Scotland- The last few days

After our adventures in the Highlands we planned to meet Sarah’s parents at Comrie, just North of Stirling and on the edge of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. We’d found a beautiful Eco Campsite, Comrie Croft, and it was a proper campsite, no heated pool,  fancy restaurant- just a few fields, a wood and some basic showers.

The day we left Fort William was grey, rainy and low cloud which made the drive through the Glencoe pass absolutely amazing, with mountain tops missing and sunlight shining through onto small patches of mountain side. Rannoch Moor looked the wild place I imagined it would be when we walked over it almost a week before in blue skies and the water on the lochs were grey and choppy.

The bus service down to Glasgow is really good, they run every few hours and stop along the way at most of the villages on the

West Highland Way

. We had to change bus at Glasgow Bus Station and jumped on the shuttle to the airport to pick up our little hire car.

Living on the Island of Jersey is lovely, but only being able to drive a maximum of 40mph and not being able to drive for more than an hour without doing an entire tour of the island, it feels good to fly along motorways- even if it was only a 900cc car!

Comrie was a cute little village but that’s about it and our campsite was on the outskirts. Our pitch was in the top meadow, meaning stunning views over the valley below and to the lowland mountains in the distance. We pitched the tent when my parents arrived and then set to work building a campfire. So many places won’t allow open fires, it was nice for a change to be able to cook sausages and toast marshmallows.

The next day was another rainy day and still feeling the ache from our walking, decided to skip the mountain biking and head to the Oldest Distillery in Scotland, Glenturret, fro the Famous Grouse Experience. The tour was really interesting and told fantastically by our tour guide. As well as seeing the working distillery (no photography as there is a risk of explosion!) we watch a CGI tour of the ‘Famous Grouse’ fly over Scotland and then it was the tasting.

There are several tour options- all of them the same but with different amounts of tasting at the end. Being 11am we were glad we chose the least amount (which was still 2 different Whiskeys) and I’m (Sarah) pleased to say I actually enjoyed the Glenturret whiskey- the first one of the week!

Still rainy and grey after the tour we took a drive up to the loch where the water comes from for the Whiskey  then decided to head back to the Highlands- where I think we left a little bit of our hearts- and enjoy lunch at the Bridge of Orchy and shopping at the Green Welly Stop.

Back at the campsite it was more marshmallows around the campfire and an early night as we were up at 5am the next morning for our Easyjet flight back home.

Our holiday in Scotland really has been amazing and once again, like Finland, we came away with the realisation that being outdoors and active all day everyday is what makes us truly happy. We love that feeling at the end of the day of being tired from physical exertion and fresh air, not mentally drained from being at a desk staring at a computer. We did by a lottery ticket, just in case our luck was in… but for now it’s back to the desk job…