Cheers for following along from home. This is the seventh edition of the blogs that Baylee and I put together to catalog our travel! We hope to share some of the trip with all of you, and in turn have writing we can go back and read when we’re eventually back home.

We’d hoped to avoid a massive read by writing Scotland separately to Ireland, but as it turns out this one is more than twice as long! Best of luck with the reading, there’s a lot of adventure in there. We hope you enjoy!

Ayr

We left off last time at a ferry terminal outside of Belfast. Our ferry-ride from Belfast to Scotland was uneventful, being a nice, calm crossing. We disembarked into a sunny Scottish afternoon, and figured out a way to Ayr - our accomodation for the night. Ayr was a one night stop-over on the mainland before heading to the Isle of Arran.

At this point we were wanting an easy meal for cheap, and went to our first Wetherspoons of the trip. For those uninitiated, Wetherspoons is a chain of bars which span the entirety of the UK and parts of Ireland. Oftentimes they’re found occupying old buildings - breathing new life into old spaces left unused. This one was in a converted church! I like to describe Wetherspoons as the McDonalds of pubs, seating many people and serving both food and drink at incredibly cheap prices. This means they end up attracting all sorts of people, but in general they’re a fine place for a cheap eat and drink. That evening we had burgers and a couple of pints each, totalling just $40NZD! My favourite was the $3NZD pint of Belhaven 80 Shilling.

The following day we hopped on a train up to Ardrossan, to catch a ferry over to Brodick on the Isle of Arran.

Isle of Arran

Arran is an island just off the west coast of Scotland, and is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde. Arran was to be our home for three nights, giving us plenty of time to explore the outdoors and have a bit of time in nature before heading back to the cities.

Our BnB accomodation was lovely, providing a HUGE amount of food each morning, which saved us having to buy lunch. Our first night on Arran had us eating some of the nicest takeaway food we’ve every tried from a food-truck called French Fox, which served us pork belly, mash and some other bits and pieces which goes by some french name I can’t remember - delicious.

Our next day on Arran ended up being rainy, however we braved the wet and got out for a walk anyway. This wander took us to the furthest end of Brodick, where we took a look around the museum before a trip to the Arran cheese factory and the Arran cosmetics shops. The rain died down in the afternoon, allowing us to get outside for a drink at Scotlands ONLY beach bar! Arran Botanical drinks served us some glorious gin-based drinks, accompanied with the most delicious olives we’ve ever tried. Who would have thought, good beach bar in Scotland?

The culinary adventure didn’t stop there. Arran was also the first time we’d tried out haggis, to good reviews, and also a thing called clootie dumpling - similar to a sticky date pudding. We also got a taste for tablet, a Scottish butter-based fudge - delicious.

Our second day on Arran was sunnier, and we took the opportunity to explore a nearby valley, Glen Rosa. Glen Rosa is an ancient glacial valley, now filled by moorland. A track follows the valley up in to the mountains, before doubling back on itself to get back to Brodick. The hike itself was pretty nice, with some beautiful scenery and some interesting wildlife - here we got our first glimpse of wild red deer, and golden eagles soaring high above us.

On the way out of the valley, on a quieter and more narrow path, we came across Baylee’s mortal enemy, the snake! While trudging along, Baylee spotted this little fella on the path, sunning itself on some rocks.

Baylee jumped back in panic, and the snake slid off into the heather. Later on we’d look at the photo I’d snapped and realise this snake happened to be the only venomous one in the UK, an Adder!

The following morning was our last on Arran. We packed our bags and made for the ferry terminal, on our way through to Glasgow.

Glasgow

Our train got in to Glasgow around midday into the beautiful and historic Glasgow Central station. Our accomodation was just around the corner, at a hotel which ended up shaking every time a train went past - not the most comforting of experiences.

After checking in, we set back out for a walk out to the west end of the city. Here we visited Kelvingrove museum, and took a wander around the university grounds, which looked like something out of Harry Potter! We also picked up a tripod from a camera store, allowing us to get better landscape and staged shots of the both of us while in the middle of nowhere.

The next day saw us walking out in the other direction towards the Glasgow cathedral, spotting some well known street murals as we went. We walked through George Square, a large picturesque square in the centre of town, where we realised we’d missed out on tickets to an historic and exclusive Banksy exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art!

The cathedral itself has some incredible history associated with it, founded by St Mungo centuries ago. Behind the cathedral is the famous Glasgow necropolis, a colossal Victorian cemetery full of monuments to the dead. Here we found the author of “Wee Willy Winky”, as well as the Tennent family of brewery fame. We finished our stroll through the east side of the city with a visit to Drygate brewery for a tasting flight.

The next day began early yet again, packing up and hopping on a train to get out to Wishaw, to pick up a vehicle for our next stint of driving around.

The road trip

Day 1 - Glasgow to Aberdeen

Picking up our first ever car hire from Turo, a peer-to-peer car lending app, we hit the road for the first time in Scotland. Driving here wasn’t much different to Ireland, with the main difference being the unit of speed used - miles per hour instead of kilometers. The car we’d picked up drove a bit like a boat, and had a slow leak in the left rear tire, but at half the price of a normal rental it was hard to pass up!

We were quickly up to speed with driving on UK roads, and begun the long stint from Wishaw to Aberdeen. Along the way we made a couple of stops, the first of which being in a town called Stirling.

Stirling is a quaint wee city situated on a bit of an old volcanic rise. Although having a number of tourism draw-cards, namely a cool looking castle and being home to a famous battle or two, our reason for stopping there was a Christmas shop. One idea Baylee had recently is to collect small Christmas decorations from each country we visit. We’d started this off in Ireland with a purchase at Blarney castle, and continued it here in Stirling. After a quick visit to the shop, a purchase of a hairy coo (highland cow) decoration, and lunch at a cafe, we were back on the road. Next stop, Scone Palace!

Scone Palace at present is a lovely looking house and grounds, but the history of the site dates back over a thousand years. Most notably, Scone was the crowning place of the Kings of Scots for over 900 years, with notable kings crowned there including Robert the Bruce, Charles II, and Macbeth (the inspiration for Shakespeare’s tragedy).

Scone was also home to a relic known as the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of destiny. Various legends exist around this stone, but interestingly it no longer resides at Scone. In 1707 it was stolen and taken to England, where it resided in Westminster Abbey in the coronation throne for some 250 years. In the 1950’s it was returned to Scotland, and now resides in Edinburgh castle alongside the Honours of Scotland (Scottish crown jewels). Tradition continues, and the stone is still used in coronations of the monarch of Scotland. In May this year it was used in the coronation of Charles III!

With all that history jammed in our noggins, it was off to Aberdeen to check into our accomodation. We were met by our friendly host, and settled into our apartment for the night.

Day 2 - Exploring Aberdeen city

Of the two full days we had in Aberdeen, we chose to spend the first one on-foot exploring the city. Our first stop was an old fishing village still lived-in called Footdee (pronounced fiddie). Our route to get there took us along the Aberdeen coastline, which had been transformed into various portions of swimming beach!

Footdee was an interesting little place. Cottages were small and tightly packed, although most had beautiful little gardens out front. The village itself was walking-only, which added to the cosy feel of the place.

From Footdee we continued into town, spotting a great looking butchery along the way which we noted down for later. We then made a quick lunch stop before climbing the hill to check out the center of town. Turns out, it’s pretty cool!

The center of town is marked by the Union Terrace Gardens, a beautiful garden full of terraces and green space to hang out in. Right next door was the art gallery, which we took a nosey around to get an understanding for the history, and art history of Aberdeen.

On the way home we stopped off at a place called CASC bar (standing for coffee, ales, scotch and cigars). This place reminded me a lot of my favourite bar in Wellington - Hashigo Zake - given the grungy vibe, great beer selection, and the fact that it’s in a basement. The bar staff lined us up a short exemplary tasting of scotch styles from different regions, which helped us get our nose in before our upcoming whiskey day - but more on that later.

Day 3 - Dunnottar Castle

Our next day was looking a little iffy weather-wise, but we hopped in the car and went for a drive anyway. Our destination was Dunnottar Castle, perhaps one of the most picturesque and well-recognised castles in Scotland. Along with being an incredibly picturesque place, it turns out it’s also a very old site for human settlement. The first building on the site was said to have been founded by St Ninian in the 5th century, over 1500 years ago!

Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honours of Scotland (those ones we learnt about at Scone) were hidden from Oliver Cromwell’s invading army in the 17th century. The Honours were moved from Scone to Dunnottar in a bunch of wool sacks, and kept for just over a year.

The history of the place was very rich, and the visit was well worth it. Although the castle is largely in pieces, a lot is still in-tact, and the history of all the various rooms allowed you to almost picture the building being whole.

Once we were castled-out we headed back to the car for what we were hoping would be a picnic in Stonehaven, which was spoiled immediately by the weather absolutely chucking it down. We sat and ate our wraps and fruit in the car, facing a windswept and very wet stretch of coastline.

Returning to Aberdeen, we made a stop at the butchery for one of the many culinary experiences we’d been looking forward to in Scotland - Aberdeen Angus steak. The butchery was very well stocked, so we grabbed a couple of thick rib-eyes and some dry rub seasoning (which turned out to be 30% MSG) and headed to the supermarket. Alongside some veggies and a bottle of red from Libya of all places, we picked up a pack of butteries. These are another one of the things we’d been looking to try, and can best be described as a Scottish version of a croissant - pretty good!

Day 4 - Aberdeen to Lossiemouth

Our time in Aberdeen was up, so we packed our bags and hit the road. Our next destination was Lossiemouth, a small beach town on a section of the north coast, conveniently very close to the speyside whiskey region. Along the way we had planned to stop at a place called Bullers of Buchan, where supposedly we might have been able to spot puffins! Unfortunately, en-route, we figured out that the puffins had already moved on for the year. Instead of the Bullers stop we pulled in to a place called Slains Castle.

Slains Castle was different to the ruined castles that we’d seen previously, in that it was pretty clear there was no safety measures being taken to stop people from falling off things, down stairs, or generally getting into trouble. Along with being a wee bit dangerous, there was also no information given about it at the site whatsoever. We chose to make up our own minds about what it was there for, and got to exploring some ruins. Luckily we didn’t fall off anything, and managed to get some good pics along the way!

We had quite a way to go, so hit the road yet again, only stopping for fuel on our way up north. Our route took us along the north coast, passing through towns like Cullen (known for Cullen Skink - more on that later) and Portknockie, where we stopped to check out Bow Fiddle Rock. We then had our packed lunch and continued up to Lossiemouth to check into our accomodation.

Lossiemouth is a bit of a beach-y place, which is funny to think of in Northern Scotland. The beach itself was huge, and reminded us of the types of beaches you’d find in the Bay of Plenty except the water is way colder. We ended our big day of travel with a stop at the local gin bar, before hitting a chip shop on the way home for some 6/10 fish and chips.

Day 5 - Whiskey day!

The next day brought the long-awaited (by Jamie) whiskey day! We had a couple of distillery visits planned, with the first being 10am, so had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading down to The Glenlivet.

The Glenlivet is the oldest legal distillery in the region, purportedly granted a license after legislation change driven by a Scottish Nobleman who loved their grog. Speyside in the 1700s was full to the brim with illicit distilling operations, and once The Glenlivet had gained their license many other brands sought out the same.

Our tour of The Glenlivet actually took us through working parts of the distillery, including massive stills that were currently in operation - pretty cool! We ended the tour with a tasting of three of their whiskeys, paired with some biscuits, and all of the distilleries give out takeaway bottles for the sober drivers. The 15y.o was our favourite, which hinted that we prefer a dram of something that’s spent time in sherry casks.

Our next stop after the Glenlivet was Aberlour, both the town and the distillery. We had some time up our sleeves, so stopped for lunch at a cafe just down the road from our next tasting experience. Here I got a toastie, also a staple in Scotland it seems, while Baylee order the Cullen Skink. Unfortunately Cullen Skink isn’t actually a lizard - it’s a chowder-like dish made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onion. It was pretty good, and ticked off another of the culinary experiences we had on our list.

After lunch and a short walk along the River Spey, we popped up the road to our next stop - Aberlour distillery. This distillery is quite a bit smaller than The Glenlivet, and due to ongoing construction work we weren’t actually able to see it at all! We did, however, get a chance to sample their product. As part of the tasting we were able to try out something called new make spirit - whiskey before it touches any wood. We also got to try the same whiskey across three different caskings - american oak (ex-bourbon), european oak (ex-sherry), and a blend (aka marriage) of the two. This locked in our theory that we preferred whiskeys having spent a bit of time in sherry casks, which was pretty neat!

At this stage it was getting on into the afternoon, so we headed back to Lossiemouth to chill out for the remainder of the day.

Day 6 - Lossiemouth to Inverness

Lossiemouth to Inverness was a pretty short drive, but we still managed to see things along the way. Our first stop was Clava cairns, bronze age (3.5 - 6 thousand years ago) circles of stones with bits of art scratched in to some of them. A little underwhelming, but when you stop to consider how long ago someone stacked these stones up it makes it quite a bit cooler.

We still had loads of time to kill after our stop in the cairns before we could check in, so drove straight past Inverness and up to Corrieshalloch Gorge Nature Reserve. The drive was very pretty, and we got out for a bit of a bush walk which included a pretty cool old bridge across the gorge. The bridge itself dates back to Victorian times, designed by Sir John Fowler, better known for being the engineer on the worlds first underground railway - the London underground, where his cut-and-cover railway tunnels are still in use today. Baylee couldn’t bring herself to look down, but the view was fantastic.

Having walked a bit more, we headed back to the car to return to Inverness to settle in for the night.

Day 7 - Dunrobin Castle

Day 7 saw us leave Inverness and head north, to Dunrobin Castle. This castle is known for it’s magical french castle aesthetic, beautiful gardens, and being the seat of the Earl of Sutherland.

Your tickets include entrance to the gardens, entrance to the castle, entrance to a museum, and a falconry display! Being bird nerds, coming here was a no-brainer. The gardens were expansive, and we timed our visit to the neighbouring museum just-right to get a good spot for the falconry display. This display showed how trained hawks and falcons are used for various different styles of hunting - the former more suited for quick rabbit gathering, while the latter is more suited for hunting of game birds, like the Red Grouse.

Inside the castle was also well done, with lots of rooms to see, and lots of history to unpack. The castle itself is far younger, and far less steeped in history than some of the others we’d seen to date, but the fact that it was so well preserved and used so recently stood out compared to others.

Day 8 - Inverness to Fort Augustus

We left our accomodation in Inverness and found a park in town, wanting to explore the river-side and to keep an eye out for highland wool scarfs. As per usual, it rained on us pretty soon after we’d made it to the river, but we did manage to find Baylee a scarf and then set off for Fort Augustus.

Inverness (meaning mouth of the river Ness) sits at the northern most point in the Great Glen, a large valley stretching 100km, underpinned by a fault line. Along this Glen you’ll find lochs (lakes), as well as the Caledonian Canal - a man-made canal connecting the east coast at Inverness to the west coast near Fort William. Our route took us along the length of the Great Glen, with our first stint heading along the eastern edge of Loch Ness, towards a town called Fort Augustus.

The road we’d picked was scenic, and gave us a good look at the Loch along the way, but was also single-track for a good number of kilometers. After a wee bit of fun dodging oncoming cars, we made it onto the main dual-track road into Fort Augustus, where we then tried to decipher our check-in navigation instructions.

Our accomodation in Fort Augustus was a delightful, Swedish cabin in the woods. We managed to get there eventually, and settled in for a cosy four-night stay.

Day 9 - Checking out Loch Ness

Having had a jam packed week and a bit worth of travel, we opted to slow it down for a day and relax. We started day nine with a stroll along a bush walk into town, and checked out pretty much everything there was to see about the town. We sat and watched the locks of the canal operating, took a walk along the shore of Loch Ness, and grabbed a beer overlooking the lake itself. We headed home via the tiny grocery store, and settled in for an afternoon of trip planning and book reading.

Day 10 - Skye

Our chilled out day nine was immediately followed by a big day, our trip out to Isle of Skye.

Skye is known for it’s incredible landscape, however given where we’d based ourselves we didn’t actually have time in the day to see almost any of it! We still managed to fit in a bunch of interesting activities, but definitely were left wanting to see more, which might drive another trip up that way at some point.

Our first stop on Skye was a little place called Kylerhea, home to a hike in which you might be able to catch glimpses of marine mammals, namely seals and otters. The road to and from Kylerhea was absolutely horrendous - single-track, incredibly low visibility, sketchy passing points and more than 10km off the main road! We made it to and from Kylerhea just fine, but you could tell other drivers on the road weren’t very prepared for it. We didn’t see any otters on our walk, but we did get to see some gorgeous views!

Next up was a trip to Torrin Pools, little brother of the much busier and further away Fairy Pools. We stopped for a picnic on the beach, with Scottish Blackface sheep chomping away at the grass around us. The pools themselves were a little underwhelming and we continued along the road until we came to what look like the car park for a hiking trail. We stopped there, did a bit of quick research into what we might be getting ourselves into, then committed to climbing the hill. This turned out to be a great idea, granting us a taste of the scenery we might expect further west.

Returning to our car we made the long drive back to Fort Augustus, stopping at a cool little bottle store along the way for some Skye gin and a bit of tablet.

Day 11 - Loch Ness pt. 2

Our last full day in Fort Augustus was a quieter one after the previous day being so big. The plan for the day was to head up the road to Drumnadrochit, a village on the western shore of Loch Ness. Here we visited the Loch Ness center, which takes you through the formation of the Loch, how the monster rumours arose, and posed all the leading theories in an unbiased way, allowing you to make your own mind up about what really is going on there. Our conclusion - probably just a big old eel or a bit of driftwood.

Following our Loch Ness center visit, we headed up the road to some tea rooms for some lunch. Here we not only had some delicious toasties and tea, but we finally got to meet some Highland Cattle! The tea rooms sell feed pellets for a small fee, allowing visitors to feed some of their resident cattle by hand. Well worth the cost of the pellets, even if our hands got covered in cow goobies!

Day 12 - Fort Augustus to Dalmally

We packed up the night before leaving Fort Augustus, as we had a train to “catch”. At 10:45am-ish the Jacobite Express would cross the Glenfinnan Viaduct (aka the Hogwarts Express was going to cross that iconic viaduct), and we were going to watch it.

The drive was just over an hour, getting us there 45 minutes early to make the trek up the hill to a good viewing point. We made it on time, weaved through the hundreds of others wanting to get a good look, and got set up. It didn’t disappoint!

After a couple of train pics, we hit the road again for a lunch stop in Fort William. This wee town is actually a bit of a tourist hotspot, as it happens to be at the base of Ben Nevis - the tallest mountain in the UK. We’d wanted to climb this mountain, as it’s far more easily scalable than any of New Zealand’s ones, but our footwear wasn’t very appropriate for the loose rock so deferred until a time when we have proper hiking boots. After a bit of a lunch and a look around, we were back on the road towards our next stop - a little cabin on a farm in Dalmally.

This section of the drive took quite a while, but it was absolutely stunning. On the way through we passed through Glencoe, an area well known for the mountain ranges surrounding it. The rain started having a go part way through, but we got a stop and some photos in anyway!

Our cabin in Dalmally was on a farm, and getting there required us shooing off a herd of cattle! The place itself was tiny, but the outdoor space included a pergola with an outdoor wood burner - perfect for dinner, and watching the sunset.

Day 13 - Exploring Oban

Our first full day in the area saw us heading west to Oban, a port/resort town. Although a beautiful town, the main draw-card was the fresh seafood! Walking around and checking out all the different food stalls was a good idea and we ended up at a food truck which exclusively sold langoustines and scallops, with a side of bread.

These were absolutely delicious, and great value for money. Far bigger and sweeter than any scallops I’ve ever had in New Zealand, and the langoustines had some good reviews too! After lunch we walked around a little longer, checking out a few shops for some travel pants. We ended up not finding anything, gave the Oban Distillery a miss, and headed off back to our accomodation for a quiet afternoon chilling out in the peace of the place.

Our peace was briefly disturbed by an inquisitive red squirrel, which ran all the way over from a tree to our pergola before turning back immediately. We had dinner outside again but headed in earlier - not wanting to use all our firewood just yet.

Day 14 - Getting out to Glencoe

After breakfast of our last full day with a car, we had plans to head back to Glencoe and do a walk in the mountains. Unfortunately, every car park anywhere near the trailhead was absolutely packed, with most cars being boxed in by tour buses. Not wanting to contend with that madness, we kept going and headed into Glencoe itself. We managed to find a less busy walk, and headed into the hills around the town for a wander around a small lake. The walk was no where near as strenuous as we’d prepared for, but still proved to be pretty.

After the walk we popped by a supermarket for some steak for dinner, and some all-important dessert ingredients - bikkies, chocolate and marshmallows for smores.

The steak proved to be a bit of a nightmare to cook, but despite the cool-burning wood and the underpowered electric hob we had at our disposal, we managed to not butcher it. The smores were also top-notch, and we ate a few while watching bats from a neighbouring patch of oak trees take to the skies in search of dinner/breakfast?. All in all, a great last night in the countryside of Scotland.

Day 15 - Dalmally to Glasgow, then to Edinburgh

It was finally time to drop the car off, so we hit the road just before 8am to get to Wishaw before 10am. The drive was pretty quiet for the most part, which gave us plenty of opportunity to take in the views of Loch Lomond and the surrounding national park. The traffic really picked up around Glasgow, but we made it through with ten minutes to spare. After dropping Baylee and the bags off at the train station I dropped the car off, and hurried back to take the next train back to Glasgow.

We spent a couple of hours in Glasgow before our train to Edinburgh later that afternoon. The time we had was filled up mostly with a look around the Gallery of Modern Art (i.e GOMA), as well as a brewery visit for lunch. A couple beers and pizza later, and we were on our way through to Edinburgh.

Stepping out of the Edinburgh Waverly station and into the hustle and bustle of the city was a bit of a shock at first. So many people to weave through, and very little in the way of people walking on the correct side of the footpath. We found our way down to our accomodation eventually, and got settled. Given the long day, we opted to pop out to a wine bar around the corner for a light bite to eat before calling it.

Edinburgh

We had four nights in Edinburgh, which we’d hoped would be enough to see most of it. The plan was to cram in a lot of the big touristy things while trying to not blow out the budget too much - turns out £20 per person per entry to things was actually pretty pricey.

Our first day started with breakfast at our BnB, which was absolutely divine. The service started with what probably ended up being our new winter breakfast of choice - porridge with cream, honey, and whiskey! Such a tasty combination, which we’ll definitely be making at some point.

After breakfast came a bunch of walking, starting with a wander up the hill to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh castle is another important stronghold in the Kingdom of Scotland, with the castle grounds themselves dating back well over one thousand years, and human occupation on the site dating back some two to three millennia. The castle and grounds were absolutely crammed with people, but for good reason - it was a pretty great visit. After following the history of the Honours of Scotland through Scone and over to Dunnottar, we finally got to see them in person alongside the Stone of Scone.

Most of the exhibitions at the castle were military-related, due to the history of the site being used as barracks & military prisons during the first and second world wars. We’d seen all we’d wanted to see just in time for the One O’clock Gun firing - signalling to the whole city that it was indeed 1pm. It was bloody loud, and I’m not sure why people don’t just set alarms at this day in age.

Following our look around the castle, we headed down to Victoria Street to continue the Harry Potter tour. Fun fact, this street was inspiration for Diagon Alley! Along this street we visited one of the several Harry Potter shops in the area, which itself was used as inspiration for Olivanders - the wand shop.

Edinburgh castle is no longer a working royal palace, so for that we took a trip to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This palace is still frequented by the royal family for various occasions, notably being a place where Queen Elizabeth II lay in state last year. Alongside recent history, a bunch of older royal history is on display here, including details of and items from the lives of old monarchs including Charles I and Mary, Queen of Scots. The castle and grounds were immaculately kept on the off chance the current king wants to pop up for a weekend, and the opulence of it all was very cool to see.

Some of our cheaper Edinburgh activities included a visit to the Botanical Gardens, followed by a walk out to Dean Village. We also met up with an old friend for a night at the pub, watching the All Blacks vs France match live on telly! The place was absolutely full of kiwis, and ended up being standing room only. We stayed to watch the match through after it started going downhill, but a lot of people left early, probably deflated from the poor performance of our NZ squad.

Along with seeing a bunch of things, we also made a few cool culinary finds, including a brewery in town, and a street food market! The street food place was really cool - you order from your table using your phone, and food and drinks magically appear at your table thanks to runners. The place had a great atmosphere, and even a live DJ.

On our second to last night in Edinburgh, we learnt some unfortunate news - a large earthquake had hit Marrakech and the region surrounding pretty hard, causing quite a large amount of destruction. This quake struck on the night of the 8th, and we were due to be landing in Marrakech on the morning of the 11th. After a bit of stress and some unsuccessful googling of places affected, we got in touch with our travel agent who’d helped us book the tour we were planning on heading too. As well as this, we tried to get in contact with the accomodation we were set to stay with in Marrakech prior to the tour to see if they’re alright, and still open for business.

Long story short, we headed to London anyway where we were due to catch an early flight to Morocco. The tour was planning to go ahead with minor itinerary changes, but our accomodation hadn’t responded. Not wanting to take our chances sleeping on the streets of Marrakech, we cancelled our flights, accomodation and refunded our tour at the last minute. Thankfully insurance paid out to cover losses, and we were able to keep all our GAdventures tour credit to use another time, but we were then left with the conundrum of what to do instead.

Not Morocco

We got to our accomodation for the night in an in-terminal hotel in Gatwick, which would have been ideal for our 7am departure. Instead of checking in our bags, we hurriedly looked for a place to stay in the UK the following night. We snagged a place for two nights in Brighton, just down the road on the english south coast, which we’d use for planning our next move. We also lodged our insurance claim, which was approved and paid out in under 15 minutes!

Brighton wasn’t a massively inspiring place, contrary to what I’d heard before. The seaside appeal wore off pretty quickly, as soon as we’d realised just how big a city it actually was. We still got out to see the sights (i.e the famous pier), but spent most of our time in our accomodation plotting.

After a lot of research and weighing up options, we’d settle on a new plan. Our accomodation and route post-tour was already almost entirely booked in through the north of Morocco, Spain and Portugal, and we were aiming to keep as much of it as we could. Instead of heading from Marrakech to Casablanca, then along to Rabat, we were instead going to head to Fes, then Meknes, then pick up where and when we’d planned in Rabat. The plan came to fruition pretty quickly, as we managed to find some cheap flights and some great deals on accomodation. The only thing left was finding a way to spend our remaining time in the UK, before flying out to Fes in five days time.

Our next move was back towards London, for three nights in an AirBnB in Kew, just across the Thames from the Kew Gardens. This ended up being a pretty affordable option, and gave us a chance to explore the gardens themselves! They were incredible, with so much to see. We spent five hours there over the course of an afternoon, and could easily have spent another five more.

A friend of ours from Wellington (Scott) lives in London, and due to a friend pulling out he had one spare ticket to the England vs Black Caps ODI at Lords - the home of cricket. Baylee - absolutely hating cricket - opted to not go, so I found a train, picked up a bottle of prosecco along the way, and made it to Lords for a solid eight hours of cricket and banter. NZ lost, but we caught the All Blacks vs Namibia game afterwards which lifted the spirits!

On our way out to Stansted for our next day flight out of the UK we stopped in central London to hang out with Scott for the afternoon. As it turns out, we’d timed it perfectly to make it to the Bermondsey Street Festival - a bunch of stalls selling food, drink, and everything else artisan set up on a few of the main streets. This was a pretty cool experience, topped off with a visit to the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Once we’d had our fill, we hopped on a train and headed out to the airport, to await our early morning flight.

That’s all for now

Scotland was an absolute blast, with so much natural and cultural history to see, as well as meeting a few friends along the way. We didn’t quite see everything it had to offer, and look forward to hopefully getting a chance to head up again over winter. A spanner was thrown into the works right at the end of it, but we managed to handle things well enough. After all, the last of this blog was written from a terrace in Fes!

We hope you enjoyed this novel of a blog post. The next one should be shorter, detailing our shorter-than-expected time in Morocco.

Talk soon,
Jamie & Baylee