Scotland – Week Five

This week we visit a new customer to install his electrics and then attempt to avoid the snow in the Cairngorms.

Saturday 24th – 45 miles

Today isn’t just any Saturday, it’s my Mum’s birthday, my family is used to me not being around for birthdays, so I started the day with a group video call with my mum and daughter.

The plan today is to leave the Black Isle and aim to get a closer distance to Sunday’s job. Which means passing through Inverness, so an admin day is on the cards, yay!! For us that means get some washing done, fill the fridge and fill with fuel. Days like this aren’t very exciting, but they need to be done living this kind of lifestyle. 

We managed to spend most of the day getting all of the admin jobs done so decided to head to Culbin Forest Car Park, which we’d been to already. It meant we were close enough for work and we knew it would be peaceful. We got settled and made a start on tea.

Sunday 25th – 17 miles

Just an ordinary work day, although it’s been a while. Today was a full install on an empty van for a customer who works away during the week and needed off grid accommodation. As it’s a fairly big install we’ll spend some of tomorrow here to, so I checked the map and apps for something local for tonight’s park up.

We found a spot which looked out over the sea and with views over to Lossiemouth, we just had to take a little walk out with the dogs when we arrived.

Monday 26th – 34 miles

Another working day, finishing the job near Elgin. We knew today would be a long-ish day, so I cracked on looking for a park up somewhere on the way to the Cairngorms. Using Searchforsites, I found us a free spot in Cragganmore, which has black waste and toilets available which we didn’t need to use. It was a lovely peaceful spot with friendly locals, which we would use again if in the area. I didn’t take any photos as we arrived in the dark and left early.

Tuesday 27th – 59 miles

We knew snow was in the forecast and we had a little sprinkle last night, we had considered going into the Cairngorms and travelling the snow roads, but with the quantity of snow, the snow gates closed up and the forecast wasn’t going to let up. We knew if we started on the snow roads we could potentially be stuck for a good few days. 

As we are starting our last week of the trip, we made the decision to head west again! We made our way down to Aviemore to have a nosey around and to extend our decision making as we still weren’t sure which park up to aim for tonight.

As we’d set off quite early this morning to avoid snow, we were ready to leave Aviemore by 10am, so we settled on a park up we’d already been to, Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve. We arrived to a rainy afternoon but that didn’t stop us from heading out to see the highland cows and the geese, we love coming here to see the highland cows, last year we saw some beautiful calves here. 

Rich was shattered after having two days working (after five weeks off) so we enjoyed a cosy afternoon chilling.

We were thinking of possible routes we could go as we slowing start to head south, our first job back is in Penrith, so going down the west is ideal. We were thinking about heading down to Glencoe, but neither of us fancied going to the mountain resort.

Since we’ve had lorries, we’ve always been told (usually by drivers of small campers) that we wouldn’t get our home down the Glen Etive road (famous for a scene in James Bond). Now to a certain extent, during busy periods I’d imagine they are probably right. Maybe, mid-week in late January would be a good time to have a go, I know between Christmas and New Year there are always a lot of vans heading down there, so we’d never try then.

Wednesday 28th – 65 miles

After getting the dogs for a walk and taking the morning slow, we set off towards Fort William, where we stopped for a leg stretch and to grab a few things we’d forgotten in Inverness (we always forget something).

I can be an anxious passenger at times, this is mostly because we are driving our home around with us all the time. So turning off the A82 to drive down Glen Etive was little nerve wracking for me. We were kind of winging it too, figured we would look out for somewhere beautiful to park up along the way. 

The full length of the drive is 12 miles from the A82 down to the Loch at the bottom where there is a small car park. The road is single track all the way with occasional passing places and as you get further along there are some low trees, skinny bridges and some interesting bends.

We succeeded, we arrived at the end to an almost empty car park, which made getting parked up fairly easy. We arrived just in time to make the most of the last light of the day, so we sent the drone up.

If you look closely on the middle photo you might just spot the lorry.

The drive had been gorgeous, not that I took any photos as I was too busy being anxious! But, arriving here was just breathtaking, the views are stunning, the silence is blissful and we immediately felt relaxed. 

Thursday 29th – 0 miles

We decided quite quickly that this is the perfect spot to spend a couple of days, a little bit of down time surrounded by perfection. 

We went for a good walk down the side of the Loch and spent the whole day feeling chilled and happy. Throughout the day people came and went again but we were mostly alone here, which is just bliss. Rich took the electric scooter for a long ride along the forestry tracks.

Friday 30th – 14 miles

We woke up feeling thoroughly refreshed and ready for another walk. This time we ventured up the hill into the forest. There are miles and miles of tracks which Rich sped around yesterday. We did a steady five miles, quite a lot of that was up hill mind and found a pretty spot for a sit down.

I don’t know about you, but we absolutely love finding beautiful places with not a soul in sight, we saw the odd deer and some birds, but no humans disturb the natural peace.

We got back from our walk and knew we ought to make tracks, we never choose to stay in a wild spot for more than two nights, usually just one. We’d seen a couple of spots closer to the A82 so we set off and head for those. 

We arrived with just enough space for us to get in, grabbed some lunch and pottered down to the water to see the falls.

The park up was peaceful enough, only a few cars passing, but whilst having a brew we discovered that some people had left their toilet roll and bare excrement on the ground nearby. I get the need for those who choose to car camp or stay in a tent, but please bury it!!! We have one dog (Mia) who would choose to roll in that and another (Blue) who would eat it, Milo wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, the only sensible one out of all three of them. So we had to move, as it was getting later in the day we opted to go back to the mountain resort as it was just around the corner.

What a mix it has been this week, we’re starting to feel sad that we only have a few days left. Check out week six to see how our trip ends.

Kate

xx