After breakfast under the watchful eye of the stag in a mask, we left Bettyhill Hotel and continued along the North Coast 500, with amazing scenery at every turn.
Tomorrow we get the ferry to the Orkneys, a short crossing compared to the distance to the Shetlands.
Wish me luck!
Carol
We left Ullapool in the mist, heading north along the North Coast 500.
Tomorrow we are headed for Wick, via John o’Groats.
Stay safe
Carol
We left Hamilton and continued north to Strathpeffer.
In Strathpeffer we met up with friends Linda and Mike, at the Railway Cafe. The station has been closed for many years, but the line is being used as a walk/cycle track.
Strathpeffer was a popular Victorian spa town.
After lunch we continued our journey.
We arrived at the Caledonian Hotel, Ullapool.
After a walk around the harbour we had fish and chips for tea.
More pics tomorrow.
X
Day One
We set off this morning to travel the 340 miles north on the M6 from Dursley to Hamilton, just south of Glasgow.
Tomorrow we drive past Inverness to Ullapool, meeting up with some friends for lunch on the way.
Carol
Many months ago we booked a holiday to Scotland, stopping off at the Shetland Isles. We have been luckier than most this year as we managed to have a trip to India just before Lockdown. Our long weekend in the Isle of Man was cancelled in May, but we have kept our fingers crossed that the Scottish trip will go ahead. All looks good so far. So, hopefully, on August 20th we will be off up north!
I will post each day, as I did from India. The posts may not be so exotic but I’m sure there will be some amazing scenery to share with you.
Looking forward to sharing my photos with you.
Stay safe
Carol
Members of our community here in Dursley, Gloucestershire, have produced an ‘I-spy’ booklet to encourage families to explore the local area. As we have had our grandson to stay for a few days we went out and about this week, armed with our copy of the book and a pen.
Many thanks to the people who produced the book, we spent a very happy three days exploring the area.
Points are given for everything spotted and we scored 1,060!
It was so nice to be able to spend time with family again. Long may this new freedom continue.
Stay safe
Carol
Here it is! The novella I wrote in 30 days is available FREE on Amazon Kindle for 5 days. Download by Friday 10th July.
‘Lockdown 2020, the world is relying on tracking and tracing to slow down the spread of the virus. Jack, a young app designer, has developed an app that unexpectedly gives him the power to control people’s movements. What will be the consequences?’
I hope you enjoy it
Stay safe
Carol
One good thing about Lockdown (the only good thing?) is that I have had more time to write. At the beginning of June I came across Maria Frankland, an author who teaches creative writing. She had put some of her courses online including ‘Write a novella in 30 days’. There was a Youtube clip to watch each day with support and advice. I took up the challenge and, 30 days later, have completed my novella!
It is called ‘Tracker’ and is set in autumn 2020. Like my first novella, ‘Memories’, it features an app, and although it refers to the Corona Virus and the situation we find ourselves in, like ‘Memories’ it is really about relationships.
It is shorter than my previous novella, which took nearly 3 years to write.
I intend to self publish shortly on Amazon Kindle and like last time I will be able to offer it free for the first 5 days. It will then be 99p. I will post when it becomes available.
If you enjoyed reading ‘Memories’ I hope you will enjoy ‘Tracker’ too. If you haven’t read ‘Memories’ it is available on Amazon for 99p.
Slimbridge WWT has recently reopened, with limited numbers, following the latest Government guidelines, to keep staff and visitors safe.
As it is only about 5 miles away we thought it would make a nice day out. After a cloudy start the day brightened up and we enjoyed our visit. The indoor areas were closed, as were the play areas, but with 100 acres of wetlands, with swans, geese, ducks, moor hens, coots, flamingos etc to see, we had plenty to do.
It is wonderful to see places gradually opening up again. We hope things continue to improve.
Stay safe everyone
Carol
When I started this blog earlier this year my main aim was to share photographs of our travels. It was also a way of reaching a wider audience with my writing. If you enjoy reading my stories I have just added a new short story to the ‘My Creations’ page.
Recently, however, my blog has allowed a distant relative I didn’t know I had, to reach out to me. My second cousin, Elizabeth, has been researching our family history and knew enough to google my name and the town where I live, and found my blog!
We have started to exchange photographs and information about our families. My grandmother on my father’s side was Elizabeth’s grandmother’s sister.
What amazing photographs! I look forward to finding out more about our shared family.
Stay Safe
Carol
