TARTARUGA

We will be continuing our travels tomorrow early jumping on a plane, Mapuot, Doha, Heathrow, 19 hrs of hell for me, then the tour will continue with a week in around London at my Sons house, then the Edinburugh Military Tattoo, followed by a tour of the NC500 in a hired motorhome, returning home on 22nd Aug, then it is time to rest a bit. Sadly not been able to find time to finish posting our Cape trip, however the photos are with me, perhaps it will still happen, but otherwise watch this space for a spectacular UK tour

Crying babies bumping seats and not one moments sleep, that's why we travel in a motorhome, bloody awful but its over

Day 1 - Guildford I am calling this, (yesterday) day 1 as the previous day with flying is one I would rather forget, this pain is unfortunately only half way, we still have to do it all again to get home. It was really great to see Alex and Daph again and after a couple of hours rest we hit the ground running with a visit to the village in Guildford and to the Guildford castle, built in 1050 or so, now ruined and pretty much just a tower and some outbuildings left. Byt really beautiful gardens. Incredible view from ontop the tower. We went and had a little refreshment at a pub and then back home, dogs for a walk, and some much needed refreshments at another pub thereafter. What an interesting little town, normally when we visit London it is all about the big bill attractions everyone knows so well, and we travel through the small towns and villages without seeing much if them. It is a point of interesting perspective that when these incredible old buildings were being built, forgotten skills and technology, the tribes of Africa were yet to discover the wheel. On this trip we hope to see some different stuff

Will be a small delay before posting yesterdays yesterdays pics, we have battery issues

Day 2 - Guildford Sadly the brand new tablet I bought to manage photos has failed and I had already transferred Day 1s pics, so right now, it looks like they gone. Day 2 saw us make a trip to the Guildford Cathedral and do some shopping, lovely weather and interesting visit

Then we went through to the Brooklyn museum where amongst all the racing cars and motorbikes, the last Concorde is now on display, a stunning collection of transport and racing related material

Day 3 - Guildford We had a trip to the Caribbean day at Merrist Wood College primarily a food and drink festival with some goodies on sale on the side. Good food, good carribean punch and then back home for a braai and top it all off with some excellent local beers

Day 4 - Guildford So finally after first trying in 1986, we get to Stonehenge for the day, spectacular and thought provoking, the pictures speak for themselves

Day 5 - Guildford Day trip to Bath, interesting history and relics from Roman times, toured the cathedral and baths, then back to Reading for a late lunch, lively day and great weather.

Day 6 - Guildford Relaxing day, visit to see @⁨Garry Proctor⁩ at Shepperton lock checked out the lock and surrounds and had a great lunch <This message was edited>

Day 7 - Guildford Trip to London to watch the Lion King, stunning but sorry no pics allowed, Charlotte will have to post some drive bys for us.

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Day 8 - Guildford to York We had an uneventful and easy journey to York in the morning, arriving just before lunch, walked the city walls, watched the Van Gogh 360 degree video presentation. Walked some more, and Charlotte made Jihan and i drink lots of beers while she climbed every steeple in every church, a lot of beer. Lovely dinner if steak and ale pie with mushy peas and potato fries with gravy, and despite the awful spotlight in the hotel wall that only went off at midnight, and he traffic noise right outside our window, we actually had a good nights sleep and refreshing shower with tons of inexhaustible hot water. A lovely day of what was anticipated to be an exhausting rigorous journey. As per my thoughts on FB above, well done indeed to british rail

Day 9 - York to Edinburgh Travelled by train a bit further north today to Edinburgh, sorted out tram passes and checked into our accomodation, strolled around the castle and the tattoo stadium, then down to the harbor and saw the royal yacht which is permanently berthed there. Busy day, lot if walking, proper hill here, perhaps the grand old duke of York was confused and actually marched his 10 000 men to the top of the hill in Edinburgh. Tomorrow we will activate our tourist bus thing and do some in depth visiting.

Borage, this was a public garden full of herbs and little signs telling you how to use them. They didn't ID the borage though, essentially an obscure herb with few redeeming features, in times gone by they used to put the pretty little blue flowers into ice cubes, i think for little other reason than to be cute

The mediaeval guild hall, much warped and distorted over time, Johan and I did a beer assisted evaluation of the external safety aspects, while Charlotte inspected all the rafters from within. Pity the British historical society doesn't have my account number, I am sure they valued our services.

Day 10 - Edinburgh Busy day, hop a tram, meet Johan for a breakfast coffee and muffin, validate tour bus tickets, tour the (ex) royal yacht, Britannica, cross the city and tour Edinburgh Castle, followed by the Tattoo. I am stunned, the tattoo was beyond professional, a live show like no other.

Having a jol

I still hate thatcher the tattoo reads, for the uninitiated the Edinburgh military tattoo is not a body disfigurement it is an ancient military parade

The crowd waiting, we were lucky to be in the right restaurant fir lunch, and all we had to do was wait out the rush over a beer and soup with sourdough bread, becoming a bit of a habit, the soup is, Edinburgh is horrifically expensive, a 330g steak can cost R1500-2000, and you might get five fries and a parsley leaf with that

Day 11 - Edinburgh Bus tour day, hit the green bus first thing in the morning, scottish parliament, holyrood palace, and all up and down the royal mile, haggis neeps and tatties for lunch, then hit the blue bus and toured the loop down to new haven and the ocean terminal and back. The green bus is a winner, David did a running commentary, outs a totally different slant in the tourist sights. Lovely day but so so so many people

Day 12 - Edinburgh Last day in the big city, spent most of the morning in the national gallery, magnificent display of scottish paintings dating back to 1300s, climbed the hill and down the royal mile for some of that pig spotted yesterday, looked around drank some beers, enough city now, tomorrow we grab a motorhome and head for the open country. <This message was edited>

The royal mile far from the madding crowd, the lady was an unintended victim of the camera, but at keast she didn't have purple, orange or green hair, of which there certainly is a lit about

Day 13 - Edinburgh to Dundee We had a fairly uneventful trip across the river to collect the van at Kircaldy, took a while to get all the formalities squared away and on the road, stopover at butcher shop and get some essentials then in to Tayside, campsites full so moved off in direction Inverness and found Fernleigh campsite, GBP21 nice enough site, no facilities just power

For the record our target destination was Tayside but as Lacksie campsite was full we drove on to halfway between Dundee and Perth, Errol and discovered Fernleah

Day 14 - Dundee to Drumnadrochit Off to the famous Loch Ness not much to say, it is beautiful country, the photos tell it all. Loch ness campsite, never seen so many motorhomes in my life, GBP40 for a site, nice grassy spot, ablutions smaller than a thimble but clean and adequate, power at site, no monster to be seen

Day 15 - Drumnadrochit - Inverness - Balintore Got going early to use the showers and toilets before the crowd arrived, then moved out for Inverness, inverness castle closed for renovation, moved on to Balintore, lovely little seaside town, caravan club campsite, GBP20 spotless public toilets, power on site, waste water disposal and fresh water, really friendly people <This message was edited>

Day 16 Balintore - John O Groats - Wick Stayed as guests in a caravan club site, GBP20. John O Groats very commercial as northern most point if Scotland, (which it isn't) also walked to Duncansby heads, freezing cold and raining but still well worth it, and then passed the northern most point, Duncansby heads.

Day 17 Wick - Tongue Stayed at Wick River Campsite, run by an ex-South African who sounds like an Ozzie, has a long chat, GBP23 with electricity on site, clean new ablutions, trees, which are rare. Last leg of the more commercial and busy side, now moving to west coast which is more about nature and less about historical buildings.

Day 18 Tongue - Ulapool Driving through the most beautiful lush green highlands, lochs and rivers and water everywhere. Stopped at Cocoa Mountain along the way for a well renowned hot chocolate and croissant, nicest hot chocolate i tasted in a very long time. Tried Armair point campsite GBP48 for a stand, qre they mad? Ended up at Broomfield holiday park, pricey at GBP39.5 but nice enough site with electricity and clean ablutions.

Day 19 Ullapool - Applecross It is hard to explain where time goes, we wake up in the morning, drink coffee, hit the road before everyone else, which means before 10AM, drive about 50 to 100 miles stopping and visiting along the way, check in to a park around 17h00, drink a beer, cook eat and usually get into bed around 21h00 when it gets too cold, sun goes down around 22h00, and the day is over, today is cold windy and raining, and we expect to travel more than visit, and should be about 120 mile drive to Applecross, so having a more relaxed start. Will complete the report tonight, i hope.

Walk around the bus with me, county the motorhomes if you can, GBP 40 a pop, that's proper money that is

So quite a long trip today, just over 100miles, lousy weather most if the way, but really beautiful countryside

she is lovely, brings a tear to my eye

Day 20 Ullapool - Uig Cold wet and terribly windy, the trip was largely in misty conditions, despite very beautiful country, we were not really able to see any sights or take photos, we travelled to the northernmost point in our trip on Isle if Skye and Charlotte toured Dunvegan Castle, we couldn't get parking so Johan and I drove to nearby village centre in the hopes of finding coffee, only to discover all shops closed till 3 and some till 5. Nice life it is considering how many tourists were looking for food, shops losing buckets of money. On the road from the castle tom Portree we got involved in a rearview mirror clipping incident with another motorhome, completely destroyed drivers mirror, the roads are really narrow and some if these motorhomes are wider than a truck and have ridiculous mile long side mirrors. I assume many renters are also not regular motorhome drivers, it is a problem.

Day 21 Uig - Auchtertyre Unintentional stop after a tough day, after heading to Quiraing to see the sights, we made an extended 753 point U turn on the country road, and dropped 2 wheels in a hole next to the road, in the mud and resting on the chassis, no jack, no rope, no tools, and with the fenceposts and rocks at our disposal we could only get ine side lifted, from about 10h30 till 17h00 we waited for the camper hire roadside assist to arrive, literally 5 minutes to pull it out, then we hit the road, and this is where we ended up, let's hope this is the end of the tough luck spell that started with yesterdays mirror destruction, or there might not be much camper left to return in Kircaldy.

Day 22 Auchtertyre - Perth Uneventful day getting the kilometers behind us. Charlotte had a nice tour of the Scone Palace when we got to Perth, Johan and ihad a management meeting after lunch. Settled down in the Scone caravan club campsite fir the night, 1st class facilities GBP35.35 including a discount for Indie campers, our hiring agent, we sneaked Johan in and didn't pay for him, Charlotte extracting an involuntary discount from the British economy. Tomorrow motorhome goes back and we head for Liverpool

Camera photos from Scone Palace i will upload in the train to Liverpool tomorrow, goodnight everyone and goodnight Scotland

Charlotte been running us ragged, further updates will probably have to wait till we are home. Leaving Liverpool shortly to Telford then tomorrow Reading and Guildford

And so the tour comes to an end, safely home