Its that time of year again! The pair of us, and now our furry travel companions, are striking out east once more in search of history, foreign food, and wild swimming. Since our last trip to Scotland in summer 2025, we have had a few smaller escapades: a week in Kent exploring the cinq ports, 2 weeks over Easter in Germany (and a little bit of the low countries too), and 10 days on our 'minimoon' in the Brecon Beacons. We have now moved our boat, being our main home 2/3 of the time, up to Rugby, so we set off from there on sunday night down to Swindon so Danni could crack on with a couple of days of work before we headed down to Dover ready for our travels. Having been given a lot of freedom over the previous months due to the warm weather, we had to retrain the boys to get used to their harnesses.  Once she was all finished with work we set off to the ferry which was super warm. I have a feeling that Moira's lack of air conditioning during a long drive in a very warm year...

Back in mainland Scotland, we had some exciting plans in the lower highlands. First stop was our longest hike of the trip, up the infamous Ben Nevis. Whilst we were hoping for some amazing views, the clouds had a different agenda.  Danni, briefly, being the tallest person in the UK atop Ben Nevis. After powering our way to the top we opted to have lunch in the tiny, smelly, yet dry, snow shelter on the top of Ben Nevis. The back of the head of a very pleased and accomplished feeling Rob. Although it will hurt for a few days. Living in a van in the UK can be tricky given how spread out the services are, but boy when we found a campsite offering hot showers, water filling, bins, waste disposal, AND hot pies. Were we happy! Our next morning started in the pouring rain (despite smug claims of 26 degree heat from some London friends) but we did get an excellent view of the Harry Potter train atop the Glenfinnan viaduct. Due to some biological concerns, that pie did not agree with Rob, R...

For the first time on our trip, we left Britain and headed for the Isle of Skye. The Skye bridge, while not huge, did not disappoint. First stop on Skye was finding a local highland cow and bothering him as best I could. Our first day was spent largely at the famous fairly pools, a whole hillside of a huge number of mini water falls. Almost as many waterfalls as there were American tourists.  One wrong direction later, Rob had taken us through a bog and got us suitably stinky. Deciding to treat ourselves we pulled into a building with parking, a candle shop, a restaurant, and a cinema. Two pizzas and two drinks later we headed in to watch the latest Mission Impossible (not bad actually). Nice and satisfied after our meal and film we settled down to sleep in Moira. Sadly we were about to be caught out by the side effect of our first non-rainy day in the highlands so far: all the midges! Day two on Skye and we pulled up in the capital of Portree for some classic tourist shops, chips,...

Leaving the comforts of our campsite we embarked on our voyage further south with empty bins, full water, and a renewed desire to travel. Our first stop only slightly down the road from the campsite was the castle of Ardvrek. Like many of the surrounding castles it was completely demolished and many of the surrounding buildings are no longer even visible. Its almost as if someone created the castle just so a romantic ruin could be seen on the shores of yet another Scottish loch. Another day another waterfall. Our big stop of the day was the Bone Caves which held some of the oldest bones from all of the Highlands, These caves we sealed off by the advancing glaciers in the valley outside. This process did destroy all of the evidence of inhabitation outside of the cave but inside bones over 8,000 years old were preserved like a time capsule. Heading up the east coast to the towns of Wick and Thurso we were a bit disappointed by the unaesthetic nature of these remote towns. The reason, it ...

 Now on our way back down, albeit very slowly, time had come again for another mountain day. Our first mountain of the day was Spidean Coinich with its super impressive views of the sea, called the Minch, just off the coast. Having not had any internet access the night before, the summit of the mountain was the place we needed to find a shower for the evening and low we found a lovely cheap campsite just round the bay. However, we did need to check in relatively soon before they closed so sadly we cut short the other two mountains of the day.  An example of the Danni style of hiking: the carefree amble.  Rob on the other hand has a far more determined gait. And then you have the class Danni stare. Usually at a waterfall or perhaps a highland cow. Very achy after a busy active day we pulled into Clachtoll campsite, our first official campsite of the trip, for a bit of a treat. Since you have to book two nights at once for the campsite we thought we'd have a further tr...