Not literally, don’t worry. After a blustery night in Newburgh (in a nice warm house fortunately) we used the time waiting for Brian’s return from the garage to study every weather forecast on the Internet. Things were not looking good, with heavy rain and gale force winds forecast.

Our next planned stop was Ardmair point, a peninsular near Ullapool. We decided such an exposed site was not the best plan, and the aim had been just to lounge around the site, walk, read etc. A new plan was needed! Thursday’s forecast was looking better, and the girl’s were keen to climb Ben Nevis so we decided to head down to Fort William (the final decision was only made en-route) with a view to the girls and me climibing Ben Nevis if the weather was suitably dry and settled for us to make an attempt with limited equipment. We pitched at the wonderful and well-priced Glen Nevis Holidays site

Alas the climb was not to be. The weather did improve, but only made it to sunshine and showers, with low cloud hanging over Ben Nevis for most of the day. Instead we opted to head off in the van and made like tourists (much to Ruth’s displeasure, she hates being a tourist).

We visited Nepune’s staircase, and impresseive series of locks at the beginning of the Caledonian canal and then Glenfinnan viaduct, which has always attracted tourists but now has the added draw of having featured in the Harry Potter films (including in the flying car sequence). Then we moved on for the obligatory attempt at Nessy-spotting. The whole day was punctuated with stunning mountain and loch views, and only a few rain showers. It was a fantastic day, and a taste of what we had hoped for on this part of the trip.

A further weather forecast review though confirmed our fears, rain, more rain, still more rain, and some gale force winds thrown in. Time for a complete revision to plans. We found ourselves a cheap caravan deal with free leisure pool, booking into Craig Tara, the former Butlins site at Ayr, now run by Haven Holidays, for a week. The cost is only slightly more than we would have paid in site fees for Brian, and gives us more space to lounge around indoors while the wind and rain howls around us! It’s not the sort of site we would normally opt for a holiday on, but for our purposes just now it fits the bill. As I write the winds are battering the caravan, but the rest of the family are happily swimming in the pool. There is an extreme weather warning in place for tomorrow as the remnants of Hurricane Katia are expected to make landfall here. We will be staying put and hoping the caravan is obliging enough to do likewise. Later in the week we hope to go into Glasgow for a day, and maybe spend another day karting and (belatedly) celebrating Susan’s birthday stuffing our faces at Frankie and Benny’s.

While we were in Newburgh Jennifer took us for a walk along the beach next to the Ythan Estuary. The whole estuary was just full of seals, floating in on the tide, and popping up to peer at these curious humans gawping at them. I’ve never seen so many seals, or so close. The coast here is really quite beautiful, even for someone who lives on the Isle of Wight and so is spoiled for choice of beaches!

After Fife we headed up to Newburgh, just outside Aberdeen for the last of our visits, to see Glen and Jennifer. We stopped off for a cuppa at Ali’s in Forfar and discovered a little puddle under Brian when we came out. With my limited mechanical knowledge I wasn’t sure a) what was leaking or b) where from but it didn’t look like a large leak so we decided to press on to Aberdeen and try and get it looked at. The friendly folk at Newburgh Motors had a look and advised that we had a leak from the top of the fuel tank, and as long as we only half-filled then all should be well for the rest of the trip. So, we managed to leave Newburgh only running a little late….

Having lived in Fife for two and a half years and worked in Edinburgh, I should know my way out of Edinburgh to the Forth Road Bridge. However changes to road layouts and my poor memory combined to send Brian across Princes Street and heading south. A quick change of plan saw my head for the Western Approach Road, a slightly odd road along a former railway line which whizzes you between city centre and suburbs.

Unfortunately we soon hit a 1.5 tonne weight limit, much too low for Brian to pass, so had to execute a swift U-turn (I only saw the sign as we sailed past the last turn-off. Returning memory and Rebekah’s map reading lead us out of the city and on to the Forth Road bridge. This was the first time we had crossed the bridge since the Scots abolished all bridge tolls, and was a slightly strange sensation, a free ride into Fife.

The next few days saw a round of visiting, including meeting up with the family in Dunfermline, friends in Milton of Balgonie and Kirkcaldy (where the kids played “Pass the Bomb” with our friends from Northern Ireland….) and being introduced to several dogs (v. popular with Jonathan). The whole of the first part of our trip has followed a fairly tight timetable, and we continued the running late theme in Fife! It was a really nice couple of days catching up with people though and overall the pace relaxed a little.

Our first night in Fife we decided to try the world famous fish supper from Anstruther fish bar. I was slightly concerned this would turn out to be a huge let down, but I can honestly say I have never eaten better fish and chips. It did involve a 40 minute wait, and a long queue (for the ladies while the male contingent slobbed in the van watching the harbour). A stroll along the harbour wall as the sun set rounded the evening off nicely.

There aren’t many campsites in the west side of Fife so we had opted for one in Glenrothes (Kingdom caravan Park)based on the convenience of its location and the fact that the other likely candidate was next to a main road and railway line. It was a slightly odd place, a very friendly welcome but it felt a bit like you were camping in somebody’s garden. Mostly static caravans, some of which looked like they might be lived in for most of the year. All the pitches were on gravel, so not great for the awning, but we were able to pitch the pup tent just behind the van. We spent very little time on site, only sleeping there really. It didn’t strike me as a place you would particularly want to sit around with a glass of wine in the evening, but for this stage of the trip was convenient, clean, friendly and did the job.

Under specific instructions from Sue B. we stopped at the Scottish Storyelling Centre on the Royal mile while we were in Edinburgh. So, here it is Sue.

There wasn’t anything on but we thought maybe we would pop into the cafe. However on taking a look at the prices I was instantly traumatised so we carried on.