West Highlands

Wednesday 7th May we set out to drive to the West Highlands, but first we wanted to visit Loch Ness to see whether we could spot Nessie the monster.
We thought that Urquhart Castle would be a good place to visit but when we got there it seemed that only guide dogs where allowed in. We considered faking blindness but immediately came to our senses that our dogs do not understand what that takes ans they guided Rob the wrong way.

So we only took some pictures from behind the fences and left for the West Highlands.



At lunch time we stopped near a river and ofcourse the boys needed to go in, all three of them.




And some pictures I took while driving in this fantastic landscape.


We planned on camping in Poolewe but the camping site was full. So we continued to Gairloch and found a beautiful camping site there with view over the Gair Loch.


The dogs rested a little bit besides the campervan and we than walked at the beach. A small river flowed into the sea so the dogs could drink some of the water there and wash of the salty water from their paws.



The next day we went for a walk to the flowerfalls. It was a very sunny and warm day, we had to walk to the starting point first. This was a walk of its own, so when we arrived at the starting point we first drank some coffee at the Old Inn.


Then we started to climb to the Flower Falls. A beautiful landscape and very beautiful weather what's more to ask for.




The water was very nice and the dogs needed it very much as you can see at their tongues.


On the way back to the camping site we walked along the cliffs to the beach another beautiful spot.

Black Isle (Rosemarkie)

On Monday we left Scone again. We crossed the river Tay.

If you wonder how our dogs travel in the campervan. Here's a picture of that.

We headed for Rosemarkie on the Black Isle near Inverness. We stayed at a campsite next to the beach to the Morray Firth, where seals and dolphins are located. We spotted a couple of seals but the dolphins didn't show up when we were there.

What is the first thing to do after the boss has some coffee, yeah head for the sea and afterwards the boss can drink his second cup of coffee.


The next morning we walked toward the lighthouse that was on the peak of the isle which is not really an island because it is connected to the land. It was cloudy that morning so we didn't spot the dolphins that show up here sometimes.

Later that day the weather got better and we even could relax out in the sun.

At the beginning of the evening we went along side the beach again and even shot some pictures with Rosemarkie buildings on the background.

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.