• 1 Planet 1 Bag
  • Marc Scheulin
  • 1 Planet 1 Bag
  • Marc Scheulin

Caravan - Yr 1, Home 3.1

Our 10 day rented caravan adventure around the Scottish Highlands. Läs mer
  • Resans start
    31 maj 2024

    Pick Up

    31 maj 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    RV in Scotland are really awesome. They are more compact than the US version in so many ways. Size is obvious, but the working parts are smarter also. Everything from the habitation entry (the door) to the toilet black water (a small tank that you carry or roll to the dump station), the bed (raised up to take advantage of the ceiling height provides huge storage below), screens (pull up like shades not permanently attached) and many more. We will take photos of all of these as we go along.

    Yes, the driver is on the right, gear shift (manual gearbox) and of course driving on the left are all expected and challenging, but Marc has done a great job driving us to our first night.

    Our first night at Blair Castle Caravan was a great choice and the little village of Blair Atholl is another level of precious.
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  • Highland Folk Living Museum

    1 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    A short hour drive from Blair Castle to Newtonmore and the Highlands Folk Living Museum. Three areas divided between the 1700’s, 1800’s and early 1900. Each area was made up of buildings restored and rebuilt from other areas of the Scottish Highlands.

    Amazing how similar to the U.S. were the villages from the 1800 and 1900 hundreds, but the village from the 1700’s was construction and history new to us.

    A costumed interpreter gave us the “toddler” version of Highland history. How clans and Lairds were hierarchically organized, how the village reflected that and most interesting how The Clearences (changing land usage from planted subsistence farming to massive open range cattle and sheep farming) affected the Highlands for the good and bad.

    Our history class lasted 30 minutes or more and to say we have a new appreciation for the Highlands, its people, clothes, and culture is an understatement.

    This info should help us into the rest of our drive about.

    Today we are pitched up at the High Range Caravan Park in Aviemore.
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  • Invermoriston

    3 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    A tiny place at a crossroads. Saint Columba passed through this area spreading Christianity to the highlanders. We took a wee walk n in a forest and the River Moriston.

  • Paths through the Highlands

    3 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    After we set up camp at Glenshiel, I went exploring the pathways around the camp. There is a hiking trail going up into the mountains. It follows a stream that has beautiful zebra colored granite stones. I found an old road going over the river on an old stone bridge. It must have been the road before the modern highway.
    This is mostly just a collection of nice pictures.
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  • Roads of Skye Island

    4 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    Driving in Scotland is hard. It’s not about driving on the left, it’s the narrow drive lanes, no shoulders and sudden road changes with little or no warning. That is the good roads.

    The other roads are just barely wide enough for the RV, but there is two way traffic with other RV’s, buses and semi-trucks coming head on. Need to coordinate passing in small wide spots along the road.

    The photos below are some taken during my driving breaks. All are nice distractions that help make the drive worthwhile.
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  • Fairy Pools - Pams Photos

    4 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 43 °F

    Early wake up. Brief 7:00am stop at Eileen Donan Castle and we had the parking lot to ourselves.

    Then drive across the bridge to the Isle of Skye.

    First stop was the Fairy Pools. An early start was a good idea as the road is single track. This is Scotlands answer to a two-lane road. Instead they build a one lane road and put layby’s (turn outs) every few meters on both sides, and traffic pulls into the layby to allow for passing. Likely easier in a car than in the motorhome, Marc handled it like a local.

    Then a mile and a half walk to the waterfalls and pools. The water is eerily crystal clear, and very cold. They say that the fairies pop round in the evening for a dip in these pools.

    It rained, then hailed, it was windy, then sunny, a typical day in Scotland for the three mile round trip.
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  • Bus Ride on a Single Track Road

    5 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 48 °F

    Today was a bus ride. From our Staffin campsite, around the far side of Skye to Portree.

    About 35 miles on road, but 2 hours on the road. The drivers are impressive. One time to make it to a lay-by passing zone, the driver backed up his bus about 100 yards. Downhill, on a curve. Everyone on the bus clapped.

    It was nice to see things from high up on the bus and good for Marc as he could finally take the passenger role and see things.
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  • Ruins of stone structures are everywhere

    5 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 50 °F

    Skye island is peppered everywhere with abandoned stone structures. Around 1800, the island had subsistence tenant farm villages everywhere. Then the landlord changed land use from farming to sheep. The tenant farms were not needed and all the farmers were asked to leave the land. Scottish history calls this time period “The Clearances”. These stone structures is what remains from the past abandoned economy of 1800.

    Many of these people emigrated to Canada, America and other British Commonwealth countries.

    Today, the economy is sheep and tourists. Most of the land is empty bogs, pasture and mountains.
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  • Marc’s view of Skye lands

    5 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 50 °F

    No driving today. I was able to sit back, looking out the side windows at the ocean, green-scape and mountains. Someone else was struggling with the roads of Skye.

    This post is mostly random photos of the landscape and other beautiful and interesting things on our adventure today.

    After our bus trip, Pam and I took what we thought would be a simple 30 minute walk to the beach. Well, no travel on Skye is simple. After washing our socks crossing a bog, we found ourselves on a steep trail paved with rough stones. We are wondering if it is an ancient trail? We can’t imagine anyone putting in the effort to pave this trail in modern times.

    Travels with Marc
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  • Staffin to Ben Nevis

    6 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    Tonight we are camping at the base of Ben Nevis at 1,345meters (4,413 feet) the tallest mountain in Scotland. Today it has snow on its cap! In June!

    The drive started with a stop at Kilt Rock and waterfall. Compared with other stops in Skye, all we had to do is stop in the parking lot and there we were.

    Then drive 3 hours (a new driving record for Marc) to our campsite.
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  • This is the Firkin Point!

    7 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    All my life I’ve tried to get people to get to the Firkin Point. Today it finally happened!

    Should be no surprise, the Firkin Point is Dangerous. If not very careful, you can get into very deep waters!

    The Adventurers will find more than just one Firkin Point:
    Firkin Point A: Green Pasture leads to deep waters.
    Firkin Point B: Life can be a picnic if you stay on point.
    Firkin Point C: This is the long road less traveled.

    This is Marc’s trip to The Firkin Point!
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  • Luss, 19th century town on Loch Lomond

    7 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 52 °F

    The town of Luss has been renovated to look like a town from the turn of the century in 1900. It’s very popular with the tourists. Many buses and vans bring tourists to the 3-5 different boats the explore Loch Lomond from here.

    Our campground was a short 15 minute walk up the beach from Luss. This gave us the joy of slowly exploring the town after the tour buses had gone.

    Travels with Marc
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  • Things in our rented rv that make sense

    7 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 48 °F

    We’ve owned RVs in the states but none of them have these options.

    1. Sunshade for the front window that rolls up from the dash.
    2. Side shades for the windows that are built in and fan up.
    3. Bathroom sink that folds down
    4. Toilet paper that rolls up when you close the lid.
    5. Trashcan built into the door.
    6. Screen door that rolls up
    7. Black out shades that pull up from all windows
    8. Screens that pull up from all windows
    9. The bed is built 4 steps up. This makes the rear access truck space HUGE!
    10. Easy open skylight with screen and blackout shades
    11. Cassette toilet (basically a small black water tank). To empty you carry it to the restroom where the sites have what amounts to a large toilet. Open the top of the cassette and turn it over into the “toilet” and flush it away. Rise off the cassette and carry it back. There aren’t black water holding tanks in the rv.
    12. Most campground have very flat spots. Called pitches made of granite rocks and surrounded by grass. Most are also elevated above the surrounding ground. Mostly done as the ground here is Scotland is usually very wet.
    13. Site restrooms and showers are very clean and very nice.
    14. In the shower block area is also the cassette dumping place and an area where you can wash your dishes. And usually a laundry room.
    15. Grey water is dumped straight from the rv into an area drain. There are no black/grey water pipes to move around.
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  • House 3 and 3.1 Scotland ending

    8 juni 2024, Skottland ⋅ 🌬 55 °F

    Scotland is a great place to visit. It’s different than the U.S. but not so different that it’s all strange. It’s just enough to keep you on your toes.

    The weather was generally nice with a bit of rain tossed in to remind us we were way, way, way north, as if the sunsetting at 10:30pm wasn’t enough.

    During our stay our friends Donna and Jim caught up with us on their adventure back to the states from Ecuador.

    We met up with family Shirley and Lee and “golfed” St. Andrews.

    We had 2 meetups with Facebook friends from our Go With Less group.

    We had a great time and we would recommend it to everyone.
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    Resans slut
    9 juni 2024