I have already mentioned that one of the primary reasons for us being in Scotland has been to visit places where Pete's family came from on Grandma Gibson's side. Her family on her mother's side were the Mackenzies. We named our second son Mackenzie, a name I really love. When I was pregnant with him I felt really strongly that his name was to be Mackenzie. I am not sure that he felt the same way about his name growing up ... he got teased a lot, if I remember correctly and I think it was tough for him at times, but I do not regret giving him his name. I think there is a lot in a name and each of our children have something significant in their name that really meant something to us when we were thinking about what name we would give them. The other important part of coming to Scotland has been to drive the NC500 and if you ever get the chance to do that ... do!! Driving on this road has been spectacular, but I think I have already mentioned that. We are about half way around the NC500 in these photos.
After our 'Best Hot Chocolate in the World' we camped at Durness Campground, while there we did a quick cave trip and I mean quick, it took about 20 minutes. I am always a little anxious going into dark, confined spaces but it was not that dark and not that confined.
I had to take a photo of our Satnav that was a life saver. It made driving round Scotland so much easier. The only real problem was Pete listening/trusting that the satnav was right?! There were a few moments when Pete got into a bit of conflict with it ... I don't want to call it 'she' even though it had a very nice British woman's voice.
We stopped at the Ardvreck Castle ... the same castle that can be seen on the Grand Tour. The Mackenzie Clan (Pete's clan) attacked and captured it in 1672. As many of you will know Pete is left handed, in his genealogy research he learnt that there is a anecdotal association with the Kerr's and left handedness ... Before she married a Mackenzie, Pete's great, great Grandmother was Jessie Kerr... part of the Kerr Clan.
These are the remains of Calder House that was built by the Mackenzies after they took over the castle. Apparently the family had riotous parties here and ran out of money not long after they had built it.
We spent a few nights in Ullapool which is a small fishing village on the coast... quite a tourist spot. As mentioned finding food that Lars and Roxcy liked to eat was a challenge at times ... here we hit gold. We found a Chinese take away that not only had food that Lars and Roxcy liked, but even tasted good.
While Pete did some family research at the local library I took Lars and Roxcy out on a boat to spot dolphins and seals. We saw plenty of seals ... Lars said he saw dolphins and we definitely saw a porpoise.
A view of Ullapool from our boat ... so pretty.
The Mackenzie Tartan ... I bought some scarves in Ullapool. I was tempted to buy myself a kilt but they were either too short or too long!
These Double Caramel Magnums are hard to find in Scotland. You can get a pack of three from some supermarkets but they are hard to buy on their own. When we were staying at Ben Nevis Campsite Roxcy had seen one at the visitors centre and begged us to buy one. We said no as she had just had an ice cream and that we would buy her one the next day, Roxcy said that we would not be able to find one and that Ben Nevis was the only place in Scotland that sold them. We were convinced otherwise ... well the next day failed to happen ... it was days before we finally had to buy a box of three. Roxcy was right, she is always right. In NZ the opposition is Memphis Meltdown by Tip Top, which was Pete's go to before we went sugar free ... I really like the new vegan Magnums, they are yummy.
Ullapool is lovely ... the campsite was right on the sea and the early morning's and evenings were beautiful. There were lots of children here and plenty of playing. Lars and Roxcy spent a bit of time mixing with the other holiday children in the camp playground and seemed to have a lot of fun. Lars came back to our van one evening after playing with another family at the camp ground and said in a rather loud voice ... 'There are some Germans staying here and they are actually really nice'. He had just finished reading about Germany and WW2. I felt a little uncomfortable for a moment ... I also remembered a conversation with Grandma Gibson ... she had been into the city (Christchurch) and was sitting in the square where our Anglican Cathedral used to stand as a tourist attraction. She had struck up a conversation with a tourist and this is how her conversation went with him. Grandma Gibson "What part of the world do you come from?"... Tourist "Germany" ... Grandma Gibson "Oh well, never mind." Grandma Gibson lived through two wars and lost family and friends in both. Her memory of Germany and Germans was very different to mine. Syd, Pete's Father who fought in the WW2 came back with a strong anti American view. Two very different experiences of the same war, one from the inside and one from the outside. I guess there are some things in history that are hard to get away from, but I do feel sorry for Germany, it seems like a hard thing to have to live with. One person can create havoc as we experienced in ChCh recently with the Terrorist Attack on our Muslim community ... one man shut down the whole city.
I loved this RV ... it was so cool and retro looking and also a 'happy camper'.
Achiltibuie is about 40 minutes up the road from Ullapool and this is where Pete thought his Great, Great Grandmother had come from. It also is on the coast and quite remote. But apparently she came from further round the coast from a n even remoter, even smaller place called Reiff.
Reiff ... it seemed very bleak and isolated to us but maybe that is because it was wet.
After leaving Ullapool we visited Inverewe Gardens that are world famous. They are beautiful ... created from barren land by Osgood Mackenzie starting in 1862. There are many varieties of plants from all over the world and the gardens are noted for the breadth of their plants. We found Harakeke from NZ growing there. Roxcy and I got into a conversation that went a bit like 'If I were a Princess ...' in Roxcy's mind Castle = Princess. It was a good way of distracting Roxcy from walking in the rain, which she hated.
Lars 'did not' want to go to the gardens but was feeling much happier when we visited some war sites. While walking around Inverewe Gardens Lars was feeling miserable and fed up ... it was another wet day ... another castle...and another garden. When Lars gets angry he mutters away to himself about how much he doesn't like what he is doing. Here is how one of his angry conversations went with Pete .
"This place is so boring ... and it's so boring, they don't have any fun things. Even if I was a Prince in one of the castles it still wouldn't be any fun. They would say don't touch this, don't touch that, because all the things are so old. They don't even have a President, Queens are boring. We have a President. If I was President I would ask them to make me a RV, it would have a king size bed and it would be sooooo big.'
On our way to Applecross we caught this view ... for me this is Scotland ... dramatic and so may shades of of light and grey.
At Applecross we spent the night in a Hobbit Hut (Pod)... some light relief from our van. Mike suggested that we get a room for a few nights, it was quite hard as everything was booked out.
We walked into the village for dinner and on the way back to our camp we spotted a wild Stag. We were so excited ... just get a load of their faces. Roxcy's philosophy of life is ...
'It is really important to have fun. You have to have fun! I don't like school work, school works is stressful for kids and the adults. Fun is not stressful for kids or the adults.' A great philosophy ... and Roxcy has fun.
Pete and Lars standing at the top of one of the steepest roads in Scotland. We feel so grateful that we have been able to have this trip with Lars & Roxcy.
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