Benderloch, Oban…back to Dundee, then farewell Bonnie Scotland!
(Pictures still to come)
Following Dunblane, we went to Oban on the West coast of the Scottish highlands. The place we stayed at was in Benderloch, a quaint B&B which the three of us sandwiched ourselves into. Some of these places go a bit overboard on the ornaments (no room for your stuff!) but the hosts were lovely. We have definitely declared ourselves as fans of the self-catering option, however if this isn’t an option (or doesn’t have wi-fi) a B&B is ok.
This one was actually rather nice with hairy coos in the paddock and a black Labrador called Dileas (pronounced Jillis, Gaelic for faithful). Sasha, being the animal lover she is, spent hours playing with the dog. Oban was a great spot, we really enjoyed it there.
Did a bit of work, watched some of the Olympics and got out and about to avoid getting stir crazy in our wee room.
One thing that has been annoying though on our trip, is that some places don’t welcome children under 12! We were all set to have some seafood at a restaurant on the harbour, but they had a little sign that said children under 12 welcome for lunch only. Rude! We thought of saying Sash was small for her age, but then decided they shouldn’t get our custom anyway.
The last evening we went to a brilliant little restaurant called the Juicy Roast Café in Oban. Fabulous, Sash is still raving about the potato croquettes. And the roast was very nice too (and the Spanish red wine, aaahh…)
The beach wasn’t far so plenty of walks were had. Still very weird trampling over stones on the beach - crunch, crunch!
We visited Glencoe and have to agree with Mel Gibson….Awesome!! Beautiful spot. We stopped on the way back for a coffee at a place that does indoor rock climbing and even has a section that is like a giant freezer for climbing a glacier.
On the way back to the car, we suffered our first migee attack – what a funny sight the three of us slapping ourselves as we ran and quickly tried jumping back into the car, trying to avoid them following! We still can’t believe that such tiny wee blighters could bite with such ferocity.
We headed back towards Dundee (to drop the rental car back – story to follow!), see Beryl and Keith again (stay at Beryl’s B&B, we dubbed it – thanks a lot Beryl, nice views, great hospitality and super fast wi-fi).
A highlight for Lois was visiting Anstruther again, this time on a sunny day. We all took a walk along the Billiness and Lois revisited her childhood (Anstruther is where her parents lived and her mum and Beryl grew up) where she sometimes visited for holidays. Beautiful little fishing village. Had fish ‘n chips and white pudding at the “Wee Chippie” and then Lois made a declaration (borrowed from her mum’s repetoire) - “I’m making a pledge…no more fatty, greasy foods!”
Lois and Sasha had a pretend kip and a wash of face in Granny’s Basin, a rock that was split and looked like a bed and a basin with water in it. (Many hours were spent here, clambering over the rocks by Val and Beryl in their youth). We all had a good go climbing over the rocks too.
Finally it was time to drop the car back. Up until this time the car had given us a bit of grief, but hadn’t actually broken down on us completely. Well, we think somehow we were looked after, but our time was clearly running out. Having had the car for 6 weeks, on the last day, it starts stalling every time we stop – at traffic lights, roundabouts etc. It stalled outside the car rental place at the lights, we turned the corner and it conked out where we stopped! Not a moment too soon, we all thought. We were lucky to get the upgrade to the big car (as we wouldn’t have fitted everything in a small vehicle, but gee… it handled like a bus and behaved like a petulant child. Sorry SSangYong Kyron, you don’t get our vote.
Amazingly enough, we are all getting along very well and only occasionally get short tempered with each other, mainly when our lodgings resemble a shoe box. We are all natural introverts so a little bit of space is a nice thing, when we can get it.
Sash is doing well with her schoolwork, is writing lots of her own stories and loves her computer. Often her wireless connection works better than the other two – much to her glee!
As for her parents, much more swotting on the foreign languages is required! (We all had a laugh at the B&B as there was a Spanish couple there who didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak any Spanish. It was a hoot trying to communicate at breakfast with our little phrasebook which is geared towards finding the station and the toilets!)
So with fondness, we farewell Bonnie Scotland. She treated us well (despite the rainy weather) and we felt connected back to our original homeland. It was nice for Sasha to see where we were born too. Fabulous memories created.






