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... before leaving... Team and friends.
team: Maggie (lady on the hood)
Komar
(green shirt - on the left)
Tarsus
(green shirt - on the right)
Finally on our way... Komar on the back with all the baggage. Very comfortable way to travel for thousands
miles.
...Komar's place even not enough to strech the legs...
Lake District. West England. Beautyfull place. National Park. Wild nature. Lakes, sailing boats to let,
lovely. I could live there...
...yhmm, and castles over the hills...
Time to strech the legs. After few hours of driving we are finally leaving flat terrain and aproach
hills and mountains...
Our first wild-camping. 1hour of seting "AZTEC AUTOHAVEN PLUS" tent and we are ready for night. Komar didn't
take a proper sleeping bag and it was very cold night. You would like to see him in the mornig... I was a little scary about
wild-camping, but no problems during night...
...and happy team at the morning before breakfast...
One of happiest moments. Finally conquering Scotland!
Edynburgh as it is.
Maggie and Komar left me in the pub, and made picture-taking tour allover the Old Town. Doesn't look bad,
right?
Place somewhere at the road. Lovely like many others. No name, or adres. Just a house and forrest access
bridge.
Truly "scotish weather". We've had conditions like this almost all the time. An try to set up a camp if
tent needs ąprox. 1hour.
...Scotish weather part II...
...somewhere in the wild: Damn Dam :)
Loch Ness. We've stayed there for few days. I've tried to hunt The Monster from my camera, but bloody beast
didn't show up. We were sitting, waching movies, eating, drinking beer, swaering on our badly leaking tent...
City of Inverness. The capital of Highlands. Nice place, sea and lake access (if you like sailing), cheap
food, even Poundlands:), supermarkets, and wild nature arround. I could live here as well. Infact I'm going to...
...a sign for touritsts from other countries. I think it's funny:)
Some people think that English language is quite similar to Gaelic(old scotish). If you think so take look
above then below...
...similar isn't it? Infact almost the same language...
Looking for a place to sleep we found an old barn. There was only one door we blocked with... a Land Rover
to feel safe overnight. Two tones of steel-imposible to move without a whisper. Table, supper, watching movies, surfing over
internet...
After 1000 miles we found our Land Rover runing completly without oil! Bought a 5l bottle, refilled, went
away. Car took no harm at all. Incredible machine!
Urquhart Caslte. Placed at shore of Loch Ness. Picture says everything. It was a place of Robert The Bruce
(traitor from Brave Heart movie) Wonderfull.
Komar-as allways. Take a look on the plate down-right.
After few nights spent on wet tent floor, we decided to order a roof tent via internet. Courier delivered
a package after two days, straight to our camping site. So now it's already mounted and we can go further way.
Komar again... Jumping over water in Invermoriston 20miles south-west from Inverness. Very picturesque place.
There was a shop you can buy hand-made leather crafts.
A87 road. If you want to see Scotland you know from movies go there right away. Wild, unresidented, lovely.
There is a small inn with... a very modern petrol station...
A87. Old bunker... or whatever it was...
We decided to go across the water to get to small island. Komar did something wrong with camera so I had
to go back, and run across again (we wanted pictures of all this). While I was reversing, I lost a path and run into
deep... It was scary... nobody to tow us out... but car did it ok. Only trouble:
I smashed a rear diff hitting some big stone... damn.
And movie below... (just click)
...across the water... WMV movie
Eilean Donan - Another castle. Plenty of ones in Scotland. This one was in marvelous condition, fully residented...
but still available for tourists.
Isle Skye. Different world. Different people. First pub (real one - with people and beer inside) we've found
since left Edynburgh.
Our roof tent. 600pounds. Not bad. Handled strong winds and rain.
Komars tent. 10pounds. Not bad. Handled
strong winds and rain.
Scotland as it is every one sees. I could live and die here.
Old bus-caravan team. Every one chooses it's own way to travel.
And another castle...
...an another. A9 up to Thurso. End of Great Britan. We are heading for ferry to Orkneys.
Driving aboard PENTALINA. The ferry from Kirkstyle (20 miles east from Thurso). Piece of junk
but much cheaper than North Link ships in Thurso.
prices: mid season
3 people and car
Thurso - Kirkwall (Orkneys)
12/person*3+40car= 76pounds
Kirkwall - Lerwick(Shetlands)
16/person*3+70car=118pounds
Lerwick - Aberdeen(Great Britain)
26/person*3+105=183pounds
Island of Stroma. Abandoned lighthouse. Taking breath away...
Finally ashore. Welcome to Orkneys. Our car looks a bit
different, doesn't it?
Kirkwall yaht marina at dusk. And we were there:)
North Link ferry to Lerwick - Shetlands
Aboard. Our LR90 runs without any prroblems so far. This ferry trip gave her eight hours rest.
End of the world. Shetlands. Northern end of A970 we've left one mile behind. Now looking for place
to set a camp. On the left Atlantic Ocean, on the right North sea. Nowhere to go. End of the isle.
...driving over hills. Sheps everywhere. Wild, wild, wild. Few hours later Komar was swimming in sea with
wild, but qiute friendly seals. Unfortunately batery in his camera were gone and we have no picture of this.
Damn...
Lerwick. Another place I'd like to live in. People are speaking very "hard" English that sounds more like
Norwegian. Almost all town is bulit of stones. I've never seen so peacefull place.
Lerwick. At the end we didn't buy our "shetland wool sweaters". We were runing out of money and had to save
something for way back.
Genuine shetland wool sweater price: 50-150 pounds
A ferry Lerwick-Aberdeen. Clouds over the hills and small tanker. I felt like I was very,very small
at the force of nature. No picture can show the real view, the incredible space allround you.
Back to Inverness. Komar left us in Aberdeen. Thinking what next. While shopinng in Tesco we've met polish
couple looking for work.
We spent three evenings together.
Moray Firth bay at dusk - Inverness
Decision made. We are heading home. Ten hours driving with three 10min brakes. What we've seen, all the
experience, adventure... AWESOME! We are preparing for another one. End of story. Hope you enjoyed.
Summary:
-Money spent: 1500 pounds (inc. unexpected expenses)
-Miles done: aprox. 2000
-Beer drunk: ... a lot...
-(beeing in Scotland you can buy alcohol on
petrol stations even during a night)
-No regular pubs in highlands country side.
-Fuel rating: (highways-aprox)
(Small fuel tank. We were forced to tank very often)
1) Shell - 40mpg = 7l/100km
2) BP/ESSO/Total - 28mpg = 10l/100km
3) Asda/Sainsburys/Morisons - 21mpg = 13l/100km
-Prices of fuell:
More you are heading north - fuel much expensive.
-Leeds 80p/litre
-Edynburgh 90p/litre
-Inverness 95p/litre
-Lerwick 99.99p/litre
*(data from 2005yr.)
-Food prices:
-same everywhere
-Car faults:
-none-
(smashed rear diff by driver - nothing serious)
-Terrain difficulties:
-none-
(LR can go anywhere you want)
-Weather:
-most unfriendly on Highlands.
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