Despite the beautiful weather and clear skies of the day before, we woke to a thick haar and misty rain. We were up early as our hotel’s normal breakfast buffet had been replaced with a set time due to Covid restrictions, but it was so worth it – nice, strong coffee, fresh baked croissants, and the offer of a cooked breakfast with all local ingredients (it was a bit early for that for us though!). Fuelled up and ready to go, we were back on the road fairly quickly.
We had two rough plans for the day but it was weather dependent: it was entirely possible for us to drive all the way home in one day despite being on the north coast of the country, but equally if we wanted to we could take our time and camp somewhere en route.
Our first stop was just up the road in John O’Groats, known for being the most northerly part of mainland Britain (although really that’s 11 miles up the road in Dunnet Head). We arrived to one of the most deserted towns I’ve ever seen – we were the only car in town centre car park, everything was shut, and a creepy mist had descended making it feel like something from a zombie apocalypse movie. After a quick wander and a photo next to the famous signpost (had to be done) we were quite swiftly on our way again.
As we drove south, the fog just got thicker and thicker. I was glad to be back on an A road rather than those little twisty single track roads of the days before, as it was stressful enough driving in such bad visibility without the added pressure of having to check for cars about to drive into us! From John O’Groats all the way down to Inverness there wasn’t much we really wanted to stop and see. In a non-Covid world we would have visited a distillery and if the weather hadn’t been so awful we might have stopped for a walk somewhere, but neither of us felt like we were missing out on much. The scenery of the east coast is nothing on the west either, so it felt ok to be speeding by it all.
Thankfully by the time we reached Inverness the sky had cleared and the sun was out. We stopped for a couple of hours to have a walk around town and sat by the river to eat lunch. It felt strange to be back in such a populated place after the past few days of feeling so disconnected from the world.
As it was early afternoon and we had already come so far, we were leaning more towards sleeping in our own bed that night than camping. We confirmed plans to meet one of Alex’s friends for dinner in Dunkeld, about an hour drive from Edinburgh, and figured we might as well head for home after that, all being well.
Back on the road we were soon driving through the Cairngorms National Park, which is one of my favourite places. With the sun streaming in and such good roads, it was the most relaxing drive we had done in days! As we approached Perthshire we saw the sign for the House of Bruar services. I had last been there in the middle of winter a couple of years ago and behind the service station is a lovely woodland walk up a waterfall. We stopped just to stretch our legs but wound up going for an hour long walk which was way more beautiful than I remembered. By that time it was turning into a really nice, warm afternoon – such a change from the morning!
Driving into Dunkeld a little while later, it struck as both a one of the most idyllic little places we had ever seen. We took a stroll along the main street with lots of cute little shops and cafes, over to the old cathedral, and then along the river to a quiet beer garden overlooking the water where we passed a couple of hours chatting, having a few drinks, and eating some delicious pizza.
From there it was the home stretch back to Edinburgh, and we were home before 10pm. Despite having driven almost 300 miles in one day, it was easily the most chilled out day we had had for the whole trip and we celebrated with a wee dram of whisky.
STARRY NIGHTS, CITY LIGHTS 