Holiday, whoop whoop!!

We are finally away on our long waited tour of the Highlands of Scotland. So far we have been pretty blessed with the weather, very unexpected I must say! But true to form we have experienced a wide range of insects haha. Both the Scottish midgie and wasp have been most especially present, ah well, can’t knock nature!

We left on Friday morning and sped up to Aviemore. Our first stop for the night was camping at Glenmore Campsite (http://www.campingintheforest.co.uk/scotland/glenmore-campsite) situated right next to the shores of Loch Morlich. We have visited here quite a few times before, the Loch is absolutely stunning and the surrounding Glenmore forest has many interesting walks that are suited for any level of hiker. I’m not big on hill climbing I must say. though will happily walk for hours on semi-even ground! Gus and Molly had been very patient on the car drive and the forest walks around the Loch were the perfect opportunity for them to burn off some steam after being such good passengers!

The campsite at Glenmore itself is very nice, costing about £21 a night (expensive IMO but also pretty standard for Scottish campsites these days). Unfortunately though we were pretty washed out by the weather! The ground very quickly became water-logged and our old North Face tent, which has been bombproof for ten years, finally gave up the ghost and started leaking! The weather was always going to be a risk when holidaying in our wonderful country! Thank god for our new and wonderful Volvo. We hastily put the back seats down and took refuge in the back. Car camping woohoo! Dry and warm and much better than a swimming-pool tent 😉

RIP North Face tent xxx

Shores of Loch Morlich

Forest walks, purple heather yey!

After our slightly damp nights sleep we left Aviemore and continued onto our destination in the Black Isle, just above Inverness where our dog-friendly lodge awaited us! On our way there we stopped at the Black Isle brewery (http://www.blackislebrewery.com/) to pick up some yummy scrummy beer! We received a very warm welcome from the people at the shop and their gorgeous resident Labrador…Black Lab of course!

After our brewery visit we carried on to our accommodation, a lodge set in the Muir of Ord. Boy did we choose right! These amazing wooden lodges super cozy and are kitted out to perfection. Literally the only accomodation that had all of our requirements; dog-friendly, wood burning stove and a bath!!  Set in a beautiful quiet and scenic spot with views of the mountains and surrounding forest of  Spittle Wood, we feel S-P-O-I-L-E-D!!!! After all our driving we had set Sunday aside to have a super relaxing day and all I can say is someone up there really must love us as the weather was spectacular. SUNSHINE!!

Accommodation at Big Sky Lodges- http://bigskylodges.co.uk/

It’s not a Scottish holiday without a Highland Coo….

Sun-worshiper…

We thought that it would just be us three on our little highland adventure, but our very very good friends had time off and so booked the lodge next to us!!! Amazing! So now we have the legendary Lucie’s company (aka Queen Squishy) for the next few days as well…the best surprise EVER!