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SCOTLAND SUMMER DISPATCH
It’s time for my first Dispatch and before
I go any further, I have to say – we are loving Scotland! Getting here was quite
fun – we left on Sunday after a busy morning – Wes walked & then washed the
boys, while I did the last-minute washing & discovered the dryer wouldn’t work
unless you stood there holding your finger on the button for the time it took
to dry things. We moved to plan B – our clothes went into Barbara’s dryer and
the boys’ towels into our drying cupboard with the temperature up to 20◦. We
four then went to breakfast, where Kim & Gary were making their first
appearance in a while and Terry White even popped in for a coffee. I alerted
Judi to the news about the dryer, one extra job for her as well as keeping an
eye on the house, collecting the local paper and putting out the bins for us.
We dropped the boys at Eureka Kennels in
Ballarat, and drove to Melbourne to visit Viva and Leanne, before heading to
the airport via Andrew’s Airport Parking just as the rain bucketed down. We had
our usual good, efficient service checking in with Emirates and passport
control and found ourselves in the Emirates Lounge with a glass of Moet
in hand, ready to relax.
Lovely
photo of Danny with Greta & Harry’s daughter, Penny
This is when Wes discovered he couldn’t get
wifi on his newly-mended phone nor could he hear anyone on the phone except on
loudspeaker. He decided to take a pragmatic approach to this, let Barbara know what
had happened in case she was trying to get in touch with him, and exchanged his
Moet for a Jamieson’s whisky.
We found the trip quite exhausting,
although we were very comfortable – we stopped at Singapore for 1 hour that
turned into 2 and then couldn’t get off the ground as the oxygen cylinders
weren’t right, and then spent 3 hours at Dubai, where we had a shower and
changed clothes which helped.
Although Emirates offers hundreds of films
and TV Shows, we were struggling to find something we liked, so I watched all 9
episodes of Downton Abbey, Series 3 (I haven’t seen the first 2 Series yet) and
last year’s Grand Final with no sound (my choice). Wes got interested in short
films and then listened to music as he found the current films too violent or
futuristic to be bothered with them.
When we finally arrived in Glasgow, everything
went smoothly, except when the Borders Policewoman asked me why we were
visiting Glasgow and I said because we
haven’t been here before. Wes assured me that she wanted to know if our
trip was business or pleasure, so we cleared up that confusion, collected our
hire car – a shiny black Citroen, and drove to Stirling.
Apart from the usual issues of driving a
European car (the wipers and lights are on the reverse sides to our Mazdas), we
had an uneventful journey to Castle Croft B&B, where our
hostess, Laura, greeted us warmly, and understood that we needed to sleep more
than anything else – by that time we had been travelling or sitting in airports
for 34 hours straight.
Looking
into our room from the patio
We loved our visit to Stirling – the next
morning (Tuesday), we set off along the secret path up to the Castle, which was
wonderful to explore. It has an amazing history, including being rescued by
Queen Victoria, who thought it had been allowed to fall into disrepair and
asked for it to be restored. We gained an appreciation of Mary of Guise, mother of
Mary, Queen of Scots, and learned about the Stirling Heads, of which
we knew nothing. Afterwards we wandered around the old town, through the
cemetery, the old hospital and the cobbled streets.
We rested in the guest lounge during the
afternoon, catching up on emails on our laptop, reading and learning about
whisky. That night we walked to The River House, where we enjoyed a good meal of mackerel pate, followed by
grilled hake. The service was excellent and with the long evenings, we walked
home in daylight.
Yesterday we left Laura and our compact,
but comfortable room to drive to Inverness, which was to take 3 hours. However,
we took the advice of our Lonely Planet Guide and detoured along country lanes,
with Loch Ness on our left and ended up having a late lunch at Dores
Inn, which is an historic old hotel right at the banks of the Loch. The
food was good and we enjoyed the ambience, not just of the pub, but all around.
There is a chap in a caravan, who arrived in 1991 and is still there looking for
Nessie. Sadly he wasn’t at home yesterday or we could have heard some of his
stories.
We eventually found our way to Culloden
Moor, just outside of Inverness, where we are for 6 nights. We were a little
worried when we arrived as we couldn’t make anyone hear us at the front door,
but discovered that the departing guests had somehow managed to break one of
the wooden slats that form the base of the bed and that our hosts, Muriel and
Ted were in a panic – one trying to replace the slat and the other madly
hoovering everywhere he had been!
We were put into the downstairs room, which
was lovely, but very compact and when Ted finally fixed the bed, we chose to
move upstairs where there was much more room and a single bed on which we could
put our suitcases. The downstairs bathroom had a huge bath, but our room has a
very adequate shower and there is a computer area and a small couch outside the
bedroom, as well as the large guest lounge downstairs with stunning views over
the hills and a stunning disused railway line bridge.
We had stopped on our way at The
House of Bruar, which is a stunning collection of Farm Shops, similar
to the one in Daylesford, England, and bought a magnum of Claret and some
cheese. Muriel let us put the cheese in the fridge and later joined us for a
glass of red, lavender oatmeal biscuits and Cuddy Cove cheese.
Their other guests last night, who were not
expected, were two girl friends from Trinidad and Tobago, so we invited them to
join us for red wine and a cricket chat, when they came back from dinner. We
saw them again at breakfast this morning and wished them well as they headed
off to Skye.
Muriel, who chats non-stop and very rarely
listens, is most generous, and has already washed and dried our laundry bag of
clothes for us, as well as cooked us a beautiful breakfast this morning – Wes was
raving about the bacon which he said was as good as Chris Sinclair does at Gracenotes
Café, and I had velvety scrambled eggs that were nearly as good as Kim
used to make at Café 3460.
We set off this morning for Cawdor, which
is where Wes’s ancestor Margaret Mackintosh was born. We couldn’t find her
father’s grave in the lovely churchyard, but there were plenty of Mackintoshes,
a Munro and even a Mowat, one of the early names in Viva’s family tree.
Then off to Cawdor Castle, which is a
living castle, and quite a treat to visit. The rooms we saw were all furnished
richly, many of them with Flemish tapestries of Don Quixote. I think the
highlight for me was the beautifully appointed former kitchen, with its copper
pans, huge black range, enormous mortar and pestle and the information that
when the last cook was offered new cookware and stove she promptly handed in
her notice!
We finished the indoor tour and then found
the gardens, which were superb – there is a maze, a hidden garden, a flower
& herb garden, a wild garden and 4 nature trails that visitors are welcome
to walk. So we did – and enjoyed a tranquil stroll by the side of a stream –
the end of the walk brought us out to the car park. It cost us each about $12 for
this delightful experience.
We then drove into Nairn, where Wes has forebears,
but apart from the view at the wharf of the North Atlantic ocean, we were a
little underwhelmed, and drove back here along winding little lanes, through
fields of canola, past piggeries and cattle, but with no sign of the sheep that
caused Margaret to be sent out to Australia as a convict. At 14 years of age,
she stole 5 sheep, which is no mean feat!
So now I am sitting in the guest lounge
downstairs looking out at the spectacular view. Our hosts have gone out and Wes
has driven to the Museum to see if he can find out more information about his
relatives. We had such a good breakfast – lots of fresh fruit before our cooked
meal, that we didn’t need lunch, but will enjoy an early dinner and perhaps
some more of our claret and cheese on our return.
Wes
in the beautiful border of the maze garden
We are keeping abreast of life in
Daylesford via Facebook, where everyone posted pictures of frost today. I am
ringing Viva via Skype when I wake up every morning and she is enjoying the
contact and sounds very well. Her GP gave her a clean bill of health and said
she is doing very well, which is a relief.
I’ll write again soon – thanks for reading.
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