Around the Moray Firth

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We were making our way from John O’Groats to a site at Nairn, near Inverness airport, and decided to stop for a couple of nights at a site between Dornoch and Embo - what a find! It was the height of the holiday season and this 3.5 acre site only had us and 3 others on it despite being next to the most gorgeous beach (NO MORE PICTURES OF DESERTED BEACHES, THEY WERE ALL GORGEOUS). We spent a morning sunbathing on the beach (yes it was hot) and then went to watch the salmon leaping at Shin Falls, we didn’t see any actually make it.

From Nairn Jackie flew home for a couple of days to see her mum, Don, Nick and Emma and Andy and you can see what happened to Trev from the photo - moral of the story - never leave a man alone, they can’t even remember to shave! Nairn was on the Moray Firth near Inverness where apparently the northern most pod of bottle nosed dolphins reside, we think they were invisible ones.

From Nairn we moved east to a tiny site near Banff right on the coast. We could watch the waves crashing on the rocks and gannets plunging from the van window, and all for 5 pounds a night! The highlight of our stay was a trip to Troup Head to watch the gannets. Before our trip to Scotland we hadn’t seen one of these incredible birds and until Troup Head had only seen 2 or 3 at a time - now we know where they all hang out. There must have been thousands of them soaring around the cliffs and many more perched on the cliffs themselves, including that cute baby one. They were very noisy and smelly and the photo doesn’t really show how big they are - they are like the concord version of a seagull.

Next stop was a site near Elgin (Andrew if your reading this we liked Elgin too). This was our first site away from the coast, well about 5 miles, for months and we woke on the 31st August to a frost which was a bit of a surprise. The site was in the middle of a large pine forest and the red deer were a bit of a road hazard. We visited the town of Elgin itself which was very nice with the beautiful ruins of a cathedral (and a great burger van). As well as the local forest we visited Culbin forest with its miles of paths and cycle tracks as well as a ‘squirrel’s eye’ viewing tower. Next day we went to Spey bay and we finally saw DOLPHINS, unfortunately they were a bit camera shy - but we did see them - honest.

Okay midges should have gone by now, time for a trip inland.

Blog updated very quickly this time - we had some free wi-fi.

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Photos

Emma and Andy
Could one of these be a future house for them

Look what happens when you leave a man on his own
No I am not drunk it was the flash from the camera

Loch ness
But we didn't see nessie

Thousands of Gannets
What a cute baby one

Comments

[Emma]

Houses
Went and checked on the houses today - they are coming along well. Some of them even have bricks! Although the 'boating lake' is still full of water so we won't be buying down that end. XXX

[suze]

lol mum i think even you could take on that monster!