Scotland is a long way from Reading!

We didn't find any reasonable accommodation around the border so decided to just grit our teeth and head home... all 650 miles or 12 hours of driving.  We decided to head to Loch Ness via Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most photographed and beautiful castles in Scotland.

After a good breakfast at our B&B having a chat with some Americans, we traveled south over the infamous Skye Bridge. The route, as many in Scotland was spectacular.  The road snaking its way along the Loch Alsh. After about 30 mins or so we came across Eilean Donan Castle.  From first impressions it wasn't as grand as I had expected as it has been used in several movies and promotional videos and images, but if there was one castle you would associate with Scotland - this was it!  We decided to stop and have a look and we were tempted to go in - limiting ourselves to an hour as the clock was ticking to get home - and we were rewarded.

Eilean Donan

Skye

Skye is somewhere we have wanted to visit for some time - drawn by its remoteness, landscapes and recommendations from friends, so it was here that we decided to spend the majority of our Scottish adventure.

We jumped on a ferry from Mallig on the main land - a nice little fishing village and the main jumping off point for many of the Hebridean islands - towards to southern end of the island.

Ferry crossing

The journey to the Isle

The Isle of Skye was our target destination, but we didn't just want to drive like crazy to get there, we wanted to see a bit more of Scotland, so we got off the main road and went for a coastal route, recommended by friends Rhys and Nicole, who had done a similar trip earlier on the year.

On the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond

The land of the deep fried pizza

It has been about 12 months since we have posted. The original idea of this blog was to capture our travels... but as we came back early we ever quite got out of NZ. Anyway, as it is about travels we thought why not continue... so here it is... only this time its a bit more closer to home.

We missed out on the Olympics so we decided to try and get tickets for the next international event to hit our shores... the Glasgow commonwealth games. So about a year ago and a half ago, there we were on the phone and internet to our good friends Tom and Hannah booking tickets.  Surprisingly it was fairly easy and we got the tickets we wanted - cycling, gymnastics and hockey (that was a bonus one as tickets were cheap and we needed to fill a day).

Off to the games