Well it's been a while since we last wrote and although not much has happened a lot really has.
We left Newton Stewart with most of our belongings dry and although it was still drizzling we were much more optimistic about our travels. Our aim today was to try and reach near the Trossachs.
We went through Glasgow though not too impressed with this city so rode onto a beautiful caravan park located on Loch Lomond in the heart of the Trossachs. This is where we stayed for a few nights as the weather was again a little wet and we thought the Trossachs would be best seen in finer weather.
From here we went to a town by the name of Fort Augustus (at the mouth of Loch Ness) after speaking to a couple of Scottish bikers at a roadside stop. They were very helpful and more than happy to tell us about the roads to travel. Very good at tourism!
So on we trekked and went to the isle of Skye which was incredible. Steve has muttered the words "Scotland is a motorcyclists paradise" on a number of occasions, we are really loving it here. From Skye we went back to fort Augustus as we liked it so much then headed further north and throu Inverness, again not too impressed with this city so kept going onto the Black Isle and Fortrose. Here we camped right on the beach and had planned to eat fish and chips watching the sunset after watching the dolphins which we were told are always at the point but by the time we put up our tent, the sea mist had rolled on and you couldn't even see the sea a few metres away. Welcome to Scotland!
After Fortrose we rolled onto one of our main destinations, John O Groats. We stop along the way looking at anything that takes our fancy which on some days is a lot, others not so much.
Well John O Groats, what to say except we were disappointed. Not much here at all and after checking the very small town (no shop just a kiosk on the pier) but we stayed a few nights as we needed a break (Janet needed a break!) and we had washing to do. From here we rode to Dennett Head as apparently this is the real northern most point on the mainland of Britian! Whilst staying at John o groats we visited the castle of Mey which is where the Queen Mother used to stay during the month of August.
Moving on from John O Groats we went down the west coast and stopped in another seaside village called Ullapoool. This place was lovely but the roads getting here were incredible. We've seen so many waterfalls, we've lost count, taken photos we hope will come up beautifully, and so many wonderful memories.
After leaving Ullapool and the damn midges behind we headed further south, we had no real plans of where we would end up tonight but after stopping in some small town and talking to a couple on a Harly, they told us about a HOG (Harley Owners Group) rally in Aviemore. Although the rally was on over the weekend they assured us there were still a lot of bikers around. Apparently on the ride up n the Saturday they had over 2,000 bikes and it took over 25 minutes to cross the start. That would've been awesome to be part of. Anyway, we went to Aviemore just the same and Steve managed to get us a camp spot for the night. It certainly wasn't as packed as it would've been over the weekend but a lot of people/bikes around just the same. The next day after Aviemore we were heading to a cousin of Janet's in Glasgow but on the way stopped at a whiskey distillery and did a tour. We got to Mhairi & Graham's probably not until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon and two of the kids were waiting around the corner for us. How cute!
We were only going to stay for a few days but the hospitality shown to us we stayed the week! We were also offered to stay at the family holiday home on the peninsula of kintyre and we took them up on the offer and head off their for the weekend. How lucky we're we.
The weather again wasn't brilliant but still fine enough to go riding. We even went to the mull (which apparently means bottom of the peninsula) of Kintyre. We headed off to the lighthouse but afraid to say we didn't make the 2 mile hike to the bottom of the hill. It took us 20 minutes to walk up the short distance we did walk it was so steep.
We went back to M&Gs on Sunday night stayed the night and headed back to Edinburgh which is where we've been for the last 3 days. It's is a beautiful city. We visited the castle and the museum, quite enjoyable.

So, this is where we leave you now knowing we are well and extremely happy having the times of our lives.