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Published: July 16th 2010
Forget the Lake District - Scotlands the place to be!
Our first stop was Moffat, a great little town, home to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and many scenic walks - unfortunately due to the large number of cattle around we didn’t do many as they were rather too friendly for our liking.
Next stop Edinburgh where we met up with Suzie and Rob (missed you Emma and Andy). It was quite a shock to be in the centre of a city after so many months of being in the middle of nowhere. Scary moment when we cycled into the city for the first time, the cycle route was down the middle of the dual carriage way and the bus lanes which were very crowded as half the roads are shut due to the roads works being done in preparation for the new tram line. The castle was good fun, but the zoo.............. tiniest cages ever for tigers and other big cats and force feeding penguins? I don’t think so. Sad to see Suzie and Rob go, great barbies and board games (did your shoe ever turn up Suzie?).
Callander was next, great weather and cycle routes down the
Weaving demonstration at Moffat
Very jolly chap - probably due to the free whisky samplesold railway lines which went on for miles, it was so hot the patches melted on Trev’s bike tyre. We stopped at Lock Earn for lunch (and a bit of a sleep in the sun) and were lucky enough to see a sea plane land and take off.
Oban came next and caused us to completely change out plans for the summer. This was another temporary holiday site, thanks to Joe, Graeme and others for organising it, brilliant social evenings even though Joe did try to convince us it was an alcohol free site and confiscate our beer and wine - no chance! Joe was very funny but despite Graeme’s efforts to turn us into Scots I couldn’t understand a word he said and Trev had to translate all the time. Oban is a lovely town and while we were there we took a boat trip (actually it was five boat and two coach trips) to the Isle of Mull then onto the Isle of Lunga which is inhabitated only by sea life, including puffins, razor bills, cormorants, guillemots and shags. As there are no predators on the island these were all very tame and the puffins would come
right up to you. We then moved onto the Isle of Staffa to see Fingals cave and rock columns that look like the giants causeway. This has to be the best, and longest, day out ever. On the boat trips we also saw seals and a basking shark, and on the coach several red stags. On another day we took the bikes across to the Isle of Lismore where we saw a family of otters catching fish - brilliant. Our original plan had been to stay in southern Scotland until September but the scenery and wildlife was just so amazing we decided to keep heading north and visit more islands, Skye next!
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