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  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    213312
    Day 7

    Mull northern loop

    May 12 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Our day began with a visit to the mausoleum of Lachlan Macquarie, former Governor of New South Wales. He was born on Ulva, an island off the west coast of Mull.

    Our drive today took us north, with windier roads and more reversing into passing bays - we had good luck yesterday and could see the upcoming road, but with the windy roads and limited visibility, at one stage we had to reverse 3 times in 10 minutes after meeting oncoming cars.

    We visited the aptly named Eas Fors Waterfall, a 3 tiered waterfall that falls directly into the sea. Eas is Gaelic for waterfall, Fors is Norse for waterfall... so it is literally named Waterfall Waterfall Waterfall.

    Our lunch stop was Calgary, a hamlet on the west coast (and the origin of the name of Calgary in Canada). We were almost resigned to having snack lunch from our emergency rations, but were very pleased to find a cafe open for lunch on a Sunday! Calgary Bay is also one of the most popular beaches on Mull.

    Our route home took us along a series of hairpin turns, part of the course of the Rally of Mull, where the island's roads are closed for a round of the British Rally Championship each October.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    1
    1121112
    Day 6

    Mull and Iona

    May 11 in Scotland ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    We were up bright and early today to catch the first ferry of the day from Oban to Craignure, on the Isle of Mull.

    It's only a 45 minute crossing, so we hit the ground running at 8.15am and headed towards Duart Castle, ancestral home of Clan McLean, built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the straight. Original construction began in the 13th century, but after various periods of siege and abandonment, much of what we see today is a 1911 reconstruction.

    The main road around Mull is a single lane road, with passing turnouts at regular intervals, usually 100-200 metres apart. If you meet a car coming in the opposite direction, one of you must stop at the nearest passing bay and let the other through. So progress can be slow, with lots of stopping, headlight flashing and waving to other drivers!

    We arrive at Fionnphort in time for lunch at the pub, before boarding the ferry for Iona.

    Iona is known as the birthplace of Celtic Christianity, with Iona Abbey founded by St Columbus in 563. It has a small art, craft and tourism industry, focussing on wildlife and nature conservation. There are a small number of roads for locals to use, but no tourist cars are allowed, so walking and cycling are the preferred transport methods.

    We returned to Mull late afternoon and drove back to the east coast via the central road. The scenery along the way is spectacular, so we made plenty of stops for photos, caches and animals on the road, arriving at our accommodation in Salen after 5pm.

    The hotel we are staying in has a pub quiz tonight, so we had dinner and a night of quizzing before catching the end of Eurovision.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    1
    1121
    Day 5

    Double island day

    May 10 in Scotland ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We started the day with a visit to one of the most recognisable features of Oban, the unfinished McCaig's Tower, which looms over the city on Battery Hill. It was based on the Colosseum and planned as a lasting monument to the builder and designer John McCaig, and his family. Unfortunately he died after only the outer shell was completed and his family refused to compete it, so it remains unfinished.

    We drove a few miles south of Oban and visited our first island, Seil Island, via Clachan Bridge. Because the Clachan Sound connects at both ends to the Atlantic Ocean, and might therefore be considered part of that ocean, the bridge is known as the Bridge over the Atlantic.

    The hotel next to the bridge is called Tigh an Truish (The House of the Trousers). It’s named this because several years after the Jacobite rebellion - when the British government tried to suppress Gaelic culture, banning kilts, tartan, bagpipes, and language - islanders heading for work on the mainland would change into trousers here and back into their kilts when returning home.

    Our final stop, off the south western coast of Seil Island, is Easdale, one of the Slate Islands. Once the centre of the Scottish slate industry, it is dotted with disused quarries which filled up with water following a storm in 1850 and were abandoned. The island has no roads, and a population of 60 permanent residents, and has hosted the World Stone Skimming Championships since 1997. It is the smallest inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    2
    14
    Day 4

    To the highlands and back

    May 9 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    We woke up this morning to the first rain of the trip and the temperature had dropped considerably with it.

    We left Dumbarton and travelled up the narrow, winding road along the western shore of Loch Lomond, before continuing north towards Glencoe, the skiing and bushwalking centre of Scotland, and the start of the Highlands. The clouds got lower, the traffic got heavier and the scenery more spectacular at every turn.

    We stopped for lunch at Kings House Hotel, which is a popular stop for bushwalkers on multi day hikes, before continuing on to Glencoe and a walk down the main street.

    We then headed back south towards Oban, our destination for the night... but not without stopping first at Castle Stalker, an island castle best known in popular culture as "The Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    Dinner tonight was at the Oban Wetherspoons, part of the chain of 850 pubs across the UK. Fun fact, each Wetherspoons pub has unique carpet, representative of either the building or location. I've included a photo of the Oban threads for the record 😁    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    13
    Day 3

    Bowling to Dumbarton

    May 8 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We started the day with a visit to Robert Burns' mausoleum in the grounds of St Michael's church in Dumfries. The mausoleum is quite out of place in the cemetery as it's the only thing painted white.

    We drove on the minor road towards Glasgow, then joined the motorway to skirt the city, heading to the northern bank of the Clyde River.

    First stop was the linear village of Bowling, hemmed in between the mountains and the River Clyde, with a harbour and locks leading to the Forth and Clyde Canal. The canal opened in 1790 and provided a route for the seagoing vessels between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. This allowed navigation from the port of Glasgow on the west coast to Edinburgh on the east coast.

    After coffee and cake at the lock we continued to Dumbarton, our stop for the night. We visited Dumbarton Castle, which sits upon Dumbarton Rock, a natural fortress overlooking the River Clyde. The castle last saw action during World War 2, when anti-aircraft guns were placed there to protect the nearby shipyards from German bombing.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    53
    Day 2

    Queen of the South

    May 7 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Our flight arrived in Manchester later than expected, then we had delays collecting our hire car (but we did get an upgrade!), so we didn't set off north until nearly midday.

    Traffic was heavy on the motorway, until we reached the rolling hills between the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks, then and onto Gretna Green, just over the border.

    After a visit to the famous Blacksmiths Shop, where runaway couples from England have wed since 1754, we headed towards Dumfries for the night.

    Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South, which is also the name of their soccer team in the Scottish leagues. It was the birthplace and childhood home of JM Barrie (author of Peter Pan), resting place of Robbie Burns, Scotland's National Poet, and, less famously, home of Alex Graham, creator of the Fred Basset cartoon.

    We walked through the historical centre, along the River Nith and had dinner at a local pub , before walking back to our hotel to watch the Eurovision song contest semi final.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetScotland, Faroes, Romania 2024
    1
    Day 1

    Changi transit

    May 6 in Singapore ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    After an overnight stay at the airport hotel, our 9am flight to Singapore was comfortable and uneventful - the only way flights should be!

    We have an 11 hour transit in Singapore, so took advantage of their free bike hire from the airport. Their suggested trip to Changi Village was estimated to take 2 hours return, but we were barely a third of the way there after an hour... and we'd only stopped for 1 cache 🤣

    The humid weather wasn't conducive to fast riding, so we turned around at the water treatment plant and had a leisurely ride back to the airport.

    After a walk around the butterfly garden, a shower and a meal, we settled in to wait for our 2.25am departure.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    1
    Day 62

    Little India, and away

    April 23, 2023 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    Another early morning, this time for a quick visit to Little India before we check out and fly home.

    Little India is the meeting point of the local Indian community. It is a snapshot of the sights, sounds and smells of the culture, and was particularly busy around the shrine this morning. Of course our main activity was caching, so we visited the popular (and some less popular) areas of the city within a city.

    We caught the train to the airport early afternoon in readiness for our overnight flight home.

    Cache count for the trip: 627    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    1
    Day 61

    Botanic Gardens and the Bay

    April 22, 2023 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We took the other method to avoid the heat today and was on the train to the Botanic Gardens just after 8am.

    Singapore Botanic Gardens is the only tropical garden to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's immaculately maintained and in addition to the 10,000 plant species, is also home to otters, monitor lizards, squirrels, monkeys and numerous bird species (we saw the last 4, but no sign of the otters today).

    We walked the length of the park from south to north, and caught the underground back to the bay area.

    After lunch in a cafe in the Esplanade complex with views of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we walked back to our hotel via the Merlion, Fullerton Hotel and stumbled across Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker outside the Fullerton Bay Hotel. Turns out Rodin encouraged wide distribution of his art, authorising 23 copies of his work in marble and in bronze during his life and sanctioning the Rodin Museum to create posthumous editions (55 have so far been created). So there are many versions of The Thinker exhibited throughout the world!

    Afternoon swim and dinner at Chinatown again, once the sun had gone down.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    21
    Day 60

    Chinatown by night

    April 21, 2023 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We woke up to a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain, so had a bit of a late morning... so late it became afternoon until we left the hotel.

    We went in search of a cache on the rooftop around one of the landmark Chinatown skyline buildings, we also visited when last in Singapore (February 2020, just as Covid broke out).

    The building is known as the People's Park Complex, a 31-storey mostly residential development straight out of the 1970's. Happily we found the convoluted route to the rooftop and the cache considerably quicker than last time!

    Dinner was also a flashback, treating Oliver to dinner at a Michelin star restaurant again... admittedly the Cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the world, Hawker Chan - famous for his Soya Sauce Chicken Rice. His hawker stall had closed for the day, so we went around the corner to his shopfront, where 75% of the menu was sold out, but the signature dish still available. Sadly the serve was no where near the size of last time 😕 (here's the flashback - https://findpenguins.com/4ar8jyvngbq0y/footprin… )

    Another visit to the supermarket and another night swim rounded the day out nicely.    Read more

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