Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England

---

Scotland was a nice change; the people are very relaxed and laid back. I would once identify similarity to Australians except over the past few years the general population of Sydney have become so loud and sometimes aggressive that I think the Scottish are probably more down to earth!
Now Scotland I had been to before and seen a lot so it was a re cap for me, so I acted as the tour guide again. Edinburgh was having a festival when we arrived and along with the storm that sent everyone home. We visited Edinburgh castle but did not enter, and then back to the van and headed North West. Staying in parks and little country road sides. The weather was a bit colder than we had thought so we didn’t go right to the top of Scotland, and started making plans to head over to Northern Ireland. So our tour of Scotland was fairly brief we did cover a lot of ground and saw much variation of landscape till we made out way to Stranraer for our route to Belfast. We entered Belfast late at night and drove north to avoid the city. We had enough of the big cities and wanted to see more of the country side. Once out of Belfast we came across a great camp site for the night and settled in there. Our first major destination, the old walled city of Londonderry which lies on the west bank of the River Foyle with the location of old Derry on the east bank. We entered the walled city and drove around ‘the war memorial in the diamond’, erected 1927. The place was eerily quiet - I noticed patrols of 3+ heavily armored and caged cars/tanks. We pulled up to take a look at the round-a-bout memorial when we were approached by some young Irish guys. They informed us that we had arrived only moments after the orange march… They joked around and even pretended to throw a bottle at the armored cars which the police glared back from. After a long chat they tried to convince us to go with them to the pub for a few drinks. We were too tired so passed up on the offer. After leaving Londonderry we worked our way around the coast anti-clock wise, visiting the Giant’s Causeway which is one thing worse a mention. The rock formations are something like I had never seen before (see attached pictures). After the Giant’s Causeway we worked our way down to the Ring of Carrey which was absolutely littered with flowers. They appear to grow out of anything like weeds. We visited some of the oldest ruins in Ireland. I would have to say that the Ring and Causeway would be the biggest attractions in Ireland when it comes to regions. Yet for one place Blarney Castle would be that, and it is well worth seeing for its architecture alone let alone the fact it has the Blarney stone! (For over 200 years, world statesmen, literary giants, and legends of the silver screen have joined the millions of pilgrims climbing the steps to kiss the Blarney Stone and gain the gift of eloquence. Its powers are unquestioned but its story still creates debate). This is its main attraction and though I did kiss the stone (I think the stone took mine from me…) I think for me, the castle its self is the attraction. We had now spent about a week and our time was running out so we made our way back to the east coast to a place called Rosslare in order to get our ferry to Fishguard (Wales).

Wales I felt was more than I expected. It was very green and I saw more life than in England. They have high mountain ranges that are a very green and fertile. Our trip saw us travel from open plains on a rugged coast to inland rivers lined with thick healthy trees then tall mountain ranges. We had no problems finding places to camp, however we did venture into the pitched camping grounds but only to have a proper (long) shower and wash cloths. Once we got to the upper regions, Dane (my brother) caught a train up from London and spent the weekend with us. We visited some castles including Caernarvon which is architecturally one of the most impressive of all of the castles in Wales.

While taking some photos at night a car full of girls pulled up - they were making some cheeky comments out the windows which I could not understand so I said I would take their picture. They were shy at first then decided they wanted a picture taken, giggling like girls do they then went to drive off and stalled the car. My brother and I had a good laugh but it did not stop at that. They could not start the car back up and about 2 minutes later the police pulled up. A male and female officer geared up for a riot (they had been circling around a few times looking at Dane and myself taking pictures) So they pulled over and started asking questions. The girls and officers spoke to each other in some language, maybe welsh when the officers said they would give them a push start!! (they obviously did not think the girls were driving - and the girls must have stashed their bottles which they were drinking from at the time) So I said I would help and we pushed. The driver did not know what to do so the female cop got in. We pushed and it became clear that she also did not know how to run start a manual car, ha ha. Anyway after some instructions and a laugh she finally got the car going and the girls gingerly got in and left waving goodbye as they went. You would think that would be it but no the cops wanted to talk to us, and so they did for about 30mins. Asking all sorts of questions then the male officer told us how he had been to Sydney and the conversations went on and on (I felt like he was either VERY bored and wanted a talk or he was just wanting to befriend some Australians, the female cop just exchanged smiles with me and with those smiles I knew she was thinking the same thing as me - when will her partner stop) Anyhow strait after that the lights went off the castle which seemed strange so we took that as a sign to head off. I found a really good place to park for the night opposite the castle which is where I took this long exposure night shot.

We then made our way down to Mount Snowdon (in North Wales, part of Snowdonia) where we traveled right through the heart of Snowdonia stopping off at Britannia Mine where we wandered around and explored the slate mines and quarries. If visiting there I would recommend walking around the quarry tracks. (You can also dive on the mines)
The weekend had now come to an end and it was time to drop Dane off to the closest train station in order for his return to London. We then headed over to Bath where we visited the roman baths which were semi restored. These baths had been used for many hundreds of years if not thousands still using the original thermal spring. After this we went to dinner and sampled some of the local chef culinary delights.

A couple of days later we started making our way down to the southern coast to see visiting some quaint little fishing villages which had not changed in decades if not centuries. For the remaining time in England I spent in London and around Brighton, visiting stone henge (which I missed last visit to the UK by only minutes). I stayed in Arundel and went to Arundel Castle to watch a rock & symphonic spectacular, featuring full rock band and the national orchestra followed by some fireworks. I surveyed the area for the best view point to take pictures of the fireworks over the castle however they started 30mins early so I was unable to get into position to take pictures. Instead I stood under the trees looking up and took two pictures for the sake of it. One thing to note. I had never stood so close and being under the fireworks... I'm not sure if it was an accident however still burning embers were raining down on me and all the nice cars parked along the road... It was like a meteor shower so I had to be careful not to let it get in my eyes and I could not help wondering if it was ruining the cars duco that were parked all along the road.

The last few weeks we listed the camping van for sale on a number of web sites, I spent some time fixing things here and there in preparation for the sale. Finally I made my mind up to head back home - so began the organized rigmarole of planning and purchasing the return journey.

---

Photos

On the road
Heading into Scotland

Staying the night just off the road
We found some caravan park and the people there were dodgy - like your typical American trailer park red necks so we left

Crops
I saw some crop circles but didn't stop to take pictures so I have added this instead - makes sense? probably not.

Another camp site
Random off the road camp sites... should I be in trouble?

Paterns and colours
Northern Scotlands highlands

Fishing village
I wish I had the name for this place, very small and interesting, bought some second hand books here

Another cow!
But wait, this cow is different, black front and back and white band... it's a racing cow!

Scotland
The country side in general - very nice

Heather - Scotland
Scotland's famous heather, it was everywhere!!

Carbridge
An old bridge - the rivers here are often brown and clear but this was something else

Perfect for fishing
Nice water for the fish, clear yet dark so they can hide.

Carbridge
Flowers just grow, how difficult it can be in Australia

Black colours
Sounds strange, yet look it's true - black colours... (sort of) :-)

Little flowers
Scotland

Strange house
There was a dead rat or something hanging on the fence - witch near by?

Castle
This is just the front gate