucker. We ended up at a crazy Chinese tacky restaurant, the food was ok, Gavman had a haggis burger. On the road again we drove through the Cairngorm national park and stopped for afternoon tea and a look at the waterfalls at Bruar. Next stop Dundee after a driveby through Pitlochery, the end of Gavman’s Scottish adventure.
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