Shockingly, the mornings get slower and slower and the weather is mistier and more autumnal. When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed, we made a cup of coffee and started to tidy everything away ready to move on.
The campsite we had stayed at, operated a pay as you go electric top up meter – rather than charging an extra set fee for electric at the pitch. This, happily, worked in our favour, having plugged in yesterday when we arrived, to this morning at around half 10, we had spent a whopping 29p!!!
The little wins in van life!
The road out of the Highlands
We hit the road, we had checked and made sure they were all ‘A’ roads before leaving and were happy with the outcome.
Well that was until we actually started driving these ‘A’ roads! The A93 specifically! To the person who built or designed this road I am sensing an enjoyment of rollercoasters! The tight turns and the stomach twisting hills got us both feeling a bit sick at times.
We took it slowly, perhaps to the annoyance of a blue micro camper behind us, but we are not designed to take turns at speed, nor do we want to!
A small diversion saw us go through Perth, which, for a city, was relatively painless, but we both breathed a sigh of relief when we met the A9. Never have we felt such excitement to see a dual carriageway, albeit with a heavy heart as we wave goodbye to the highlands.
The Falkirk Wheel
A 2 hour drive to Falkirk, to see the famous Falkirk wheel. Whilst impressive, a little underwhelming. We had planned to stay here for the night but that would now mean sitting in a car park for at least 7 hours before going to bed, so we thought it better to drive on and see where we ended up.
And then we just kept driving
We set the sat nav to home, just as a guide, we weren’t sure where we would end up, but we could keep an eye on traffic and how we felt and make a decision at any point. As we crossed into Dumfries and Galloway, the sun made its final appearance, beaming down on us pretty much up until the border.
We hit England and shockingly the rain stayed away, until the outskirts of Preston – I would have taken a photo of us passing the Welcome to England sign, but someone was overtaking a lorry 🙄 does he not realise I need content for the blog!?
It was not our intention, this morning when we left, to drive this far, we had spoken about coming home on Monday rather than Tuesday as originally planned, to help us the other side with chores etc, assuming we would stop south of the lakes.
But the first 3 hours after Falkirk went by almost in a flash, there was no hardship, so we carried on. We had also seen that there had been some flooding at home and didn’t want to get caught out if we did stay somewhere tonight, so continued plodding on with our destination almost certainly being home.
The thought of crashing on our bed at home, as comfy as the van is, is all we could both dream about. We agreed we would treat ourself to a takeaway dinner – Burger King at Charnock Richard services (need to sell a kidney after the cost of it!) so that we could go straight to bed when we did get home!
We hit Birmingham and the heavens opened! At one point on the M6, it was less motorway more flooded car park! Visibility was non existent but reinforced to us, that home was the safest place to be tonight – the thought of camping in a car park or field in this weather, everything getting soaking wet and no guarantee that we wouldn’t be flooded where we parked just wasn’t an option for us.
1,224 miles later
466 miles today, from Braemar Caravan Park, to the Falkirk Wheel and home in Stewartby, Bedfordshire. A third of our total miles completed in 1 day. Our total miles being 1224!
While a tiring day (other than for the dog, who slept all day) we knew as soon as we walked through the door that it was worth it. And with that, 10 days in the road has come to an end.
Thanks everyone for reading along on our adventure. That’s it for this instalment, so we’ll see on the next adventure, whenever and wherever that’ll be. Peace ✌🏼