RWC 2015 part one

This story starts more than a year ago when we decided that we would follow the Bokke around England in Homer at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Coenraad and I embarked on a mutual mission to secure four tickets for each pool game and a quarter final and after several months and several sources, we had all our tickets.
And so on the 15th September we headed south making a detour via the town of Rugby where the game began. We arrived in Brighton on 18th September and watched the opening game at the Fan Zone which had been set up on the pebbly beach near the famous Brighton Pier. A fabulous bonus of being in Brighton was meeting up with Dorothy and Campbell, two primary school friends from Brighton Beach Primary in Durban, who now both live in Brighton. Greg and Sarah came down for a visit from Kent too. On match day we met up with Mylene and Coenraad for lunch and headed to the stadium early. Bokke fans were everywhere and the atmosphere was amazing. It's ancient history now but Saturday 19 September will not be remembered as the Springboks finest hour. We couldn't believe the final result. It was, however, an epic game and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric. The Japanese deserved the win.

We drove to Cardiff to see the Australia vs Fiji game on Wednesday 23rd at the Millennium Stadium because, as Neil says, it's the finest rugby stadium in the UK. We met up with Robbie to celebrate his birthday at a great restaurant called Steak of the Art, which turned into a big party and a late night. We drove up to Birmingham via North Wales and settled in at Chapel Lane Caravan Club. We met loads of South Africans there too. We met up with Christo and Louis on Friday night and headed to the Balti Triangle for a genuine and original balti curry with naan bread at Adils because Birmingham is the curry capital of the UK! We met up with Mylene and Coenraad, Christo and Louis before the game on Saturday for lunch before heading to the stadium. The win over Samoa put the Bokke in a somewhat better position so we could let our hair down in celebration. Birmingham hasn't got a buzzing city centre when it comes to nightlife, so we watched all the other weekend games at a bar called Snobs.

ISLAY - Jazz and Whisky

We spent a long weekend on the Isle of Islay for the Islay Jazz Festival. The campsite right on the coast was windswept and bleak but we did enjoy the Jazz. At every concert we got free flow 16 year old Lagavulin to warm us up and I must say I developed a taste for the stuff. Islay single malts are Neil's favourite whiskies, so in between the shows we visited all 8 Islay distilleries. We did a couple of distillery tours and some special tastings; otherwise it was just a quick visit and a wee dram to give us the courage to brave the outdoors.

Laphroaig

 Lagavulin

 Ardbeg

 Kilchoman

 Bruichladdich

 Bowmore

 Caol Ila

 Bunnahabbain

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".