The countdown begins…

In reality we’ve been counting down for some time (!) but as of today we are just 6 weeks away from hitting the road. And Belinda has just 4 weeks left of work!

She has mixed emotions about retiring as she will genuinely miss the children she looks after - but she is also absolutely determined to travel and make the most of our time away. 

The next few weeks will be spent making the final touches to our travel plans, getting the motorhome 100% ready, having a good clear/chuck out at home and catching up with friends and family.

Talking of plans, I’m aware I haven’t really shared what they are other than to say ‘we’re going travelling in our motorhome’ so I’ll try to put that right now. The map below and the markers on it show many of the places we aim to visit in an anti-clockwise direction starting with the Northeast, followed by Edinburgh, Deesside and Lochnagar and then Speyside and the Cairngorms. From there we will head north via Inverness and the Black Isle joining the famous NC500 route which takes us up the coast to John o’Groats then along the north coast of the Flow Country and down the Scottish west coast to Skye. From Uig on Skye we head out to the Hebrides on the CalMac ferry and then work our way slowly south through the islands of Lewis, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and finally Barra from where we will sail back to the mainland at Oban. Following that we will explore Mull and Iona before leaving the islands to take in the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, Mallaig, Fort William and Glencoe followed lastly by some time in the Galloway hills. 

After Scotland we plan to spend time in the Lake District then the Northwest including Liverpool before North Wales, Anglesey and then parts of mid-Wales depending on time. 

As ever it will be a mix of walking, exploring, visiting beauty spots and historical sites, beaches, nature stuff and photography with a healthy dose of the local food and drink! 

While we didn’t want to over plan things we have had to book ferries, campsites etc on the Scottish leg of the trip to make sure we could get to where we wanted to go and stay where we wanted to stay. 3 or 4 nights at a time we will be ‘wild camping’ so those days and nights are much more flexible. The trip beyond coming off the islands is rather less planned!