On the Road with Marvin 2022!

Monday, May 23, 2022

Day 44: Sunday 22nd May 2022

The weather today was terrible, lots of rain and mist, so we could not do much!

We managed to get out in the morning for a walk to Portree via a coastal route though, before the rain really hit. The views would have been beautiful, but unfortunately there was just too much fog! But it was still very enjoyable, and on the way had an interesting discussion and festivals and dream business ventures of selling food from a van!

We headed to the big Co-Op to get some food supplies, although by this point, it was raining very hard, so both us and our shopping got soaked! We were pleased to get back to Marvin, where we spent the rest of the day listening to Glastonbury music and catching up on a few things.

Travelling day tomorrow, this time to Fort William. We will be sad to leave the Isle of Skye as our time here has gone very quickly, but excited for onward adventures!

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Day 43: Saturday 21st May 2022

Today we decided to catch the 9.15 bus to The Old Man of Storr. This is one of the most famous walks on Skye, and though it was busy, we really enjoyed doing it.

We arrived there about 9.30, and already the car park was getting very busy, so we were glad to have not driven. The walk was again brilliant - lovely views of the mainland and smaller islands especially. We were lucky with the weather as the rain held off for the morning - there was even a bit of blue sky! We had our lunch once we got back to the bottom again, where we had a nice view of the sea. We spoke to a couple of different people, doing their own road trips, one from America and one from Holland. It’s really nice to hear where others are travelling to/ from and their recommendations for the local area. Also on the walk we heard a cuckoo - we hear one everywhere we go!

The bus route went in a loop around one of the Northern tips of Skye, so we decided to keep going up to see more of the area. As we had bought a day rider ticket for the bus, we considered getting off again in Uig to look around before catching the bus back to Portree. However, the bus times are quite infrequent and so we would have been there for quite a few hours. The decision was made for us really, as it was raining, and we were quite enjoying the bus ride, so stayed on! Though we were able to look in the deli briefly whilst the bus was waiting for a few minutes due to being early.

Skye looked amazing - it was foggy and rainy so we couldn’t see quite as well as we might have done, but it was nice to travel round some of the coastline, and also see the smaller islands from a distance.

We stopped off in Portree for a coffee and to look around some of the other areas, before heading back to the campsite for the evening.

Friday, May 20, 2022

Day 42: Friday 20th May 2022

Today we were able to travel to the Isle of Skye! It wasn’t as many miles for the journey today, but we left around 9.30.

The journey was good, we travelled round the other side of Loch Carron for a while before following the road up and down some steep hills! In the ‘Places Of Poetry’ book, another poem featured was “The Road To Skye”, so we stopped by Loch Alsh with the Skye Bridge in sight in order to read this.

Crossing the bridge was fun! We then followed the same road all the way to Portree. From what we saw, it looked beautiful, although the heavy rain did mean that the impact was lost on us a little! With nice weather, I imagine the scenery is incredible - we were driving past both the coast and peaks with lots of natural waterfalls/ rivers. We hope for nicer weather on our drive back so we can fully appreciate it.

We arrived at the campsite at 11.30, and able to check in early as we had really booked the pitch from yesterday. Once we had settled in (using our chocks for the first time - a big achievement for us!) we walked to Portree despite the rain.

Portree was nice, a helpful tourist information office for some information on walks, and some nice shops. We had a burger and chips and half a cake each in a really good cafe too, before heading home.

The weather isn’t forecast to be that nice for the next few days, but we look forward to having two full days here.

Day 41: Thursday 19th May 2022

A very tiring but good day. We did delay going to Skye until tomorrow due to the high winds. Instead, we decided to drive the van back to the Beinn Eighe NNR in order to complete the Mountain trail. This is a 4 mile, quite challenging route, as the booklet suggested 4-5 hours.

We took the shorter route to the reserve, and again it was very scenic and beautiful. There were a couple of tricky parts - it can be very hard to find a place to pull in on some of these roads when you know people are in a hurry to get past you, but most of the way was really nice.

We parked in the visitors centre, which unfortunately was actually 1.5 miles from the start of the walk! The walk was a brilliant one. The first 2km especially were trickier, as quite a few parts needed a climb over rocky areas, but phenomenal views across Loch Maree and the surrounding peaks.

A great place to take a break

Conservation Cairn

We reached the summit of the Conservation Cairn, but the walk didn’t actually take us up to the summit of Beinn Eighe itself, as it is over 1000m high. I thought we were climbing this, so was a bit disappointed when I saw the path was not going that far up to any of the peaks here! (But relief too - we were getting a bit tired!)

One of the summits that I thought we may have to get to - disappointment and then, more sensibly, relief, when the path curved away

The view down was great, especially to see a rainbow appear on the loch - definitely in the right place at the right time for that!! But due to the rain, it was challenging, and Mum slipped backwards twice which did shake her up a little bit, though luckily no bad injuries.

The rainbow in the loch!! 🌈

The walk back to the van seemed very long this time! We passed a cafe on the way back called Midge Bite! Looking it up online, it sounded really nice so wished we had stopped, but we were pretty tired so just wanted to get back. A great day though.

This has been quite an interesting campsite to stay at. The first night, there were quite a few bikers who were camping, and they all had personalised NC500 hoodies which looked great! Yesterday another Auto Sleeper Nuevo was parked next to ours (the same make though different year so slightly different model) - we haven’t seen another Nuevo yet. And tonight the campervan behind us are doing karaoke!! Thats a first for any campsite we have stayed on!!

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Day 40: Wednesday 18th May 2022

We were a bit undecided on what to do today and over the next few days. The possibilities were to either drive to Beinn Eighe or walk locally, and also whether or not we would attempt to go to Skye tomorrow at some point (early or late to miss the wind). However, we found that the fridge may have stopped working on electric, which stalled our plans for a few hours whilst we tested it. It does work on gas, but potentially not on 230v which could be a problem. So that ruled out travelling to Beinn Eighe as we would have run out of time, as it is a long walk and a distance away.

Feeling a tiny bit disheartened, we decided to walk up to the viewpoint near the campsite to get out of the van and get some fresh air. The best decision! Just as we got there, we came nearly face to face with three deer!!! Which was magnificent!!! Walking up to get to the bench marking the viewpoint, we spotted 7 all together. There were stunning views of Loch Carron and the surrounding peaks.

It was extremely windy though, so the picnic we had brought to have at the viewpoint was instead eaten on the picnic benches back down at the campsite, although still lovely views of the loch.

We then headed off to “The Island That Isn’t” (our name) - part of the land by the loch that gets cut off only when there is a high tide during Spring. Quite a bit of scrambling was done here as some of the ‘path’ was to go over rocks, but it was a lot of fun and something that we haven’t really done on this road trip. It is a lovely place.

We did decide to leave the fridge on electric whilst we were gone to see whether it was working, and have a bit more hope now that it might be okay?

Catching up on a few things this evening like the blog!

Day 39: Tuesday 17th May 2022

Another travelling day today. We were much luckier with the weather today than our last big travelling day, which was good.

We set off around 9.30. The route took us through Ullapool and Braemore, then up around the coast past Dundonnell where the road was surrounded by mountains. We stopped in a parking place to take a photo in Achnasheen near Laide as it was very beautiful, before continuing on to stop again briefly near Poolewe.

Dundonnell Area

Achnasheen - Laide

Poolewe

Also on the route was Gairloch, which looked a nice town with a good beach. But we can’t stop everywhere unfortunately!

Along the way, we spotted Victoria Falls, so did decide to stop there for a break and a little walk. It was busy there but nice to see the waterfalls.

The road continued mostly alongside Loch Maree before passing Beinn Eighe. We did stop here briefly, but would like to return if we can, to do one of the walks as the area looks stunning. However, as we still had a bit further to drive until our next campsite, we decided to continue on.

Loch Maree

The next part of the journey was challenging and long, due to its single track road. We took the slightly longer route as we wanted to travel the scenic way (although every way is the scenic way!!). It was a nice route, but just a couple of issues. There were quite a lot of cars travelling the other way, so a lot of pulling into passing places, which gets tiring. We also unfortunately have a little bash on the side of Marvin due to having knocked past a barrier when trying to move out of the way over the cattle grid to let another vehicle pass. So that was a shame, but it does not matter really - we are safe and all fine. As a friend has said, ‘it adds character to Marvin’!

We arrived at the Wee Campsite shortly afterwards, and settled in to our pitch. We explored the village a little but were quite tired so went back to the van. We are due to travel to Skye on Thursday but now there are very high winds forecast, so we are rethinking our plans to be on the safe side, as crossing the bridge could be difficult.

Day 38: Monday 16th May 2022

Today we ended up having another rest day, as neither of us slept that well and I was still feeling a bit sick.

We had decided to set the alarm for 4am to see the eclipse though! I didn’t stay up long and the photo isn’t great but pleased to have seen it!

A terrible photo, but nice to remember seeing it!

The town of Ullapool (where our original campsite was based) is 3 miles away, so after having a late morning, we drove there just to have a quick look around and to buy a couple of food supplies before heading back. Ullapool did seem really nice.

View of Ardmair, where we are staying

View of Ullapool

Rain unfortunately once we got back, so the rest of the afternoon has been spent in Marvin, where we have managed to book the rest of the campsites for the summer which is exciting! We are both feeling rested, and ready for a day of travel tomorrow.