Friday, May 23 to Wednesday, May 28
Don’t you just love when spur of
the moment ideas work; ideas that have essentially come from thin air and work
out to be a fantastic idea, like our trip up to the Highlands with our lovely
flatmates Trav and Dweebs. We basically hijacked their trip they had been
planning to celebrate Dweebs’ 30th birthday. After tossing up
whether we were going to attempt the West Highland Way or not, it didn’t take
much twisting of the arm to take up the off-the-cuff suggestion that we join
them on their road trip instead.
And we got tick another thing off the 'things-to-do-before-we-leave-Scotland-list.'
And we got tick another thing off the 'things-to-do-before-we-leave-Scotland-list.'
"Rothiemurchus is one of the glories of wild Scotland"
- Sir David Attenborough
Day One
After going halves in the cost of
petrol, picking up Dweebs on the way and with Carhouse* packed to the brim with food and camping essentials we
were off. As Carhouse doesn’t have
car seats we had to set-up camper chairs in the back behind the front seats so
we were facing the sliding door, as to not look too suspicious to the
authorities.
After a lovely three-hour drive
through the Scottish countryside we arrived at the Rothiemurchus Camp and Caravan Park
just before 8pm and just in time to check-in. J and I were quite lucky because
Trav had called the campsite to try and book on our behalf and had a left a
message, but didn’t quite chase it up, so when we actually talked to the site
manager, we were almost told we were not going to be able to stay.
We were quite surprised that we
were almost told there was no room, because it seemed to us that there were
plenty of empty tent spaces on the grounds.
J and I set our tent up beneath
the trees, and then went over to Dweebs and Trav’s site to have two-minute
noodles for dinner and to drink some of the home brew. We then stayed up till
the wee’ hours playing Carcassonne
and games of Bulls*** that our
flatmates lovingly nicknamed ‘s*** bomb*.’
We even managed to stay awake
till midnight to ring in Dweeb’s 30th Birthday.
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| Our wee tent in the background at Rothiemurchus Camp and Caravan Park. |
Day Two
Today was Dweebs' 30th
birthday and we celebrated by all of us having a bit of sleep in and then
having a bacon and egg fry-up for breakfast.
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| Carhouse with birthday balloons to celebrate Dweebs' birthday. |
While we were eating our
delicious breakky we noticed that Carhouse
was parked next to a birds nest – a dug out cavern in the ground – where a bird
quickly darted to and from carrying food into.
 |
| Attempt number 20 of trying to take a photo of the bird. |
After breakfast, on our way to
the toilet block Dweebs spotted a Red Squirrel* running quickly across the path
and up the tree. She hurriedly told us all, and we were standing underneath the
trees, craning our necks, trying to catch a glimpse for a while.
Just after midday we finally left
the campsite to walk to the town of Rothiemurchus and into Aviemore.
Dweebs decided that for her
birthday she wanted to do an activity at the Rothiemurchus
Centre and we all chose to play a couple of rounds of tennis;
which was £10 per a court for an hour, including racquet and ball hire. Which
we felt was a bargain!
During our game of doubles, which
I believe Trav and Dweebs won, we walked on towards Aviemore, the most well
know town in the Cairngorms National Park.
 |
| The snow capped Cairngorms. |
It was such a scenic walk too
from Rothiemurchus, with the sun coming out and highlighting the magnificent
mountains in the backdrop and crossing over River Druie on an old bridge and
heaps and heaps of golden yellow bushes (known as Whin).
Our tour of Aviemore included
seeing heaps of bunnies hopping about in the park in the middle of town and
going to Tesco for BBQ supplies for Dweebs’ birthday dinner.
After getting back to camp,
enjoying a late lunch and rest in the tent, the boys got some information from
the site manager on where to spot some wildlife and suggested we follow around
the Glen Einich walking trail that
ran off the campsite through the Wildlife Reserve.
It was great for wildlife
spotting – we saw herds of Roe Deer, black slugs* and some type of toad
frog. Though we didn’t see any Pine Marten*, apparently quite the sleuth, but
our inside informant* said one had been sighted lurking around the campsite,
like quite the Pink Panther.
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| The 'common' Black Slug with it's feather-like back. |
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| Spot the heard of Roe Deer. |
We finished the night with a BBQ
next to Carhouse and drinking beer
and wine whilst playing more hands of s*** bomb and even getting in trouble by the campsite manager for causing 'too much' disturbance.
It was a great ending to the
first part of our Carhouse adventure,
the next day we were off to Orkney. Too be continued…
*They had bought Carhouse three years ago, when they
first left London for their road trip around Europe. He is an old ambulance
that had been kitted out by his previous owner as a campervan and they
nicknamed it Carhouse, because it’s a car and its house and that particular
name was only meant to be temporary until they could think of a better name,
but it stuck.
*Whoever loses gets lovingly sung
to, “S*** bomb, s*** bomb, you’re the s*** bomb” by the rest of the group, who
have kindly borrowed the tune of Sex Bomb
by Tom Jones.
*Red Squirrels have received endangered
status in the UK and we so happened to have one running around the campsite we
were camped at.
*Apparently quite common after
telling a friend how weird and wonderful us four found these critters.
*After finding out that these
animals actually hunt and eat Red Squirrels we had changed our minds about how
much we actually wanted to spot one.
*Also known as the campsite manager.
