Hawkcraig Point

This day started at 4am for packing down the tent in Fort William and driving to the CityLink bus station where we were leaving our hire car by 6:30-7am and taking an early bus to Edinburgh. I was glad we’d given ourselves plenty of time because the bus was so prompt. It also ended up being surprisingly luxurious too - reclining comfy chairs, not smelly at all, and plenty of space. The public transport in Scotland is very good, I would highly recommend it from our experiences so far (a $600 refund helps). The bus drove through Glencoe again and the Trossachs National Park which was great scenery though still tired, Vikum napped most of the way until our transit stop at the busy Glasgow bus station. Here we got another meal deal for lunch (our love affair with meal deals really starting to bloom at this point) but it was also where we had our first experience of not having enough coins to use paid bathrooms. We had be warned about this, but we still didn’t prep enough and still can’t get over how frustrating it is to only be able to find paid bathrooms. We figured it out and were very happy we’d booked seats onto the next bus as there were very long lines for Edinburgh. Once on another tidy modern bus, we watched Ratatouille on the iPad for the last leg to Edinburgh. The last hour or so of the journey was made much easier with such an astoundingly good film…I’d forgotten how good it was. On arrival to Edinburgh we used a luggage storage spot for the first time which was super useful, though a bit pricey. It worked well as we were much lighter while we made our way past buskers, the beautiful gardens and market stalls to see some of the colour from the Fringe festival. We listened to some Edinburgh audio guides together to help plan our next day while wandering the town and enjoying more good weather. We also scanned the local shops where I looked out for Kelly and McCall tartan, and happened upon my second magpie purchase; a “Heathergems” necklace with a pendant made out of the heather itself that we’d seen all over the moors on our time in Scotland so far. A reminder of what had been such a good part of the trip. We picked up our bags again at the station and got onto a train to our accommodation out in Aberdour: an adorable village about 30-40mins out of city. We’d booked two nights here a pretty long time in advance given how busy and expensive accommodation is during the Fringe in Edinburgh. It couldn’t have been a better choice as we got the most amazing B&B location and experience for the price of two hostel beds in the city centre (prices are crazily skewed during the Fringe). Plus the train station was close to the hotel and not really a long trip on the train itself at all. Our room at Forth View Hotel had a beautiful view of the forth looking back over at Edinburgh, the bedroom was cozy, the shower hot and most importantly…after 1 night in the car, plus two in tent with weird bedding arrangements…it had a proper bed. We felt like Kings. We also had a royal feast with dinner in the restaurant/dining room downstairs too. A table booked right by the window which was so special. It was the best food we’d eaten and would probably eat on this whole trip. The restaurant turned out to be award-winning and the food was unbelievable. As a seafood restaurant we ordered the local produce including lobster (I know 😱), sea bass and a taster board of seafood starters to get a diverse range of the produce. The meal had an amuse-bouche, palette cleansers and dessert. The whole nine yards. Our waiter Kyle had a pounamu taonga so we asked about it and he ended up being half kiwi. Plus despite growing up in Aberdour, he was flying to NZ in a few months for a long trip so we gave him tips and chatted a bit about his time in Scotland vs NZ. Also in the dining room we met a couple; Chris and Fiona who were from different parts of England and we chatted with them for a long time too. They had happened upon the restaurant during their travels to Edinburgh which we discussed, along with their past travels too - plenty had been around Europe, which was good for recommendations. There was then complimentary homemade shortbread and homemade fudge that we saved for the next night as we couldn’t eat even another wafer and hauled ourselves up the two flights of stairs to our room crashing after a very long but very luxurious day.Read more