Stayed in a ‘lodge’ in some people’s garden in Fort William last night. Took full advantage of the shower facilities before heading out for dinner.

Up earlyish and managed to get on the road by 9:30. A relatively easy journey home with a bit of rush hour traffic and a few idiot drivers.

Driving distance around Scotland – 690 miles

Driving distance total (including to and from Oxfordshire) – 1644 miles

Had a wonderful adventure together!

After agreeing that we had seen plenty of Eileen Donan Castle from the van last night, we decided to spend the morning cleaning and tidying the van ready to give back later.

Stopped for lunch at the monument we visited on out first day and sat people watching and reminiscing about our adventures.

Headed back towards and the past Fort William to see the viaduct – filming location for some of the Harry Potter movies. We had found out online what time the train came over so had a look around the gift shop, buying yet more things for Mary’s small humans and then we took a wander out to look at the monument.

Walked up to the viaduct which took about 15 minutes and a bit of scrabbling up a muddy hill to be treated with an excellent view of the viaduct and surrounding hills. Had a bit of a wait with the numerous other people who had made the trek.

We had picked the right side to view from as the train ended up coming towards us along the track – a lucky guess by Ros as to the direction the train would be travelling.

A great last thing to do before heading back to Fort William to return Jim.

Took us a little while to find this site – we visited a couple of others but they didn’t feel right.

Fantastic view of the castle and the loch.

Tomato pasta for dinner and a movie for our last night in the van. Sad to be saying goodbye to Clunky Jim tomorrow but also excited to sleep in a proper bed again without having to play tetris to get everything sorted before sleeping.

After over a week in the van, Mary felt confident enough to take the Bealach na Bà route which is a winding single track road through the mountains of the Applecross peninsula.

We did the route anticlockwise from Torridon round to Applecross and then up over the pass and back down the hairpin bends to Tornapress.

Definitely glad we went that direction as we were treated with some amazing views on the way down and it felt easier to drive the scary bit going downhill.

Woke up later than expected this morning. Knew we has a lot of driving to do so put the van back together quickly and were on our way. Lots of beautiful view on the drive through the hills today.

We have been joking a lot about all of the different animal road signs we have seen (sheep, cow, pig, stag, red squirrel, otter and toad) but that we hadn’t seen all of the animals on the sign. As we drove round a corner, we came to a car park where 3 deer were just stood watching everyone drive past.

Mary couldn’t resist getting out for a closer look. The stag was very friendly and even let her pet his nose. Mummy and baby a bit more timid and hidden away.

Also saw some more lovely highland cows by the side of the road.

After the gorge we continued down the one lane roads to our campsite in Gairloch which was a nice little village by the sea.

Campsite quite busy. Lots of vans and a few tents.

Headed out and treated ourselves to a coffee and cake in the local cafe and made friends with an opportunistic robbin.

Had a look round the local bookshop (and artisan coffee shop………..) and naturally ended up in the kids book section buying something for Mary’s little humans.

Curry and rice for dinner followed by more book reading and a chick flick in bed.

Ros headed of down to the beach this morning whilst Mary opted to take advantage of the bedroom in the youth hostel for a bit longer. Beautiful views!

Headed of after packing the van up again. Weather pretty miserable so we ended up parking up on the side of the road and viewing our first planned stop, Ardvreck Castle, from a distance.

Continued on to our second planned stop and had lunch in the car park whilst we waited in hope for the weather to change. The rain slowed and we headed out. Nice walk down the the suspension bridge over the gorge (which was surprisingly deep… which is a silly thing to be surprised about) and then through the woods to the other viewing platform.

Arrived in Achmelvich in the early afternoon. Check in not until 5 so we headed down to the beach with our books and some coffee.

Nice to be out of the van for a night. Took full advantage of the shower facilities and spent the evening reading in the warm.

Quite a driving heavy day today – lots of views.

Wild camping again tonight. Found somewhere using Park4Night app. By the side of the road but fairly quiet.

Some pretty views of water and the hills. Only downside is LOTS of midges so had to keep doors and windows closed and limit outside activity which was tricky.

Yummy dinner of fajitas and quiet night in the van.