Highlights of Scotland

Scotland is an ideal place for a road trip and a mobile home is a really good way to get around. It's not that any one place stands out but more about hopping from town to town and taking the little bits and pieces in as you go along; until you have created your own patchwork quilt of a journey. Our twelve day tour did include many whisky distilleries, the Islay Jazz Festival and John O' Groats but was definitely more about the journey than the destination. There's amazing natural beauty and loads of history to discover along the way.
Day 1 - Edinburgh to Falkirk, with a visit to the famous Falkirk Wheel; Stirling for the castle and cathedral and on through Dunblane, Crieff and Aberfeldy to Pitlochry.
Day 2 - Pitlochry, the Moulin Inn and a tour of Edradour, the smallest Whisky Distillery in Scotland. Blair Atholl, a tour of Blair Castle, a whisky and chocolate tasting at Dalwinnie, Loch Laggan, Loch Lochy and Loch Garry to overnight in Invergarry.
Day 3 -  Loch Ness and Inverness, Tomintoul Distillery, a single track road through the Cairngorms National Park, Balmoral Castle from a distance to Braemar; to meet up with Danie and John again.
Day 4 - The Braemar Highland Games, through Speyside, to Dufftown, the Glenfiddich Distillery and on to overnight at Kinloss.
Day 5 - The North East Coast has lots of Pictish history. Ben Romach distillery is in Forres and further north we stopped in at Dalmore, Glen Morangie and Clynelish. We finally reached John O' Groats, braving the wind and rain for a quick picture.
Day 6 - Hooray for great weather! Dunnet Bay to Ullapool along the North Highland Coast from East to West is by far the best scenic drive in the whole of the UK and one of the best in Europe. What a great day we had through little places like Thurso, Bettyhill, Tongue,Durness, Smoo,Scoune and Elphin. We got stuck in a busy pub in Ullapool watching Kevin Anderson beat Andy Murray in the US Open. We ate Cullen Skink, a creamy haddock and potato soup.
Day 7 - We continued our coastal drive. heading south on the west coast and on to the Isle of Skye; including a visit to the Talisker Distillery.
Day 8 to 12 -  From Skye we continued south to Fort William, Oban and Lochgilphead to catch the ferry to Islay. Our last night in Scotland was at Balloch, Loch Lomond.

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is by far the biggest arts festival in the world and has been on the Greenie bucket list for years! We booked into Morton Hall Campsite, which was packed with festival goers. The bus service into town is excellent. We booked for 10 nights and end up staying 12. The whole city was abuzz with Festival and Tattoo madness. On weekends it's almost too crowded. Edinburgh is a wonderful city and although I would be lying if I said the weather was good, we did have quite a bit of sunshine and managed to avoid most showers by ducking into pubs and shows.
Getting to grips with the Festival; how to book, how to find all the venues, how to choose when there are 3000 performances a day, takes some getting used to! Our first show was " A Thinking man's guide to Liquor", a comedic history of alcohol and drinking with free beer and shots! The tone was set for the rest of the fest, I fear! Out best show was Blam! - physical theatre, stunts, comedy, like Die Hard meets The Office is how a critic described it. We did see a lot of shows -Magic, Comedy, Musicals, Burlesque and even a few serious pieces. Gotta give a shout out to magicians Paul Dabek and Aaabeduation! By the end we had the routine sussed and next time we will be fringe- pros!
It was great to catch up with Charmaine, Andrew and Anya and Natalie came up for a few days for a wonderful  Singapore Expat Reunion! Danie and John were in town for the tattoo and we managed to get them to a magic show too. Mylene, Coenraad and Coemy also came up for the tattoo and so our parties continued. Another surprise in Edinburgh were the restaurants - We enjoyed Galvin Brasserie and had superb meals at Tom Kitchin's "Castle Terrace" and "Mark Greenaway".

10 day tour of England Part 2

Day 6
CHESTER - A wonderful city with a great cathedral, plenty of Tudor buildings and Sunday Morris Dancers in the city square!
Day  7
LIVERPOOL- A surprisingly cool city these days, with a great mix of old and new architecture, good pedestrianized shopping areas and wonderful museums. We only had time for the Beatles Story and the Museum of Slavery; both excellent.
BLACKPOOL - Without a doubt, the worst seaside resort in the world! Ugly beach, run down hotels, trashy casinos, overpriced bars and bad restaurants!
Day 8
LAKE DISTRICT - Windermere and Bowness were overrun by tourists but getting off the beaten track was not too difficult. We headed west towards the coast and spent the night at St. Bees.
Day 9
LAKE DISTRICT - It's a great drive through the Lake District National Park and along the Pennine Way.
SEAHOUSES AND BAMBURGH - Across to the East Coast; pretty fishing village and dramatic coastal castle.
Day 10
FARNE ISLANDS - These islands are a prime bird watching spot. We took a boat trip out and although the Puffins had already left in late June, we did see plenty of birds and seals.

10 day tour of England Part 1

It's good to be mobile and free again. We find that it's a good idea to book each campsite a day in advance.  Campsite facilities and access to public transport are generally very good.
Day 1
CLOVELLY- It's still a pretty seaside village but now the only access is via a visitor centre and a 8GBP entrance charge. (At least no 3D experience, pirate rides or fake pasty shops like at Land's End ) This rampant commercialisation of the countryside is beginning to irritate us.
GLASTONBURY - With the festival over for another year, it's a quiet market town full of hippies and crystal shops
WELLS- Smallest city in the UK, with a gorgeous cathedral.
Day 2
BATH- A must on any UK itinerary. We enjoy the award winning Indian Restaurant lunch and the Roman Baths tour. The Bill Bryson commentary on the hand held guide is fun.
Free Day
WANTAGE A visit to Craig's pub.
Shopping and Laundry
Day 3
BLENHEIM PALACE - One of the most beautiful estates in England, with fabulous gardens. We loved the secret garden.Birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
OXFORD -A nice City.The usual Costas and All Bar Ones squeezed in between the hallowed halls of learning. A tour of the Bodlian Library is a must.
MORETON-IN-MARSH - The Cotswolds villages are very quaint with lots of gift shops, kitchen shops, restaurants and local delis. A good place to overnight.
Day 4
COTSWOLDS - Pretty scenery and a few more towns like Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton.
Its hard to enjoy strolling through villages in the rain.
STRATFORD-ON-AVON - Birthplace of the Bard, good examples of  Tudor Architecture, a few good pubs,less rain and a lot more tourists.
Day 5
SHREWSBURY - This is a good little city. Not as touristy as some other places we have been to but busy because of the flower show. It's also the birthplace of Charles Darwin, but they hardly make a thing of that at all, except for a statue outside the public library, which used to be the school he attended.

Cornwall

We spent the first week of August camping in Cornwall with the Fouries. Perranporth is a pretty town near Newquay, with a good swimming beach. Arriving on a Saturday, means hours in bumper to bumper traffic. From our campsite we can take the scooter or a taxi into town. On Sunday we spend the day on the beach, sheltering  behind our wind sheild. Coenraad and Coemy swim with wetsuits on. If the South Africans spending their winter holidays at the beach in Ballito could have seen us, they would just have had puzzled looks on their faces as they twirled their right index fingers slowly around their right ears a few times! We did have a few lekka braais!
The day we went to Newquay was sunny and the beach was very sheltered.
Newquay is actually the surfing capital of the UK! Sandy beaches and a few small waves!
Nick joined us for a few days.We did a rainy day trip to Lands End, Sennan Cove and St. Ives and another trip to The Eden Project, which despite the hefty entrance fee of 25GBP per person, we enjoyed.It is a rehabilitated old quarry; the two massive boidomes, one tropical and one Mediterranean, are filled with exotic plants.
We enjoyed Padstow and had lunch at Rick Stein's Cafe.
It was great spending time with friends but as Mylene said, it's best to visit UK destinations outside of summer, when you are expecting lousy weather anyway!