I have had a few gentle reminders to do an update and a not so gentle reminder – you know who your are! So, Roy here you go.

We found ourselves in a very nice all be it a bit on the sloping side campsite just outside of Inverness. Another Caravan Club site in Newlands called Culloden. The historians will know that this is the site of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. We did visit the site and it was very interesting, someone won and there were a lot of casualties in an hours worth of very close combat. I still would prefer it if we could all just get along. The site is situated next to a forest so we swapped sand for trees. The wind was still strong but we were sheltered, no more damage and quieter. The constant roar of the sea was gone. It took us a little while to recognise this but the stillness was soon interrupted by the 3 posh looking hens from the neighbouring farm.

The plan was to spend a week doing Loch Ness, the Glenfiddich Distillery, watch the Dolphins at Chanonry Point and chill. Three out of four is not bad. We visited Chanonry Point three times and guess what? Not even a fin in the distance did we see. Wrapped up against the elements, we battled wind rain and glaring sun, spent hours along with lots of other hopefuls, we were all disappointed. The seagulls did entertain us with there little battles and crab fishing expertise. My new bino’s were tested and passed with flying colours, love them. I just now need to know what wildlife I am looking at, I do mean the wildlife with fur or feathers the other wildlife I think I can identify.

Loch Ness was pretty from both sides, nothing much to say about it really, a great drive out although we forgot to take a picnic and couldn’t decide where to eat and ended up not having anything. I turned into a grumpy old bird and moaned a bit! Oooops.
There has been a theme on this part of our adventure, distilleries. We have visited a few during this trip and other trips, by far my favourite has to be the Glenfiddich Distillery. It happens to be one of my bestist single malts but the tour and the tasting was brilliant and great value for money. I didn’t drive home again as I had to drink all of Denise’s tasters – there were four each. I had a glow on the way home and I was grinning which apparently looked a bit silly, how rude.

The weather has shaped our travels and it continued to do so at Inverness. We realized that there was going to be some really nasty winds and storms, having checked how far down the country the storms were going to hit it was obvious our plan to stay in Berwick was in jeopardy. Not for the first time this year we cancelled our stay in Berwick and decided to leave Scotland early and see how far south we could get.

The cancellation made, Dorian loaded and we were off. Well nearly. We have worked out that loading the car is most convenient in the car parks of the campsites, generally they are level with more room and we don’t piss people off keeping them waiting. Here we are in the nice car park sorting the trailer out in between showers when the bloke who was in a caravan two pitches down decides now is the time to engage us in deep conversation. The scene was me growling and Denise and him talking about the merits of the A1 or the M6 in gale force winds towing. Now that could have been a quick pleasantry type conversation but no Mr Man decided he wanted to go on and on and on…….. My patience was tested, I failed.

Eventually we started our journey and at 19:30 we polled up at Dorothy’s – Knackered but away from the storm and no further damage on Hobby Hobster. The welcome was warm and we were fed and watered just the way Mums do.

Hobster can be fixed but not until the beginning of November. The good news is we can still use Hobby so we booked two weeks in Tewkesbury and then four weeks in Dorset. But first we had the very important trip to Santorini booked and planned by Theresa. Jarjar went for his holiday with Aunty Angie where he performed a few tricks over the week. These included trying to light the wood burner with Aunty Angie’s best special gifted matches, apparently paws are crap for striking matches so eating the box was all the boy could do. He explained to me later he realized his error but couldn’t hide the evidence, he thought if he didn’t make eye contact with the remains when Aunty Angie came in all would be well or not!

It appears our very clever boy also likes to read, he removed a Jamie Oliver cook book from the book shelf but it seems the recipes were not to his liking and in an effort to mirror Jamie he “tossed” the book with a good dollop of rip and scratch, trashing it completely. Poor Aunty Angie thought she had been burgled when she got home and saw the mess. He did his usual roll in fox poo and sicked up something rotten.

He also took himself off for a walk with the nice doggy (girl doggy) from next door with her Dad, seems Jarjar has fallen in love…. Poor Aunty Angie… she had a problem child this time, he still loves his Aunty nearly as much as he loves his Mums

Santorini was something special, for many reasons but especially because I (we) got to spend a week with Theresa. Its always an easy time when we are all together and this week was no exception. Mostly we spent time by the pool waiting for beer o’clock and then deciding where we should eat.

The flight over was interesting with idiots getting drunk, abusing the staff causing one of the female cabin crew to cry. We were sat at the front of the plane and watched things unfold with the Captain in constant contact with the cabin crew. It became apparent that the offending “dicks” would be dealt with upon landing.

Theresa and I were the first through the Police / Passport check, Denise was behind us but “dick 1” managed to get in front of her.

Policeman to Theresa “Gatwick flight?”

Theresa “Yes”

Policeman looks at her passport “Thank you”

Policeman looks at my passport “Thank you”

Policeman looks at “dick 1’s” passport “Step this way and stand there”

Policeman looks at Denise’s passport “Thank you”

Policeman looks at “dick 2’s” passport “Step this way and stand there”

Oh how we laughed!!

Once through baggage reclaim Theresa was welcomed by Vangelis (the owner of our Hotel) like a long lost friend it was lovely to see. At Hotel Matina the welcomes continued and the warmth was felt through out the whole of the hotel team for the whole week. We were looked after in the most wonderful way.

Hotel Matina is in Kamari a small village right on the coast with plenty of restaurants with fantastic sea views, we had some great meals and some very nice cocktails as it happens. We were not completely pool bound we did venture out for an island tour which ended up in Oia watching the sunset and then an afternoon and more sunset gazing in Fira. Santorini is a lovely island and we had a lovely week.

Some Santorini Pic’s

 

During our stay the Greek air traffic control went on strike, we thought we would have to stay longer but nope our flights were as they should be except for the naughty people were also on our flight – Speedy boarding is such fun and keeps you away from the “dicks” mostly.

Having spent a few days at Dorothy’s we are back in Hobby set up for the next two weeks in the Cotswolds, a place called Winchcombe. Its a nice site run by the Camping and Caravan Club, it has a fishing pond and loads of walks around the surrounding area. The showers are not my favorites but seeing as I don’t have to clean them I can put up with them for a couple of weeks.