The long way home!

Nessie surveying her kingdom

We woke to yet another beautiful morning on Saturday, but we were going home - we were all sad!

We packed the car (much easier now all the birthday present packaging has gone) and headed on our way.  We stopped off at Ullapool to do a couple of jobs, watched the ferry come in to the harbour (they would have had a magnificent journey in this morning - it was spectacular weather) and then headed off on our way.

We enjoyed the scenery all the way across to Drumnadrochit where we parked up.  Drumnadrochit is on the banks of Loch Ness and is where all the Nessie themed exhibitions etc are.  We didn't have time to do the exhibition (shame - it looked good) but we did have time to go to the shop to see if there was anything we might want to get with our holiday money.  Matt and I came out empty handed, but Tom seemed to find a green monster which jumped into his arms!  Yep - we now have two Nessies in our possession - she is real!

Subbuteo with Lewis

We then drove down the side of the Loch in the search for a nice place for a picnic on the shore.  Took a couple of tries, stopping in parking areas, but found a perfect place in the end, down by the shore with plenty of pebbles for skimming and boats to watch and of course a great vantage point to try to see Nessie.


We then carried on our drive thorough the mountains and lochs, past Fort Augustus, Fort William (much bigger place than I was expecting and my first ever view of Ben Nevis) and down towards Glencoe which has a rather magnificent setting - very big lumpy hills leading to Rannock Moor which is is large and desolate.  We stopped off at The Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum - a strange place - set up for coach parties with a cafeteria, gift shop, outdoor shop and for Motorhome owners / campers with a laundrette, fuel etc. We had a quick look round and a cake to revive us, before setting off again, through the Trossachs and to Dollar where we were staying with the Blezards for 2 nights.  It was a long drive, not particularly fast, but the scenery was magnificent, certainly worthwhile doing.  We were glad we didn't have to be in Dollar any earlier.

Inside the bunker

We arrived in Dollar to find Rory, Neil and Lewis.  Tom went out playing with Lewis immediately whilst Matt and I chilled.  We were treated to Haggis pakora followed by lamb and lentil curry with homemade flat bread for tea (we always get very well fed at the Blezards) drunk with beer and followed with cheese, biscuits and wine (we always get a hangover at the Blezards!)  A good night was had by all.

On Sunday we had a day out.  The original plan was to do a walk to a good pub, but the weather forecast wasn't great.  Instead we went to Scotland's Secret Bunker for a look round.  It was very interesting - so much to take in and digest, that we all suffered from information overload.  One thing I found interesting is that it only stopped operations in 1993...I was at university in 1993!  Wow!  I'm getting old enough now to be part of history - ouch!!!!!  Even though it was operating until 1993, there was no refrigeration on site.  The rooms we were allowed to look in had equipment that was less than modern - I think to reflect how it looked in the 1960s and 1970s rather than when it closed.  WE heard all about plans which were in place in the event of a nuclear attack - basically anyone who was deemed a waste on resources (ie with outward signs of radiation sickness) would be left to die or be dispatched.  They had that horrible propaganda film on repeat in the cinema area of the aftermath of a nuclear attack - which included 'trouble makers' being shot by a firing squad of police.  I was worried about what Tom would think about it - but when I asked him if he wanted to leave, he said he wanted to stay - was pretty brutal though!

Beach cricket in Elie

The arms room included in its day cyanide tablets for all - in the event that they got invaded or the nuclear blast meant that they were barricaded by rubble with no-one on the outside able to dig them out (they would be dead and anyway it was a secret bunker!) or in the event that everyone on the outside was dead and there was nothing left to live for.  It was all quite sobering.

It was very interesting, we learnt that dial up phones are far more secure and reliable than digital phones and the boys were able to play with a old style telephone exchange.

We did wonder how much of the bunker we got to see and how much was still 'secret'.  What hadn't we been told?  We worked our way back up to little cottage which was the entrance to the bunker.  There were definitely more earthworks in the area - I think they still use the place for something...

When we got back outside we were greeted by sunshine, so we headed to Anstruther on the coast for fish and chips - Neil took us to one of the best chippie in Scotland.  We had a good lunch - haddock for me, breaded prawns for Matt and a fish cake for Tom.  All good quality and efficient service and boiling hot - definitely freshly fried for us.

As it was still sunny, Sharon suggested we go to a beach - so we headed south to Elie which is a famous beach.  Luckily we still had all the beach games and equipment in the car.  Tom got into his trunks and went for a full paddle.  The boys then had a game of beach cricket.  All the while there were thunder rumbles all around us - it was supposed to be torrential downfalls all day.  The tide was on the way in and it moved very quickly, soon the beach was flooded and we decided to call it a day - just as well as when we got into the cars the rain came down in floods!

We drove back to Dollar and vegged for the evening, having just cheese and biscuits for tea - the chippie lunch had filled us all up.  A good day.