Cairngorms

On our way to the North East we stopped at Loch Insh in the Cairngorms to walk the dogs. There were sheep walking loose and we didn't know whether Brego would hunt them down so we kept him on the leash until we arrived at the Loch itself.

Toby smelled the water and went on before we arrived there without looking at the sheep there. The water was more appealing to him. In the winter the Cairngorms is a ski area. On some of the mountain peaks there was still some snow visible. With the sun out on the sky this gave some very nice pictures indeed.



On the island in the middle of the loch a couple of Osprey were breeding there we spotted one of the parents flying around.


The border of the loch is very rocky which gives a spectacular view to us Dutch people that are only used to sandy bottoms.

Scone

On Sunday we drove to Scone. We had only booked one night here on our way up north.

The camping site was on the grounds of Scone palace that we didn't go to see, shame on us. But we have visited it already on our visit to Scotland 10 years ago. Dogs aren't allowed inside anyhow.
So we just walked beside the horse racing track neighbouring the camping site to walk towards the river Tay.




Rob spotted a salmon jumping upstream, we waited for more to show up and perhaps take a picture of that but we didn't see any fish jumping anymore so you have to believe his word for it.
Toby couldn't resist the water. Because of the wild flow we kept them on the leash. On the other side of the river a dog was in the river and wanted to swim our way. His boss needed to convince him not to do this and he stayed on the other side.

South East Scotland (Carfraemill)

The first camping place in Scotland was in Lauder (Carfraemill) a town south of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We could only stay here for one night because this weekend was a UK bank holiday weekend so all camping sites where fully booked. Our next planned stop was Scone and that was fully booked as well. We decided to stay the night and determine the next day where to go to next. After all we have a motorhome so we are not totally depended on camping sites.


What do you think the dogs do after a long drive. Yes indeed sleep.


And after their beauty nap look around to see what's going on around them.

The next morning the sun was shining again and we heard from the site manager that there was a cancelation and we could stay longer.


Because the dogs needed to be groomed and we had a long drive the days before we booked another two nights and reserved the spot on the site in Scone for Sunday.

The first morning I groomed Brego and after that we went for a walk into the area. We are in border country so we encountered a lot of sheep that weren't all to relaxed when we walked by with the dogs.


On the camping site a small river flows and it was lovely to let the dogs cool down and wash there paws to remove the clay.


The second morning I groomed Toby and afterwards we went to Edinburgh with the bus that stopped nearby the camping site. It was somewhat less that a 1 hour drive.

In Edinburgh we seemed to be some sort of tourist attraction because of the dogs. We got a lot of compliments with our beautiful dogs. And people asked if they could stroke the dogs and could take pictures of them. We didn't see to much of Edinburgh because the city is not really a good place to walk dogs. The parks are off area for them so we sat on a bench on Princess Street to drink some coffee and I shopped at Mark and Spencers for the evening meal.

The road to Scotland

Folkestone is in the South East of England. To arrive in Scotland it takes a drive of about 800 kilometers. We chose to travel in two days and on the first day we stopped in Boroughbridge a small town above York.
It was still raining from time to time, but that is to be expected when you go to the UK ofcourse.


The next morning we continued our trip towards Scotland. Once we arrived in Scotland we looked for a nice place to stop to have lunch and exercise the dogs.

Brego looked outside and spotted the sheep. Afterward he looked at me somewhat surprised at least I thought so.


Toby has a I've been there and done that look on his face. We herded sheep together when he was 2 years younger.

We continued the trip and later on we stopped again for a short walk to exercise the dogs again. And yessss, the sun appeared on the sky.

We discovered a small river there and Toby couldn't hesitate the water and went in.



And later on the first sheep beside the road, here a picture made from within the campervan.

Holiday Scotland

Tuesday 29 April we went for a 2 1/2 weeks holiday to Scotland. The dogs would travel together with us so we decided to take the Channel Tunnel Train again. We can ride the motorhome on the train in Calais France and than stay in the motorhome for the 25 minutes that it takes to arrive on the UK (Folkestone) side of the Channel.
To bad it is not allowed to take pictures on board of the train.
We spent the night in Folkestone on a parking nearby and it was raining cats and dogs.

Two Bear(die)s playing

In the park, Brego and one of his Beardie friends Floyd played together. He is a brown beardie boy of 2 years old. At one moment they looked like two bears playing. Excuses for the poor image quality, but the movie is made with a phone.

Hageven Plateaux

On the border of our village with Belgium there's a nature reserve called the "Hageven Plateaux". Because the dogs are not allowed to walk there without leash we didn't walk there before but we decided that we at least have to walk there once.





We did the walk and I can tell you that we will revisit again because we did enjoy the scenery.