Darlo's World

So I’ve made it back to Shropshire in one piece (though my back feels like it’s in four or five), and so it’s time to crack on with telling you about the trip.

Day Three – Dundee to John O Groats

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Bloody good breakfast. Yum.

We left the hotel and headed north, stopping early along the way for a couple of pictures.


Driving through the hills of Scotland really was quite fun. We had empty roads and great weather. Normally when I think of Scotland I just think of cold rainy weather, the complete opposite of what we had on day 3.

After passing through Inverness, we headed back down south a bit to Loch Ness, in hope of catching a glance of the famed Loch Ness Monster (do you remember The Family Ness cartoon?).

The Loch itself is a lot bigger than I’d anticipated, but it was good to drive along side it.


As I expected Loch Ness contained a lot of tourist attractions. History of the Loch, information on expeditions, a very interesting set of toilets, free parking, and even something for the pets.


And of course, we found him.

I think the reason so many people fail to find him is that he’s actually no longer living in the main lake, but a smaller lake right next to Loch Ness (and right next to a gift shop, coincidentally).

We left the beautiful Loch Ness and headed North. Far North. In fact, we went all the way north!

We went right up to Dunnet Head, the most northern point of mainland Britain (though many think John O Groats holds that honour). It was quite late so we didn’t really see much, so after having a look at the nearby lighthouse we headed to the John O Groats Youth Hostel, where we were to stay the night. Coincidentally, we met another Japanese traveller.

First of all sorry that I’m late in updating about the trip. This is mainly due to the lack of internet available at places we’ve been staying, so I’m going to update you today. It’s currently Day 7, and we’ve had to make a few changes in the schedule, so for now please just enjoy the pictures and story I’ll be writing.

Day 2 – Leeds to Dundee

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I left Leeds pretty early in the morning, about 1:30 I think. When I got to Leeds I was actually still wide awake. So after doing a few things online I headed off towards Scotland and pulled over to sleep in the car when fatigue struck.

The drive up north was pretty long, but I had some time to spare so I made sure to stop a few times.


I popped into Drumlanrig Castle which was on my route to Glasgow Airport, but I didn’t go in though (I didn’t have that much time) but took a picture from outside.


I arrived at Glasgow Airport (not to be confused with an apparent heliport that my shat-nav wanted to visit at first), with plenty of time to meet my friend. I had a few coins in my pocket so had a play on the fruit machines, making a profit on each one.

From here we carried on towards Dundee, where we were staying at the West Park hotel. Venturing into the town center, we had dinner in Wetherspoons. It was here I tried haggis for the first time. For a food made of sheep bits cooked in other sheep bits, it was actually quite nice, although a tad spicy for me.

There was a wedding ceremony going on at the hotel, so for most of the night it was very noisy. The shower too I could only describe as ‘meh’. But that didn’t really matter, we were only there for one night.