Oban 18 October to 20 October

Our journey to Oban started with our fastest get up and go ever - 30 minutes! This was mainly because we woke up at 11:00am, which is the checkout time. Some campgrounds charge another day if you leave late so.... we crept out in our stealthy white van of stealth and no-one noticed anything!

Oban is a lovely small fishing village, mainly used as a stopping point for people visiting the various islands just off the coast. We decided to stay for a couple of days, because we had been moving around quite a lot, and had just done a fairly massive drive from Skye (6 hours in one day).

McCaig's Tower is on the top of the hill. Oban fact: population of a bit over 8, 000 (which makes it the biggest town in the area), but this increases to 25, 000 in the tourist season. Which is definitely at some other time of the year.

Why so sad, big plastic statue?

A hi-vis vest to serve whiskey - safety first, everyone.

We visited a restaurant attached to a brewery, which strangely had only one of their own beers on tap (they made 6), but the food was excellent. The lads also visited the Oban distillery where we got to try cask whiskey taken straight from a cask.

We also wandered up to McCaig's tower, which is a strange structure that looks a bit like a hollow Colosseum. The storey goes that in the 1890's John McCaig noticed that a lot of the local stonemasons had no work in the winter, so he commissioned them to build this structure in the winter months to give them a job - as a memorial to his family (and him, he died before it was finished). It is 200m in diameter and would have cost half a million pounds in today's money.

So, Oban was very pretty, and a lovely place to spend a couple of days.

The outside of McCaig's Tower....

.....and the inside. Not very towery.

Possibly contemplating the view, but probably wondering what is for dinner.

Helen having a staring competition with the sun. It lost.

Off for a jaunty walk. This is the road to the campground, which did make us wonder if the sat-nav was having one of its moments.

The early episodes of Man vs. Wild were not very exciting.

So, onwards to the Isle of Islay and more whiskey!!

Isle of Skye- 15th till 17th October

After leaving the Orkney Islands we drove back down the east coast of the Highlands.  We stopped for a look around Dunrobin Castle on the way before heading east to the Isle of Skye.

An attraction in Scotland that was actually open - amazing!

A lovely setting let down by the hideous statues on the fountain.

The Isle of Skye was a lot less inhabited than I expected, with more of the same incredible scenery we've come to expect from this part of Scotland. It also has amazing mountains which add to its grandeur.  We stayed at a site in Portree, the main settlement.  It was only a mile out of town but it might as well have been 10- it felt very isolated.  It did have perfect TV reception however and we all snuggled in to watch the All Blacks v Australia game.  Nervy stuff!

We had a massive storm during this night. We learnt that the van can handle a 50+kmh crosswind, but it was pretty noisy and shakes around a bit. We ended up moving to the lee of the toilet block during the night (where this photo is taken from) and it was much more comfortable, plus very convenient!

Portree is a cute, vibrant town, and we had some good meals and wanders there.  The weather was a bit variable and pretty cold (as we were driving the campervan thermometer warning light kept coming on- because of "low temperatures outside"!), but we managed to get out for a great walk around the headland walking path, called Scorrybreac.

That is a battered, deep fried, haggis. Deeeeeeelicous.

It's a serious business wearing two tone gloves. Jane is also modelling a stylish, cold deflecting, double jacket combination this afternoon.

Portree Harbour

Most gaelic words include a sound that is somewhere between a cough and clearing your throat, so this is pronounced skorry - bra hackcough

Yup, snow on the top of the hills!

We are either smiling because it is sunny, or grimacing because it is windy, or both.

Josh, working that ass.

Jane taming the fierce creatures of the Scottish highlands, she was lucky not to lose a finger to this denizen of the forest.

God only knows what is going on here.

On our way out of the Isle we visited Talisker Distillery in Corbost, which lies down a narrow winding river on the banks of a loch.  The tour was good and the Talisker even better :)  We also tried to visit Dunvegan Castle, but it was closed.  The perils of off season travelling.

No castle for you!

On our way to our next destination (Oban) we stopped for a night at Corpach, where we re-sampled the Talisker (still not poisonous) and proved that there ain't no party like a campervan party.

Morgan is sensibly sticking to water. 

Keeping Josh fed was an ongoing challenge, with severe consequences if he went without. I now have to hold my glasses on with duct tape.

Josh has large feet. Jane is now modelling a more informal look of night time attire.

Orkney Island- 10th till 14th October

Just after Helen and Josh's one week "Van-aversary" we decided to leave the van behind for a few days and travel to the Orkney Islands.  We left the van in the middle of a farm with a lovely lady named Connie and bordered the ferry at Scrabster.  Unfortunately, due to a combination of winds and tides, the crossing was a wee bit rough and I (Jane) spent the trip acquainting myself with Caledonian Macbrayne's fine toilets!

Also, note the photos - glorious, unbroken sunshine.  Yay!!!

The views of Stromness as we arrived in Orkney almost made the ferry ride worthwhile.  Orkney is an incredibly beautiful place and unlike anything I've seen.  Unlike the rest of Scotland it's very green - and it takes a few minutes to realise it looks a bit odd because there are absolutely no trees.

See - NO TREES!

Still no trees.

It is quite surreal to head through the wilderness of Northern Scotland, catch a ferry to a windswept island, and find a dense, busy town.

Stromness waterfront

Stromness town

Yay we made it!

We stayed in a lovely house that was within walking distance to Stromness and, more importantly, very well heated!  Keys (when we arrived) and money (when we left) were simply left on the table inside the open house- it's that kind of place.  The people were lovely and obviously not accustomed to seeing tourists at this time of year.

Stromness is a small town but big enough to have good pub food and a hairdresser, where the beard was finally tamed (although not vanquished).

To all the guys reading this - you are lucky I am a billionty miles away or else all your women would be mine.

Stromness art gallery.  A very cool building overlooking the port.

Our house, Ivydene.

Our lounge, otherwise known as the Dominion Room. That's actually a card game, not some sort of pervy couple swapping sex thing. We don't have any photos of that.

View from our front door.

Josh making awesome, awesome hash browns.

We also visited Kirkwall, the largest town on the island, which has a very nice Cathedral and the Highland Park Distillery.  We visited both of course.  Morgan, Josh and I did the Connoisseur's Tour at the distillery which included a private tasting session of their 12, 15, 18 and 21 year old whiskies.  While it's not my favourite whisky it was great fun and very informative.

St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. All of the place names (and Saints) are from the Vikings.

One of the church doors

They are quite proud of the fact that they still do traditional floor maltings.

So shiny. And warm. And they smell like booze.

Whisky tasting fun.  The main flavour I got was whisky, and drunkeness.

Pre dinner cocktails at The Foveran Hotel.  The guy made a pretty good margarita considering I had to tell him how!

Nom nom, chocolate fondant....  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the star of the meal, the main of Mutton four ways.  A seriously under-rated meat.

Even cars can't resist his new beard trim.

We spent a lot of time on the island playing cards, eating, drinking and sleeping.....so in an effort to be better tourists we hired a car and hit some of the big sites (the town of Twat, whilst amusing, was not one of these).  The biggest draw for me was Skara Brae, a stone built neolithic settlement on the west coast.  It was occupied between approximately 3180 and 2500 BC but was only unearthed in 1850 after a storm stripped the earth off the roof of the cluster of ten houses.  It was just incredible to see how advanced they were- they had beds, hiding spots for valuables and even dressers for displaying prized objects.  Very cool.

A replica of how the houses would have looked.

A replica of how the inhabitants would have performed their mating rituals.

There were several houses and a 'workshop', and all the streets connecting them were underground also. Given some of the weather we had in Scotland, the idea of an underground, completely sheltered settlement makes heaps of sense.

An almost perfectly preserved 5000 year old house. In the bottom centre of the floor is the hearth, against the back wall is the dresser with shelves, in front of which are storage bins for food and water. Against the left wall are the beds, which would have been full of heather and covered with animal furs.

The home of the family who discovered Skara Brae on their land....

....it had some interesting design features.

We also visited the Brough of Birsay, an island accessible from the mainland only at low tide.  Basically it's just incredibly beautiful.

The Brough of Birsay

The grass was really, really green and blown into these gorgeous waves by the wind.

We also visited the Ring of Brodgar, a smaller version of Stonehenge.

For our next album cover.

We had an absolutely fabulous time on Orkney.  It's definitely one of the most amazing places we've been.  You'll be pleased to know that the return ferry was a much smoother ride!

The Old Man of Hoy, viewed from the ferry. 450ft tall.

Awwww, so cute!