Road Trip Day 7
There were many boats in the loch this morning, mostly battleship grey. What a fantastic view to wake up to every morning. Christine made us scrambled duck eggs and bacon for breakfast, followed by some lemon curd on toast. This was lemon curd left over from making a wedding cake last weekend for Ed, Mick’s son who works for Finesse, our boat builders.
Before leaving, I had to have a look at Christine’s glass workshop. She makes beautiful items from fused glass and sells them at the local post office and at craft fairs in the area. Time for goodbyes. Thank you for the remainder of the lemon curd, one of my favourites.
Car packed for the last time we pulled away, only to pull in a short distance on, it was time for me to take over the wheel. Today there were many miles to cover, Mick said he was happy to drive it all, but that seemed daft, after all we’d paid extra for me to be a second driver. I’ve not driven for at least eight years and then only on two days, prior to that it was another four years, I think. After Mick’s stroke last year he wasn’t allowed to drive for several weeks, it was really about time I sat behind the wheel again.
I’d avoided driving on the wiggly winding roads, and motorways. Just bog standard A roads would be wise for a first outing, maybe I’d drive to our first break, then let Mick do the motorway. Have to say it wasn’t as daunting as it was eight years ago when I had to drive from Manchester to Ipswich and back on my own. Then I’d found it scary getting up to speed on motorways, far more used to travelling at 3 miles an hour and having a good 50ft ahead of me on the boat. Having six gears was a new thing today. Getting the seat set for me was interesting, was I at a suitable height distance from the pedals? Or was I just quite tense about the whole thing? I drove us to the first motorway section near Sterling Castle, maybe not as fast as Mick would have. A good start, just need to find more opportunities for me to sit behind the wheel, not so easy when you don’t have a car.
This was our last day of holiday, there was one place on our list we needed to visit before we left Scotland. This of course was the Kelpies.
The drive east took us around 1 hour 50 from Christine and Micks, the last section through major road works. Two car parks to choose from, we opted for the free one and a bit of a walk along the side of the Forth and Clyde Canal. The canal was empty, quite a few traffic cones in the bottom and a scooter visible.
The 100ft high horses heads had been visible from the motorway, now they loomed ahead of us. 1:10 moquettes of the sculptures sit by the visitors centre, these a work of art in themselves. The final pieces were scanned from the moquette then cut from steel and bolted together, unveiled in 2014. They are surrounded by a watery moat and between them is Kelpies Lock 1A, on the newest stretch of the Scottish Canals. The horses represent the heavy horses that once pulled boats and cargo along the towpaths of the Forth and Clyde and Union canals in their heyday.
The horses were designed by artist Andy Scott. The moquettes hand crafted using thousands of steel segments. When completed, they were scanned and scaled up to the full size. They are quite incredible, huge sheets of steel with square corners and holes bolted together to make up such majestic, strong creatures. I think the only real curves on them is their eyes.
Mick enjoyed a pork and haggis sausage roll whilst my gf options were limited, a bowl of luke warm cheesy chips. Then it was time for us to start to head back southbound. Our options for routes: head back westwards to retrace the mostly motorway route, head east towards Edinburgh and then down the A1 and the North Sea coast, cut the corner and go through Coldstream. In the end we opted for the A1 with sea views most of the way and the Tyne Tunnel. The last time I did this journey was after opening a show at the Edinburgh Festival driving through the night to get to opening night of an Esk Valley Theatre show in Glaisdale the next day.
As we drove we kept an eye on petrol prices, would the next garage be cheaper, should we find a supermarket? In the end we opted for a price that wasn’t too alarming, had a comfort break and finished off the yummy banana cake Christine had given us. Mick valiantly carried on driving us back to Scarborough, picking up a Chinese takeaway from a place that had been recommended to me by friends who are also gluten free. Sadly we maybe didn’t make the best choices and understanding the lady with a very strong Hong Kong accent was a little hard, she had difficulty understanding us too. Next time we’ll think about it more before ordering.
Back at the house our lodger was at work. I stuck my head up against the bay window setting the security light off. This prompted our guard cat to hop onto the chair to see what was happening. If a cat could smile, Tilly would have had a broader grin than the Cheshire Cat.
No telling off, which was a surprise, just requests for lots of head nudges strokes and once we’d eaten I was pinned to the sofa by a furry purry cat. I think she’s very pleased we’re home.
We’ve had a great holiday, thank you to everyone who we stayed with, it was great to be able to spend time with you all. Also a big thank you to Vicky who fed and looked after Tilly so well for us, saving her having to go to cat prison for a week which would have meant two car journeys for her.
Will we be transitioning to being motorhome owners to explore different parts of the UK as lots of boat owners seem to? The answer to that is …. no, I doubt it very much. I suspect we’ll try to travel a bit more in the winter, but we’re far from being bored of boating. We have plans in the embrionic stage for winter next year, but that all depends on various things coming together in time. We’ve our fingers crossed it will come off, but many aspects are nothing we can control. We have put in a request that a frequent lodger gets at job at the SJT so she could look after Tilly for us for longer than just one week, we’ll see if that comes off.
0 locks, 0 miles by boat, 753.4 miles by road, Fiat 500, 2 drivers, 6 nights away, 1 sister, 3 friends, 1 wheel, 2 horses, 2 squirrels, 76 miles by road rather than 35 by crow, 5 mine sweepers, 1 silent woofer, 2 60ths on the horizon, 2 yummy cakes, 3 portions fish and chips, 1 beautiful house, 1 mass of pink scaffolding, 1 barn, 3 canals, 1 pleased cat, 1 stroke allowed to Vicky, 2 boaters still with weeks to wait, 1 Easter getting in the way!