We awoke . . . . eventually . . . I can't remember what time but it wasn't early! We did a little bit of shopping first, just picking up a few bits that we needed for our trip to Scotland, then, after chilling out in the afternoon, it was early to bed for an early start in the morning.
I was up first at about 3am, counting the seconds to the alarm going of at 5am.... I think we ended up getting up at 4.30am and it's a good job we did because despite planning to get up at 5am and setting off at 6am, by the time we had packed the car and everything, we ended up setting off just before 7am. The traffic was kind to us though, sailing along the M1 onto the A1 and headed North. Debbie drove all the way to Newcastle where we took a break, then I drove us up to the Scottish border. We stopped there to take a few snaps before I drove us a little further, handing over to Debbie just before we got to Edinburgh so I could check the map every 10 seconds.
We did really well, getting round the city, over the Fourth Bridge and onto the motorway. When we hit the A9, the snow started to appear, it must have fallen overnight and earlier in the morning, the further North we went, the more snow there was and the mountains got bigger and bigger. We would have got to our destination much earlier if we hadn't stopped at every other lay-by to take photos! One thing we noticed in Scotland is that everywhere is very well signposted, even the tiniest villages (two houses on the side of the road) and we got to our cabin in Nethy Bridge without getting lost once.
Lucy had been a star all the way up to Scotland, she is very prone travel sickness but she just slept the whole way there, just hoping out of the car when we stopped, standing on three legs with the ground being frozen, she looked like a four legged flamingo ...lol..
We arrived before it got dark and we were greeted by the owner and shown around our home for the week, quite small, compact, basic and bloody freezing! We had to pay for the electric so it was no surprise that heating was supplied by three electric heaters, which were on full for most of our stay. Even though the cabin was a little bit of a disappointment, the view outside wasn't, we were in the middle of a pine forest, beautifully decorated with freshly fallen snow. It felt like being in the film, The Great Outdoors and we were watching through the window waiting for a bear with bald arse to emerge from the trees!
After unpacking a few things we drove into the village which was just under a mile away and bought some provisions including bacon and sausages from the famous butchers there. Back at the cabin, we had some dinner with a couple of glasses of wine before retiring to bed early wondering what the morning would bring.
Paul
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