Today is our last day in Scotland and another chapter in our adventure will soon come to a close. Today finds us in Falkirk on a drizzly morning on our way to the famous Falkirk Wheel. This ingenious Scottish invention was developed to enable boats to use the Firth and Clyde, and Union canals without using traditional locks to lift them the 35 metre difference in level. We arrived at The Wheel just in time to buy our tickets and board the next tour boat. It was full of older local people on a day’s bus tour. As we started our boat trip we overheard one elderly lady say, “I thought we were only coming to see The Wheel, not ride it”. We had the usual safety message which mentioned there was no point in looking ... read more

We were sad today to leave the Isle of Mull, but sadder still to wake to howling wind and sheets of rain hitting the window of our hotel room. We watched what looked like buckets of water being thrown off the hotel roof as we ate a hearty breakfast and planned how to carry our bags to the car without treading water on the way. Bravery was called for, but you know what? The rain eased off for just long enough and we made the dash, all togged out in our wet weather gear. The next challenge was the one lane road with potholes and passing places, now also the site of minor flooding and swift flowing streams. We needed to catch the ferry from Fishnish across to the mainland and made it just in time ... read more

Today we decided to make the trip to Iona, our reason for coming to Mull. We are staying on Mull for three nights and we have to choose the best day for the trip. Since arriving in Scotland we have been having trouble picking the best day. For the past few days we have had great weather but the forecast has now reverted to the familiar Scottish weather pattern, rain. So we took a chance today and headed off. We chose a shorter route over now familiar single lane roads with regular passing places. The road today was a B road and the quality of the surface was sometimes very rough. Looking out over the sea we could see many smaller islands appearing out of the gloom. At one point we saw a car coming towards ... read more

With the “Skye Boat Song” ringing in our ears we packed our bags and said farewell to the Isle of Skye. We have had a wonderful time exploring Skye in weather that proved better than expected. This morning we head for Fort William en route to Mull. We have had various comments about Fort William from “Why would you want to go there?” to “It always rains in Fort William.” So Fort William here we come. It better be exciting and dry. Once the car was packed our first stop was the Skye Bridge for a quick photo or three. The walk to the top of the bridge provided us with great views all around. The wind had dropped and the sun was trying really hard to come out. This provided us with a fabulous atmosphere ... read more

This morning the sky was pale eggshell blue and not dark with rain clouds. From our window we could see the shining waters of the loch reflecting little boats and hills: truly a morning to be glad about. The plan today was to drive around the southern part of Skye, stopping wherever we wished and taking as long as we wanted. This being Scotland, we found beautiful views around every corner so our cameras were kept busy. The two lane highway we took quickly became a narrow one lane road with frequent passing places, all well signposted. The most successful approach was to pause at each passing place just in case, then drive to the next, keeping an eye out for oncoming traffic. In most cases we were able to meet at a suitable passing place, ... read more