Inverness & beyond

This week we are meeting friends who have rented a flat in the centre of Inverness, overlooking the river. So, Monday we had a very wet walk across town to collect a hire car, so we can drive around together (as the motorhome only has 2 belted seats).

Unfortunately, our friends got delayed on a train bus replacement, which meant we had time to do some shopping for us and them, before collecting them at the train station. Nic had another kitchen to play in at their flat, and given their delays, Nic cooked for us. 

Tuesday, we had a walk around inverness including a local art gallery. We booked a Loch Ness cruise, but received a phone call from the Cruise company a couple of hours before the schedule departure time, to let us know that their boat was broke! however we just moved the booking to Wednesday. We had beer and pizza at a Black Isle pub (the only other Black Isle pub was the one we went to in Fort William).

Wednesday morning, friends asked for some help sorting out some stuff online, then we went off for the Loch Ness cruise, a couple of hours down the loch as far as Urquhart castle. It was nice to see from the water as we had visited it last week, thankfully the weather was OK, a little windy but dry.

We had dinner at the River House, a fish restaurant next to the flat, which was fabulous. Rog was brave and had oysters! The fact that it displayed a notice to say fully booked confirmed it’s good reputation, and did not appear to stop people calling in to try and get a table.

Thursday, our friends wanted to visit Orkney, so they booked the tour from John O’Groats, and we were all up for a 5:30amstart for the 2.5-hour drive to John O’Groats. We didn’t join them of the Orkney tour, as we have booked to take the motorhome over later in the trip, (watch this space for the tales of that coming soon).

We drove along the north coast, through Thurso. Nic spotted a place on Google Maps called Puffin Cove, so after making a huge assumption that we might see Puffins we set off for Puffin Cove, a very small carpark/layby then a short , if steep, walk and we were not disappointed we saw lots of Puffins. They were going in and out of burrows, on what was a well used nesting site, some were taking off and fishing in the bay below.

Next we drove on as far as Strathy beach, which was lovely, with hardly anyone else around, blue sea, white sands, we could have been in the Caribbean.

Heading back east to John O’Groats, we stopped in Thurso for coffee. Then met our friends off the ferry, a quick bite to eat at the Village Inn, Keiss, then the 2.5hr drive back to Inverness, we were back to the Motorhome at 10:30pm, a long day.

Friday the Girls went to see Downton Abbey the Movie, the Boys, after Rog dropped the hire car off, decided to go back to the Black Isle pub, to sample some beer and whiskey, then we all finished the day off with a few more drinks back at the flat and a Thai take-away.

Saturday, our friends left for their respective new adventures in the morning, we stayed on with tickets to a tribute acts festival at the Ironworks in Inverness. On the bill was Abba, Oasis, the Beatles and Queen from 3pm until 10pm.  The doors didn’t open until about 3:20pm, then we were searched by security on the way in …. Scottish crowds must be good! and later they didn’t disappoint, there were some people having a VERY good time!

Music started with a guy singing Motown classics to a backing track (i.e. Karaoke style), he was good, after a 45 min break he was followed by the Oasis tribute, which was OK, but we were more Blur fans in the Britpop days.  Another 45 mins break then Abba were on, they were very good, obviously doing all the well known tunes. The Beatles were cancelled and Queen were not going to be on stage until 9pm. As we’d been there since 3pm (with no seating), and next month we are going to see Queen & Adam Lambert at the O2, we decided to head home early. 

Sunday, we packed up the motorhome for another move, drove north from inverness and visited some of Rog’s family who moved to the highlands a few years ago, had tea/coffee and cake. Then drove on to our next site “Grannie’s Heilan’ Hame Holiday Park”, not our usual type of site, this one has hundreds of static homes and an “entertainment” complex. But it is right on the beach.