The summation of the day is don't always believe Google.
Our first job today was to get ready for handing back the motorhome. After a quick breakfast, including apple with chocolate Mini Milk ice lollies for Paloma, we finished off the packing and set off on one final trip into Inverness to top up the diesel and drop off the bags at the left luggage facility at the train station. At the start of the trip finding somewhere to park in the station carpark to pick up the bags was quite daunting, but after 774 miles of driving around the Scottish coast, I approached today with a lot more confidence. Unfortunately there were no spaces near the station entrance, so Forrest and myself had to make a few long trips with the bags, whilst Amber continued the final bits of cleaning on the van. I'm sure everyone is the same in that despite knowing that the van will get a good clean before the next rental by the hire company, you feel the need to do it yourself too first.
With the RMT strike yesterday there continued to be some disruption to trains this morning, so we decided that we would aim for the 1248 departure for the short trip to Aviemore, our base for the next few days. This gave us time to leisurely walk from Torvean Caravan Park back into central Inverness, with the plan to stop off at a couple of places on the way. First up was the Botanic Gardens, very close to Torvean. The site wasn't massive, but had a number of areas focused on different plants and surroundings. The kids enjoyed watching the fish in the Tropical House and the disappearing act of the Julers in a garden mirror, I liked looking at the cactus, and Amber is always on the lookout for ideas with our new house needing a lot of work in the garden. With free entry, it was certainly worth the hour that we spent.
Next up was supposed to be a second attempt at taking a trip on the Ness Island Miniature Railway, you'll recall that it was too wet on the Saturday when we arrived for the trains to be running. I had seen that since Scottish schools had now gone back after the holidays the railway was only open at weekends, but that was fine since today was a Saturday... oh, it's only Friday! Fortunately I'd asked Amber to see if there were any updates on whether it was running on Facebook a little earlier, so that saved a walk slightly in the wrong direction and we headed straight for central Inverness via the riverside path from the Botanic Gardens. This took up past 'Cash Cow', one of the Heilan Coos that was missing when we did the trail, so it was good to see that one in the fibreglass flesh.
Once back at the station there was time for lunch in Costa before collecting our bags and heading to our train. The station had seemed rather quiet when we arrived around noon, but the train was already quite busy and was full by the time it left with many people appearing to be heading a lot further south to Edinburgh, Glasgow or beyond. Once out of the Inverness suburbs it's a scenic route as the line winds towards the Cairngorms and it was soon time to get off in Aviemore.
The hotels right in the centre of town were stupidly expensive when we booked up this part of the trip back in early March, as was the Premier Inn directly opposite us at around £200 per night, but a much more affordable option was the High Range Lodge, a family run motel, lodge, camping and caravan park just 10 minutes walk according to Google from the station. What our good friend Google (more on him shortly) didn't account for was the uphill gradient and the need to pull all of our luggage! Despite being over two hours early to check-in our room was ready so at least we could crash and have a much needed rest.
We then went out for a little explore of Aviemore and the local area by starting a walking spy mission treasure trail. We have done a number of these before and they're great with the kids as they disguise a walk as something more exciting. When clue number 13 out of 19 brought us basically back to our hotel we decided that for today that was enough, and we'll continue the final few clues over the weekend. With the Norwich match on Sky and decent free wifi we were able to watch the game on the tablet whilst the kids made the most of having a little more space than on the motorhome.
Finally for tonight, lets talk some more about Google. One of the reasons for the stop off in Aviemore is to visit Landmark Adventure Park that's located about 8 miles north of here in Carrbridge. Without the motorhome we're now reliant on public transport and up until recently Google confidently told us that we could catch the number 39 bus with the journey taking about 20 minutes. Last night the number 39 bus had gone, it just didn't exist anymore with no mention on Google directions, or indeed the Stagecoach timetable website. With the RMT strike back on tomorrow we still hadn't decided on how best to get to Carrbridge when we happened to see a number 39 drive past us as per the old timetable, so tomorrow morning we will turn up at the bus stop with our fingers crossed that on this occasion Google and the internet isn't the oracle that it normally is!
Blogged by Matt.
