Halo (scottish Gaelic) All,
Relax. The trip blogger is back on the job. Vanessa has appointed herself as the official blog writers nagger to avoid writing the blog entries herself.
The basic road trip plan. Hire a car and quickly drive to the Northern tip of Scotland then slowly tour our way south, catch the ferry across to Ireland drive a lap then catch the ferry back across to Scotland then keep touring south towards the Southern tip of the UK.
Actually this is a little retrospective and sounds way too organised. The real plan was hire a car and drive out of London heading north. We figured we would get a feel for things as we went and then make a plan.
Timeframe? Hmm. Not sure about that one…will tell you once we have finished the journey.
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We are a week into our road trip around the UK and are taking a break in Edinburgh.
This is something to consider when planning for a road trip in an unfamiliar country as it can be extremely tiring and stressful at times so a break is a necessity.
If you want some bad tips on poor trip planning then read on. Firstly decided that you should get a car and drive around the UK finding things as we go because it doesn’t look that big . This was our first mistake but not our last . The UK is big despite how compact it appears to be on a map.
It was on a Friday morning that we came up with the bright idea of looking into car rentals so we ignorantly went to Victoria station after looking online the previous night. Note that Victoria station is in central London so is not my preferred starting point for driving an unfamiliar car in London but it meant that we could walk there from our accommodation meaning that it was a cheaper option then going out to the airports as the transport costs like all big cities in the world were exorbitant . We didn’t want to book a vehicle as we didn’t have a plan but got a quote anyway starting from the Sunday.
We walked to a gourmet farmers market on the other side of the Thames and sampled their food and then had to race back to the opening night of the ´King and I´ at the Royal Albert Hall. Enroute back to our accommodation we hoped to locate a ´Borders´ bookstore that we had seen in our wanders in town. We did and decided to get a book on where to camp in case we couldn’t find any camping grounds. If you are a regular blog reader then you know the scenario , we following campground signs from the roads and then they mysteriously disappear we do a lap around the block and return to the last sign and repeat the process several times getting more and more frustrated with each lap (Editor: I have come to the conclusion that once upon a time there MAY have been a very small camp grounds but that camp ground no longer exists and the ground as been reclaimed as a backyard. Just a thought!!!) . We also purchased a map of London so that it would help us get out without too many problems a map of the UK and a touring guide. These were all purchased in a hurry as we were walking back to the accommodation in Paddington and then out to see the theatre production on the other side of Hyde park so the decision was a bit rushed. This was another of our mistakes in relation to our trip because the books to date haven’t proved to be that useful
One thing to consider which we noticed when looking at London maps is that many maps have coverage just for the inner city of London and don’t actually link to the major highways. We purchased one with the London city and an overview of major roads.
On Saturday we decided that we would actually book a vehicle from Hertz. We called to confirm but they said that the original quote was all that was necessary. Later we stumbled upon a Hertz branch which was actually closer to Paddington and inquired as to whether there would be any vehicles at that branch tomorrow but apparently there were not.. We asked about the bookings and they said that they didn’t have enough cars to cover bookings for Sunday. What? bookings mean nothing? does this affect us? what a crazy system. More bookings that cars? sounds a lot like the overbooked low cost airline reality shows that are on television. We were a little nervous about our prospects for Sunday.
Sunday morning is a good time to leave London in a rental car. The traffic is less than normal and the congestion tax (normally 8 pounds) does not apply.
We decided that we were going to go somewhere whether it be train, bus or hire car. Our strategy was to get to Hertz early and get a vehicle before the competition. We arrived about 930am and there was already a queue from the counter to the front door. Damn. Needed to be earlier. We held and breath and waited and were surprised and relieved to find that they could actually supply us with a vehicle but it wasn’t going to be a ford festiva 1.25lt.
We got down to the car park and found that the car was still being washed. Quick turnover! Our fortune was that the car was a ford focus zetec 1.6lt. Almost perfect. Diesel would have been better but the larger car meant we could fit our packs in the boot and normal items for daytime use on the back seat.
We carefully pack the car for trips and have a system. (Editor: In the beginning there may be a system but as the days progress it is not so carefully packed and the main objective at the end of the day is simply to ensure that the car doors and boot can be shut and that the drive can still see out the window)The tent is wet in the mornings and we don’t have time to wait around for the sun to dry it so we take out the sleeping bags and mats and put them on the backseat of the car. Food sits behind the driver and passenger seats. We then pack the inner tent, fly and groundsheet in separate waterproof bags to be dried later and put them on top of the bags in the boot. A kind of wet and dry area concept. We drive towards our destination and if the sun comes out we stop and try drying the tent. It usually only takes 30 minutes and often can be done at lunch time when we often take a break.
It is important to carry at least 3 days of non perishable food. Sometimes it is hard to find good supermarkets but the trick is to get away from the freeways and we have not had any problem finding them in Scotland. Sometimes there are random holidays and nothing is open.
We occasionally see hitchhikers along the road and say with our windows up as we zoom past them ¨we would like to pick you up but we can’t we are full¨. Actually we are always full when it comes to hitchhikers or in fact anyone on the street(Editor: mean aren’t we particularly the driver who has the power to put his foot on the brake) Interestingly the hitchhikers that we have seen particularly in Britain all look like they have escaped or are on day release from prison. Hope we don’t breakdown in the middle of nowhere in the future. Karma might get us as we are walking along hoping to hitch a ride as we also look like we could have escaped from prison when we have been on the road for a few days.
You have to be realistic. Fuel in the UK is not cheap. Travel is not cheap in the UK. I think it is cheaper to travel on buses for one person and borderline cheaper with a rental car with two people. Rental cars give the advantage of freedom to explore which is great.
We figure that the cost of fuel for the trip will be as much as the car hire. On this trip it has been about just over one pound per litre and we are getting around 50 miles per gallon.
Long hours of daylight. The north of Scotland is 58 degrees North so darkness arrives late at about 11pm and it is bright by 430am in the morning in late June! Unfortunately in our relationship there is one person that enjoys the night and likes to sleep late and one that enjoys the day and generally wakes with the sun. As you may imagine It is difficult to be quiet in a tent even the sound of the zipper slowly being opened is liking having velcro ripped apart near your ears so when one is one both are up so it makes for a very very very long day.(Editor: I think that the morning person likes waking other people up so it wouldn’t matter if you were staying in a mansion!!!)
Roundabouts and missing signs. I have developed a bit of a complex about roundabouts in the UK. Actually it is just about anything on a road that has a degree of ambiguity and involves the possibility of turning off the intended path. One of my pet hates is getting a sign before a roundabout then not having an exit clearly marked and as often as not I end up on the wrong.
It goes something like this:
´ok saw the sign on the way in but where the hell did the next sign go?´
´Vanessa did you see which way to go?´
´No´
´Where the hell did the bloody sign disappear to this time?´
´There it is...´
´Too late we are past the turnoff´
´Ahhh...not again...this is so frustrating!´
´Guess we will have to do another lap around...´
We are getting better. Now if we don’t see the sign we just keep on going straight even if it doesn’t look like the right way to go and it works quite often.
We camped overnight at headland with a lighthouse and about 100 of our new best friends. The sheep must thought we were cold and lonely because at one stage they crowded around the car and chatted (Blah! Blah! Blahl!) loudly amongst themselves. Unfortunately it was here that we also discovered that we had been driving around in a hire car with only third party insurance. We had been lucky to have not needed insurance but it left us feeling very very uneasy and nervous so we made an early morning dash to the Hertz agency and by early I mean well before 600am we were on the road hoping not to encounter any other drivers on the road .
The hertz agent informed us that we couldn’t get retrospective insurance which is fair enough so to get around this problem we returned the car and re hired the same car with insurance. A little foolish of us as we could have hired another vehicle that would have been clean.Why didn´t we I hear you asking one simple reason we were to lazy to move our ´stuff from one car to the other.
Whilst with the hertz agent she told us that a bull had fallen off a roadside bank landing on her BMW .The car was written off and the bull died in the process. Naturally she attempted to sue the farmer for damages but was informed by the farmer´s legal representative that the farmer actually wasn’t liable for any damages that his ´farm´ animals caused. In a cruel twist of fate the farmer feeling bad invited the lady around for a barbeque the following evening and guess what was on the menu…….chicken. (only joking that last bit is not true).This is why we wanted full insurance !!!
Scotland is truly a ruggedly beautiful and inviting country. We are however not surprised that it is green because it rains on a regular basis .It was so wet that we had to camp in our car on more than one occasion .
Edinburgh …….did our free city tour then continued on to the museum to take a peek at Dolly the cloned sheep
We travelled as far North as we could go without requiring waders and or a boat. We failed to see Loch Ness at Loch Ness but we didn’t however see her at a BP Petrol Station in Inverness.
Despite covering about 2000miles in Scotland we haven’t finished with Scotland just yet and will return there are we have explored Ireland .
