Whilst we were still at Loch Ness we heard from our neighbour back in Brighton. He was looking after our sofas for us whist we are away. He told us that he is moving in January. This meant we would have to go back before then and move the sofas into storage! This was a nuisance but one of those things. As Dee also had accounts still to do we decided we may as well get that done whilst there too. We didn’t need to rush back but we began to get used to the idea that we were slowly heading back.
We left Loch Ness and headed to Cairngorms National Park. Julie, Dee’s cousin’s wife back in Hamilton had recommended two different lochs, Loch Morlich and Loch en Eilein. We decided not to do both as we were just passing through on our way back to Hamilton and I would only swim at one of them. I chose Loch en Eilein as there is a castle at the Loch, in the middle of an Island! It’s a natural water loch and the castle is ruins from the 14th century. It is said to have been a refuge from thieves and threatening activities!
There is a walk that goes all the way round Loch en Eilein. I chose to swim instead 🤣
It was quite special swimming with a castle as a back drop. Quite unique.
After the swim at the castle it was time to head back to Hamilton. Dee’s cousin Andy was now away in Morocco with a group of friends on a motorcycle trip, but Julie, his wife was around and working from home so the following day we headed over. On the way we saw a rainbow 🌈
We had a lovely catch up, then Julie was actually out for the evening with friends. It was nice to just chill on a sofa and watch TV!
The following day Julie had arranged to go swimming with some friends at Loch Lomond. Of course I wanted to go too. Dee decided he would prefer to potter around with ‘van things’.
It was a different part of Loch Lomond from where I’d swum before. This place was called ‘Duck Beach’
As we got out of the car we were greeted by some visitors on the pavement, little bit bigger than ducks! It was like they just came out for a stroll.
This part of Loch Lomond was definitely much nicer than where I went previously with the big drop and the black fish!
One of Julie’s friend’s Catriona didn’t really want to swim too far and was happy just to dip and bob around. Julie stayed with her and I swam off with Chiara. We swam and chatted, Chiara kept saying I should tell her if I’d had enough as she could swim ‘forever!’ I kept saying I was fine, which I was. Eventually I said ‘ Ok let’s go back’.
It was lovely swimming and chatting to Chiara but it did take me ages to warm up, much longer than usual and my teeth were chattering which never happens to me! I think it was a good choice to go back and not leave it any longer! I was fine it just took a long time to warm up. It turned out that we were actually in for 35 minutes!
We had hot drinks and Chiara had made some rock cakes which were very welcome. Here we are after the swim.
We even went back to Chiara’s after as she lives quite close, this meant more drinks and cakes! Was also lovely to have swim company and some girly time too.
The following morning we went to visit Dee’s aunt and uncle in their flat.
They were happy to see us and it was a lot calmer than last time we saw them and all the family were there.
We headed back to Julie’s, said our goodbyes and once again we were on our way. Slowly heading down. This time we decided to head down on the east coast. We crossed the border bank into England early in the evening. That will be our next post.
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Our Life on the Road 