Tour de Scotland.

Well it's Friday again. I can't quite believe it, the week has passed so quickly. I have had a busy but extremely enjoyable week.

My new job is taking me all over the country and at the moment I am loving every minute of it. I had forgotten how beautiful my own country is, even in dreich weather. I have travelled approx 1300 miles and been to Stirling, Perth, Inverness, Callander, Crieff, Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Blairgowrie, Braemar, Ballater, Elgin, Forres, and Kirkcaldy. 

I even got to have an overnight stay with the Mater and Pater this week, which was fabulous. The best dinner, bed and breakfast in the North East.

My observations of the week are;

1) Scotland has to be the rainbow capital of the world. I have seen so many rainbows this week I have lost count, but it is well over a dozen. Sadly there has never been an opportune moment to stop and try and take a photo, so you will just have to take my word for it. In my world seeing over a dozen rainbows in one week makes me smile lots and makes life all the more worthwhile.

2) The majority of car drivers on the A9 are complete w**kers and have a death wish for themselves and anyone else who may get in their way. As a general rule it would seem to be that they are male, drive an Audi A4 and are obviously in a very big hurry to sell stuff that is so important to mankind that it could possibly not wait the few precious minutes it takes to get to the next dual carriageway. 

3) Pheasants on the A9 also have a death wish and like to play road roulette. Not hit one yet, but close!

4) Apart from the zig zag sign posts that tell you that the road has a few twists and turns coming up the second most popular sign post on Scottish roads is "oncoming traffic in middle of road", or indeed taking up the whole of the road.

Lunch stop, A9.

Always good to know where you have lunch.

Glen Shee, Old Military Road.

Lunch stop on Thursday.

Loch Lubnaig.

Other good news of the week is that I have managed to go climbing 3 times to Alien 1. It is so good to go back as a customer again, makes climbing much, much more enjoyable. Had great fun with my climbing buddies. Thanks for the belays. 

I forgot to mention that last weekend I also went to the Museum. It is the first time I have been since it has been refurbished and I have to say it is absolutely amazing. I could stand in the main entrance hall all day just marvelling at the space and light. If you have not been yet it is a must, best free entertainment you can get in Edinburgh on a dull day.

Beasties big and small.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

Getting around.

It has been a busy old week in the life of me. I have seen a lot of the countryside this week and will see much much more over the coming months. Thankfully the weather has been good, so the driving has been pretty easy going. Over the course of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I visited Glasgow, Balloch, Callander, Fort William, Lanark, Dumfries and Kirkcudbright. Not sure what this week will have in store but more miles will be travelled that's for sure. Hopefully get some nice photo opportunities along the way.

My Valentine treat to myself.

Balloch.

Loch Linnhe, Fort William.

Visit Scotland, Kirkcudbright.

This Saturday morning was Dolly's debut. It was a very cold and slightly windy outing but fun none the less. Beth, Neil and I had a great cycle over some of the Bathgate hills. I think it was about 18 miles in total but I found myself severely lacking in cycle fitness especially on the uphills, it was thigh burn central. I have much training to do in order to be fit for the Glasgow to Edinburgh 100 miler, but thankfully September is a few months away. I am very excited for some slightly warmer Spring and Summer days.

Dolly with her friends.

Route.

Day out.

Peace x

All photos by Caroline Harvey.

The Long Road.

I had forgotten about this video I made on my trip. I don't think I could get it to upload at the time, but now I have!

I took clips of video on my drive from Squamish, B.C, Canada to Knoxville, Tennessee. It was a roundtrip drive of approx 6000 miles. I did a lot of singing to myself.

It is funny watching it back now. If I could do it all over again I would, best year of my life without a shadow of a doubt.

Enjoy xx

A Drive and and a half

Driving, driving, driving

Well I have made it back to Canada. I had to leave the USA not because of a visa this time but because my car insurance ran out on the 1st of June and I could not renew it from over the border. So began the long journey from Knoxville to Squamish.

I gave myself a week to do the trip as I wanted to go via Yosemite and Redwood in California. I had a choice of a few routes. I could head south and go through Texas, Arizona etc but I had been along that route already with Wes so decided against it. I could come back the way I came but did not want to endure Kansas again, so opted to go North through Nebraska and Wyoming.

I left a very hot Tennessee on the Monday morning and survived a sticky non air conditioned 13 hour drive to Rockport, Missouri. The next morning I set off West. A whole 16 hours West towards Salt Lake City. My left arm was getting very hot and a little sun burnt by this point. I arrived in SLC about 9.30pm. My friend Steven was very kindly letting me use his house to kip in even although he was in Colorado. I have never been so pleased to see a bed as I did that night. I awoke the next morning and really did not have the energy or inclination to get back into my car again, so decided to have a quiet day doing nothing.

That quiet day turned into a very fun and exciting day. As I was having breakfast I noticed a man in Steven's garden, so thought I would be a good house guest and check who it was. It turned out to be his Dad who had come to cut the grass. We chatted and had a cup of tea, then he asked if I would like a ride on his motorbike, a 750cc Honda, for those interested. I of course accepted because I had never been pillion on a big bike like that before. It was so much fun he took me on a 50 mile tour of the canyons surrounding the city, including driving along the highway at 80mph. Awesome! In the evening he treated me to a Thai dinner. Once again US hospitality amazing. I am so glad I decided to have a day off.

The following day I jumped back in the car and intended to get to Yosemite so that I could spend al the next day there. To cut a long story short I did not get there. Snow, closed roads and much swearing on my part took me in a huge circle that took me back to where I had once been. Totally scunnered I gave up the idea as to now get there would be so much more driving and I mentally could not take anymore. I got a motel in Tahoe and decided just to head straight North the next day. Squamish was still a 2 day drive away.

I crossed the very busy Memorial day weekend traffic at the border patrol and was thankfully let back into Canada after a 1 hour wait. Annoyingly the border guard lady did not take my US visa thingy out my passport and I did not think to look until it was too late. So i will have to go back to a border and try and hand it in. Federal offence if I don't, but I will wait till my butt has forgotten the 60 hours of driving trauma.

Spending that much time on the road by yourself gives you time to mull over many things, so in between taking photos/video, texting people, looking at the map etc, I studied other road users. It would appear that tail gating is as much a national sport as football, baseball, ice hockey and just like these sports the supporters of this sport are all very different. I have made 4 categories.

1) The Trucker, generally male and from those that I have seen overweight. They will drive their million tonne truck at least 2 feet from your bumper. They clearly do not like to touch the brakes as this would make them drive at the speed limit. If you can you get out the way as fast as possible, if you can't then you just have to stick it out and hope that he can muster more speed to get past you.

2) The non lorry truck driver, again generally male. The make of truck does not matter it could be Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Toyota they are all the same. They will drive right on your ass for as long as it takes for you to get out of their way. You know that they do not want to bump into you as they would not afflict any damage to the very expensive turbo charged often pimped out extension of their manhood. Either get out their way as soon as you can, but it is more likely he will under take at the nearest opportunity to get to that important meeting/bar he has to go to.

3) The general run of the mill car driving asshole that just seems to be in a hurry all the time. He will tail gate then as he passes will give you the death stare before he speedily cuts you off and shots off down the nearest exit.

4) The last but possibly the most scary is the female that drives something expensive that either Hubby or Daddy bought her. She will tail gate even when there is room, space, time to over take but she does not notice as she is too busy talking with nobody important on her phone. If you are really lucky she will be checking her hair and putting on her lipstick too.

I am sure there are more categories but those are the main ones. They probably hate Canadians who take photos and text, but actually I don't think they care too much about their cross border neighbors anyway.

Mother truckers on my ass

So what am I going to be doing over my last 12 weeks. Yes only 12 weeks left, I personally can't believe it. At the moment I am not doing too much as guess what it is raining. I am actually quite psyched on doing some walking and trail running if I can, my fitness has certainly taken a bit of a dive over the last 9 months. So in other words I will keep you posted as I don't know what I will be doing or seeing.

I tried to post the video I made but it won't upload. Will try another time. Sorry.

Peace

I thought I recognised the gray clouds and rain.

All photos by Caroline Harvey