DAY 90 SATURDAY JUNE 23

We caught the train from Dundee to Edinburgh, with first class crowded for once.  Walked all the way to Leith (4km) to the Premier Inn, the decided to go to the former royal yacht Brittania in the afternoon as it was a kilometre or so away.  We took the audio tour and found it extremely interesting, because we naturally compared it with our own experience on the Manet, and because it gave a very intimate picture of the way the royals live.  Probably the nearest thing to a tour of Buckingham Palace.  Alin, the engineer on the Manet which ran everything below decks with 8 men, would probably weep to see the spotless chrome and gold fittings in the engine room, which always had 8 there at a time and drew on 80 engineers on board.  We saw royal bedrooms, sitting rooms, dining rooms, everything. The 1960s Rolls was still in the glass garage. But the barge was alongside rather than on board because it was used in London for the Jubilee.

THE BRIDGE, NOW QUAINTLY PRIMITIVE

COMPARE OFFICERS MESS AND ROYAL DINING ROOM
GOOD FOR A NURTURE GROUP PARTY

LOUNGE COMPLETE WITH BABY GRAND PIANO

OFFICERS PLAYED A GAME OF CATCH THE WOMBAT WHEN IT HIT THE FAN

CREW BUNKS REPLACED ORIGINAL HAMMOCKS

ENGINE ROOM

DAY 89 FRIDAY JUNE 22 INVERNESS

Today's forecast was wet and windy so we decided to spend the day on the trains.  We found a 7.15 bus to Dundee and hopped on a train to Perth which we had not visited yet.

PERTH STATION

  There were no trains heading north to Inverness for a while, so we took a train up to Aberdeen, coming back past Dundee.  The fog and rain meant we did not see a lot on this trip,  but we got to Aberdeen at 10.15pm and found a train on the opposite platform ready to leave for Inverness.  It was scheduled to leave at 10.14 so we just made it on board and decided Aberdeen would be postponed. We wandered around Inverness for two and a half hours and found it to be quite a lively city despite its isolation up north.  At 2.48 we got on the first class compartment of the inland train to Perth and had a memorable trip along the edge of the Cairngorm National Park, with amazing mountains and fast flowing burns and little villages.  We were looking at the northern side of the mountains that Dave took us into yesterday.

THE MOUNTAINS AND THE BURN

THE DARK PATCHES ON THE MOUNTAIN ARE HEATHER WHICH WILL SOON BE ALL PURPLE

 We caught the 4.52 train from Perth back to Dundee and found a bus to Montifieth with help from locals.

CUTE STATUE NEXT TO OUR DUNDEE BUS STOP

WHITEHALL STREET IN THE MIDDLE OF DUNDEE

Overall we had a great day and the weather did not trouble us after Aberdeen.

DAY 88 THURSDAY JUNE 21 CORRIE FEE

Bad weather predicted for this afternoon so we got up at 5am and were driven by Dave Reid to Glen Doll for the bushwalk we had been looking forward to for the last 6 months.  We started by walking along a vehicle track through a plantation forest of pine trees next to the South Esk river.

After an hour of walking we emerged to an amphitheatre with a beautiful waterfall at the other end.  This was Corrie Fee and it was as beautiful as any scene we had ever encountered.

There were mountains on either side of us:

The corrie was the result of a glacier pushing through the valley and there were large rocks lying around left by the ice.  We felt very small in comparison with the valley and very ephemeral compared to the time it had taken to carve out this masterpiece.  We followed the track next to the "burn" up the hill till we came to the main waterfall where we had our brunch.

On the way back it started to rain as predicted but we did not get very wet. Dave found a frog in the grass and we saw many black slugs:

Back at the Visitors Center we were entertained by a pair of chaffinches:

We drove back via Arbroath where we went to the Lighthouse Museum where the story of the building of the Belltower lighthouse in about 1800 by Robert Stevenson was presented.  It is 12 miles off the local coast.  It was featured in a TV Series a few years ago.  Said goodbye to Dave till we see him in Oz.

DAY 87 WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 SCOTLAND

Another transition day. We moved out of Cardiff and caught a train at 8.05am to Crewe on a crowded commuter train. Then we took the Virgin train first class to Edinburgh Haymarket.  From there we got the East Coast London to Aberdeen express first class to Dundee where we were met by Dave and Helen Reid at 3.50pm.  Again a big distance covered but quite comfortably with free drinks and food in first class.  They drove us in the rental car they had just picked up to Dundas Law (which Ida later told us meant "hill").  We had a great view of the city and the bridges over the firth of Tay. Dave told us that Mike Chitty of Killcare had been involved in the 1960s on the construction of the road bridge.  They dropped us off at the Premier Inn and Dave returned an hour later to take us to Ida's place for dinner.  Ida and Helen had prepared a real feast for us and we had a lovely night with them.

VIEWS FROM DUNDEE LAW

ARRIVING AT IDA'S APARTMENT BLOCK

INTO HER SECOND STORY APARTMENT 

DAVE RECEIVING WELSH WHISKEY SAMPLES

PHOTO TAKEN BY HELEN AFTER DINNER

DAY 86 TUESDAY JUNE 19 OLD SOUTH WALES

What a great day we had today.  Because of the shocking weather we had on Saturday, Roam Wales decide to allow us to have our tour of South wales all to ourselves with Chris once again as our guide.  He picked us up at our hotel at 9.30am in a Fiat taxi that they use for tours and drove us to Swansea. First we went through the Dylan Thomas Museum which demonstrated the high esteem he was held in in his home town (like James Joyce in Dublin).  Lyn paid her respects to his statue.

We explored the waterfront with Chris then he let us wander around the new National Waterfront Museum. There happened to be a display of works by students of Design which included these two:

ELECTRIC BIKETHAT CAN ALSO BE PEDALLED

SUZUKI VAN THAT CAN TAKE TWO MOTORBIKES

While we were there a group of young children was being entertained by a pirate who spoke in Welsh.

We drove further along the coast to the town of Mumbles (formerly Oystermouth) where we had fish and chips and peas in a Cafe at the back of "Treasures", a shop recommended by Chris that sold mostly Welsh products.  Then we walked up the hill to the Oystermouth Castle.  Since there are several hundred castles in Wales we thought we could manage one more on our last day here.

It only cost 3 ponds for the two of us to get in so we spent half an hour exploring, learning its history since the twelfth century and enjoying the views of the bay.

We drove to the next beach (Carswell Bay?) which was a summer playground for the rich complete with the traditional sheds which Sydney people can see no use for.

After enjoying these quite beautiful coastal spots we were warned by Chris that the best was yet to come.  He drove us around more impossibly narrow streets stopping to let cars, trucks and buses pass us at little niches, until we suddenly found ourselves at the start of a headland at Rhosilli.

THE JEWEL IN THE SOUTH WALES CROWN

We walked out onto the Headland with Chris and watched a paraglider and a hangglider making the most of the sunny day on the hills overlooking the beach.

The tide was coming in and we watched it gradually cutting off Worm Headland to make it an island. The tides can be 52 feet here, second only to Newfoundland for extremes.

On the way home we passed Burry Inlet and Crofty and saw more of the beautiful coastline. It took an hour to drive home on the M4.  Chris was a great guide and he was just as thrilled as we were that the weather turned out to be perfect for the trip. We owe Roam Wales a big thank you for looking after us so well.

DAY 85 MONDAY JUNE 18 PENZANCE

We used our Britrail passes to the max today, sitting in seven different trains and travelling from 7am till 10pm.  The weather was fine and cool again and we spent a lot of time looking out of the window at the Welsh/English/Cornish countryside from first class seats.

BEST WAY TO TRAVEL ON LAND

We have found it quite easy to plan a trip.  It can be done on the internet, but if we go to the ticket office at any station and tell them times and places they print out a complete set of instructions and if we plan ahead we can get reservation tickets as well.  On the way to Penzance we change at Bristol and Newton Abbot.  On the way back we changed at Taunton and Bristol.  The trains crossed some very high viaducts and went through a long tunnel under the mouth of the Severn River.  Watching the houses, all the same and row upon row, that song about "little boxes" came to mind.  Penzance was a lovely little seaside town and we agreed it was worth the effort to get there for a day, but the man in the Information Office seemed insulted that we were only going to spend three hours there. We strolled along the waterfront, up the main shopping street, through two lovely gardens and had a Cornish Pasty for lunch in the cheapest cafe we could find.  We looked at a lot of pubs with expensive menus including ones that boasted history back to Nelson and Drake.

As we walked along the waterfront we saw this vessel passing through the harbour entrance presumably on its wat to the Isles of Scilly.

There did not seem to be much of a pirate theme associated with the town but we did notice this ship/shop.

LOOK AT THE SIGN ON THE MAST

A major feature of the town was a church on an island in the bay called St Michael's Mount which is probably very well known but was new to us.

THIS IS AS CLOSE AS WE GOT IN THE SHORT TIME WE HAD