July 2015
It’s always been a dream of mine to take a road trip somewhere in the UK. Just us, a car and the open road. Stopping at dusk to pitch a tent at the base of a mountain, with no specific destination but to follow the lines of the map. Actually, when the idea to move abroad first began to sprout in my mind I initially wanted to live in a van for the whole year! I planned for us to buy a van on arrival in the UK and explore this side of the world on four wheels. Well… when I worked through the logistics of that plan I started to see the cracks and impossibilities. A reliable van would costs thousands… and even then is it really reliable? As the owner of a beautifully beat-up Kombi van that’s broken down numerous times and has spent the better part of four years sitting broken in my fathers shed… I know what it’s like to break down in the middle of no where. Petrol is super expensive in the UK, and we’d need a heck of a lot of it.. not to mention would we kill each other living in the small proximity in a van for 12 months? And could I really drive on the opposite side of the road in Europe? I guess these thoughts are those of a rational adult, and this dream was first seeded by a wistful sixteen year old.
But I wasn’t ready to let this dream go.
I couldn’t have hired this car on my own, even with our saved money. It was just such a frivolous adventure to be taking during a year long trip. With petrol, care hire costs, camping equipment it would have completely destroyed our budget.
I don’t really know how to find the words to describe how incredible thankful I am to my Grandmother. I see so much of her in myself, my obsession with collecting rocks and gemstones, my love of the arts, my feisty spirit. I have her to thank for my existence, and for being a strong and powerful woman raising five girls and so many grandchildren. I feel spoilt that we had such a strong bond, and I know she spoilt me terribly. I will never let her memory fade, I will tell the stories she told me of her youth, I will always cherish her gemstone collection, I will sing the songs she would always spontaneously burst out singing. I miss her so much, and I knew she would have wanted me to use the money she left me for something wonderful. An avid traveller and road tripper, I knew she would want me to use this money to see more of the world. And she would have loved the idea of a spontaneous, unplugged road trip throughout the UK.
When I began to research car hire companies I quickly discovered that hiring a car under 25 is not only nearly impossible, but extremely expensive (sixt quoted me 30 pounds extra per day just because we were under 25 years old, bringing the per day total to 80 pounds!). After many nights of research I stumbled across Indigo Car Hire, and one email later I had a lovely sales rep helping me to book an affordable car with Arnold and Clark. Indigo Car Hire was our saviour! They help pair us up with a company that would actually allow under 25 year olds to hire a car. Sadly I couldn’t actually drive it as I was only 22, and Martin being 24 had to be the only one behind the wheel. We booked in to pick it up in Glasgow on the 1st of July for six days. The next chapter in our story was ready to unfold.
Every great road trip story begins with disaster. Ours is no exception.
We could have booked the train from Oban to Glasgow, but fortunately our crazy Irish friend Brian was driving down to Glasgow the very same day and was taking Deborah to her bus departing that night for London. It felt like fate, road-triping with two of our closest friends to end our time in Oban. We were booked in to pick up our rental car at 4pm that day, so we checked in with Brian a few days earlier to see if we could get going by mid-day (the drive to Glasgow is about 2.5 hours). Brian is one of those wonderfully eccentric people who sort of has no plan and goes with the flow and we love him for it. I asked Deborah if his car was small and she said no. A relief because we had two big backpacks plus my camera gear, and Deborah had a huge backpack too.
Well the day came, we said our sad goodbyes on Backpackers Plus doorstep and made our way around to the carpark to load the car. Um, turns out Brian has a very cute but tiny car…. that while we were approaching he laughingly informed us he paid a couple of hundred pounds for… He also apologised for being late having just picked up said car from the mechanics.. I know dodgy car when I see one, my Dad is an expert on dodgy cars, breaking down and getting bogged which by association makes me an expert on these three things, but I crossed my fingers and jammed our stuff in between Deborah and I in the backseat. Before we got on the road we stopped by Brian’s house to load up more of his stuff, wait for him to cook all of the perishables in his fridge and have an impromptu lunch with Guinness on the steps outside his house. We hit the road at 1pm.
Half an hour into our journey from Oban, windows rolled down and wind through my hair I just couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It felt fantastic. I was so excited to pick up the car, for endless freedom, to be chatting and laughing with my friends.
And then we broke down.
It was sudden. One minute flying along, next minute approaching the hill and the car refusing to accelerate. We rolled for awhile and eventually pulled over to the side of the road. This could not be happening. We had to make it to the car hire place before they closed at 7pm or we’d lose a whole night and day of our road trip. Even worse for Deborah, she had a bus at 10pm and a flight to catch. We all hopelessly looked at the engine and Brian called the mechanic. One hour wait. So we walked to the nearest hotel to grab a drink. Which turned out to be a very spooky, deserted hotel run by a man called Norman who had a creepy resemblance to Pshycho’s Norman Bates… Not a soul was in the hotel. We ordered drinks and drank them in the soft rain overlooking the lake while considering our options. We were too stranded to find a bus or train, and they only run sporadically anyway. If there was no hope of getting the car started again, we only had one option. Hitchhike.
I’ve never hitchhiked before but I’ve always wanted to. I never expected my first time to be out of desperation. The car was dead, and the mechanic said he would either tow it back to Oban or on to Glasgow. There was only enough room for two people to go in the truck. Brian decided he would travel back to Oban with the mechanic, grab his motorcycle and ride on to Glasgow that way. We waved goodbye. That left Deborah, Martin and I with our one and only remaining option. Attempt to hitchhike. I looked at my phone, 3:30pm, we had three and a half hours. We were never going to make it. I sat down on the side of the highway, ripped a page out of my notebook, scribbled “GLASGOW” as best I could in bold lettering with a fine tip pen, and stood on the side of the road with my thumb out. Deserted. For what would have been minutes but felt like hours, not a single car drove by. And then suddenly, the very first car to round the bend pulled over and wound his window down. He told us he could only take us an hour up the road, but he would drop us at an intersection where everyone would be travelling on to Glasgow. We threw our bags into the tray of his Ute and jumped in.
True to his word, one hour later we were deposited at a huge round-a-bout connecting other highways with the one to Glasgow. We thanked him and after a brief and awkward toilet stop in the bushes, made our way up the road again with our thumb out holding our sign. Car after car rushed passed us with sheepish looks on their faces but no one slowed. After twenty minutes we had to accept that the odds of finding someone with room for three travellers and three equally huge backpacks was pretty slim… we had to split up. We insisted Deborah had to take the first ride, she was the one with a bus and plane trip hanging in the balance. A few moments later with Deborah standing solo she was picked up by a sweet family and we waved our goodbyes. Time check: 5:00pm. I started to accept the fact we weren’t going to make it. Where would we sleep that night? Is the bus station open 24 hours? We had two hours left until Arnold and Clark would be closed, and a one hour journey remaining. I told Martin I would stand with the sign, and I stuck my thumb out dejectedly. A small car stopped, man rolled down his window, and with a thick scottish accented asked us if we would like a lift but hoped we didn’t mind a smoker. At this point neither of us cared who was driving just as long as we were back on the road. As we set off again I quickly realised we had just been picked up by the craziest old man in Scotland.
Cutting an already very long story as short as I can…. we made it. Unbelievably we actually made it. All thanks to the crazy Scottish man who was incredibly kind and offered to drive us directly to the door of Arnold and Clark. We did have some very odd conversations on the hour long drive, Martin does admit that of all his hitchhiking experiences this man was the weirdest of all. But we really have him to thank for helping us that day, and he even waited outside the rental office to make sure everything was okay. I had to pinch myself to see if this was real life, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my exhausted-from-stress face.
Even now that we had the car, our troubles weren’t exactly over… We had no camping equipment. I had researched one of the biggest Tesco’s on our way out of Glasgow and punched the address in my phone. I knew we could get everything we needed at Tesco because the one in Oban was completely stocked with all kind of camping equipment. We arrived at 7:30pm and practically ran into the store from excitement. We needed a tent, mattress, sleeping bags, torch, hammer, water and food supplies. But of course, Tesco had nothing. Zero. Not even an outdoors section. We asked at the desk and the man was really unhelpful. He couldn’t even tell us if any Tesco’s in town carried camping gear. Tears. I couldn’t help it. I guess we could sleep in the car in all of our clothes until morning. Magically the unhelpful checkout assistant gave us one final option, there was an ASDA up the road a bit which might have something we need. Well they didn’t have something… they had everything! The best selection of camping gear you could imagine and so cheap. We bought everything and more, and peanut butter for good measure.
We officially hit the road at 9pm, the sky was beginning to darken and poor martin was utterly exhausted. We were never going to make it to Glencoe before nightfall so we decided to look for any spot that would suit us wild camping for the night. At 10:00pm the moon was on the rise, the sky gloomy and dark and we found a small dirt road off the highway, a tuft of grass perched between mountains. We pitched the tent as fast as we could while getting eaten by midges and I think we were both asleep before our heads hit our makeshift pillows.
We awoke to early moo’s and the most spectacular view. We did it. My horrible morning breath, stiff limps and cold nose reminded me of the not so glamorous aspects of camping but I was just so happy we made it. Peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and we hit the road again, this time we were going to Glencoe.
Glencoe is breathtaking. We stopped by the information centre for hot drinks, free wifi (we had to check the Aussie Football scores and let our parents know we were alive of course 😉 ) and then took a drive around the Glen. We stopped by the location of Hagrid’s hut (yes I had partially planned some of our stops to co-incide with my Harry Potter obsession…) and parked the car to take a hike through the forest. After hours of exploring it was barely lunchtime so we decided to hit the road again in search of a new adventure.
Which lead us to Fort William. We love wild camping but we both needed a shower.. so we decided why not wild camp every second night and the nights in-between get an unpowered site at a caravan park. Showers, laundry-mat and staying near a town meant we felt human again and bought hot curry’s for dinner from the local pub.
Day three and we were on our way to Isle of Skye but not before stopping at another famous Harry Potter location. The stone bridge where the Hogwarts express travels over to Hogwarts at Glenfinnan Viaduct. I’m totally not embarrassed to admit that I teared up when unexpectedly the steam train happened to pass while we were admiring the bridge!
There is so much to see on Isle of Sky that we decided to spent two days and nights exploring the island. We wild camped here on the edge of a mountain over looking the ocean, ate cold salads and tinned spaghetti from the supermarket and spent rainy days driving around the whole island stopping at waterfalls, rivers, pubs, lookouts and to say hello to countless cows and sheep. It is most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Theres no denying it. Moments were incredible, moments were hard when we were wet, cold, midge-bitten and tired but looking back it was one of the best experiences of our trip.
Day 5, Lochness. We can’t do a road trip through Scotland without trying to see the Lochness monster. There’s not a whole lot to see at the loch. We had a tasty hot breakfast at this cafe where they served veggie sausages and I was in heaven! And we stopped to pick up a hitch-hiker to pay back our good karma to the hitch-hiker gods. He was a young guy from Germany with no destination. We took him with us to Fort William and parted ways in the city centre after sharing an hour of stories from our travels.
Our final two nights were spent back at our beloved Fort William caravan park with hot showers and equally as hot dinners in town. We wanted to be able to leave the tent up for a few nights, and spent the day exploring more of the local area. We hiked to a magnificent water fall, I collected stones from the stream while Martin tried his luck on the chain bridge.
Our final morning we packed all of our gear up neatly and placed it next to the communal shower blocks with a sign that read “For FREE!”. I had a horrible tick bite scare in the morning so we took a teary me to the chemist just to make sure it was all okay (yes I’m a big baby..) and we hit the road by 10am to drop the car back in Glasgow.
I don’t think theres any better way of exploring Scotland. You just have to hit the road and go. As much as at times I was dirty, smelly, cold, sore and frustrated, other times I felt extremely liberated to go anywhere I want in the whole country. You can drive from one side to another in hours and pass through mountains, waterfalls, flowering fields and magnificent lochs. Nothing could prepare me for that kind of beauty. And to be able to camp freely anywhere that is a safe distance from the road brought us unimaginable freedom. Finally, let me leave you with some helpful tips incase you ever decide to get a car, buy a map and just go.
1) Bring A LOT of bug repellent. Bathe in it. Never leave the car without it. Scotland is overrun with midges which are these terrifying teeny tiny black flies that swarm in clouds and give you tiny itchy bites. They are worse in the evening at dusk, generally right when you’re trying to set up your wild camp site. Cover your mouth and hope for the best 😉 They are drawn by carbon dioxide so try and set the tent up quickly and walk away for awhile before getting in!
2) Don’t rely on internet, we had none. Either load an offline map or buy a paper one and when you can stop by Mcdonalds and steal their internet!
3) Wild camping is legal and free! As an Australian I was really nervous about the idea of wild camping as it is illegal in Australia. So I read up on it and found out with a tent you can wild camp almost anywhere in Scotland but not close to a road and being mindful of peoples property. Well in reality you can literally camp anywhere. There were caravans camped in truck pull in’s, tents on almost every mountain. There appeared to be no rules!
4) Be prepared to eat cold foods. We didn’t bring anything to cook with and it was just generally easier. We grabbed lunches in towns or cold dinners from supermarkets.
5) Treat yourself to a caravan park. They’re really not that expensive and they can take the stress out of trying to find a new wild spot every night when sometimes it’s actually pretty busy out there! You don’t want to wild camp too close to someone and cramp their style.
6) Baby wipes, a knife, toilet paper, water, peanut butter and bread, car phone charger, torch, beanie (Don’t forget these things!).
7) Watch out for ticks, check each other before bed each night and don’t panic like I did and rip it out. Every chemist and most pubs have a tick card you can use to remove it safely. Ticks carry Lyme disease in Scotland.
7) Be prepared for your perfect plan to fail, just go with it and enjoy the adventure!
