Our final two days were spent at the Caravan and Camping Club site at Edinbane, which is next to a loch. We had not seen this part of Skye before so on our full day we drive to Neis Point to see the lighthouse there.

The views across the bay of the cliffs were incredible, there were several waterfalls tumbling down the cliffs in the distance and some amazing scenery. However the best was yet to come!

We wanted to go on a boat trip while we were in Skye, with the hope of seeing some more seals and sea birds. We went with a very knowledgeable man, Trevor, from Skye Marine, just next door to our campsite. The trip took us out into a more open loch where we saw not only seals resting on the rocks but a whole school of dolphins!

This was the highlight of the trip for me, not just one but about 50 dolphins, jumping out of the water in pairs and swimming right up to the boat. Such a magical moment that was better than anything we were expecting. It was difficult to get pictures as they were so fast but you can just see one coming up out of the water in the distance here.

There was also an amazing waterfall on one of the cliffs, an especially unexpected treat for my sister, who loves waterfalls.

A wonderful end to the holiday. We travelled back via a night at Loch Ness, no monsters sadly but after seeing, seals, deer, eagles, dolphins and possibly otters we didn’t feel too disappointed. That figure in the picture below is a paddleboarder enjoying a quiet trip.

We were planning to spend the night in Glencoe and do some walking but encountered the only bad weather of our trip at that point so drove on to a service station park up near Lanark.

When we planned this trip in January it seemed like a dream come true and it was. It was over 2000 miles, on some incredible roads, visiting eight amazing islands and meeting so many lovely people on the way.

I am back in the Lake District in a couple of weeks and will return to Scotland as soon as I can. A truly magical land.

I will be posting soon about our trip to another island, Anglesey in North Wales, as soon as I can.There may well be more pictures of waves as looking at my pictures it seems I am a little addicted!

Meanwhile have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

For many reasons there are few of the original houses, the blackhouses, left on the islands. This is partly to do with the fact that many were abandoned in favour of the newer houses that were built which had more modern facilities.

You can find a few as holiday accommodation and we were really lucky to have a fantastic selection of these on our little campsite in Harris. The site is called Lickisto Blackhouse camping and we booked it more for the location rather than the houses and only realised when we got there how significant it was.

The site was an amazing piece of landscaping, as we were approaching we were wondering where the actual camping would be as the surrounding land was hilly and full of rocks. Every inch of the site has been cleverly structured with three blackhouses used for rental and some of the facilities blocks.

You can see here how hidden the actual campers are, within the garden. There were at least 6 tents here but you can only really see the yurt.

The campervan area was the only flat piece of land, with space for five vans in what would be the driveway of the modern house. The three blackhouses were near this house, accessed by paths through the gardens.

The tent pitches were within these gardens, wherever there was a flat piece of land. They all had little campfire stones and most had little benches and were all named.

The site had direct access to a little beach on the loch as well, just past Loch Loo, the toilet with a view!

As well as standard pitches you can also stay in one of the blackhouses, two yurts and a bell tent, all with amazing views.

One blackhouse was a lounge for guests, with kitchen and dining facilities. This is a great idea for the many people hiking or cycling round the islands as it was a cosy space to sit in the evenings. There were even home made meals available to buy and they have music nights on Saturdays.

It is one of the most unusual sites I have ever stayed at and well worth a visit. By the time I have finished this UK tour I will have stayed at 13 campsites, most of them Caravan and Camping Club ones, but I think this might be my favourite for its glimpse into the history and culture of the islands as well as the beautiful views and sunsets.

I really love camping and although I have my van now still use a tent as storage. I have borrowed Jacky’s awning to try out so may by myself one for next year. It is nice to be able to stand up to get dressed and although I have been really lucky with the weather this year would give me further options if it is raining.

I have been collecting pictures of the quirky and unusual camping vehicles and tents I have seen on my travels so will do a post on those at some point. There is a whole world of variety out there, from the sublime to the ridiculous!

I am now safely in Anglesey, staying in a very luxurious barn conversion which is wonderful. Have seen some beautiful beaches today and am looking forward to a nice relaxing week here.Have fun, take care, stay safe and until next time thanks for visiting.

When you visit the Outer Hebrides you really do get a sense of being somewhere so different from the rest of the UK. At the edge of these islands there is nothing but sea between them and the coasts of Newfoundland and Canada.

It is a beautiful landscape and we were so lucky with the weather but it can be a harsh and remote place to live. We both loved it and I am so glad that we made the trip to North and South Uists, Benbecula and Eriskay as well this trip.

We caught another ferry from the bottom of Harris for a short trip to land on the tiny island of Bernary. Nowadays all of the islands are connected by beautiful stone edged causeways but they used to use boats or horse drawn carriages at low tide to cross between them.

We had a quick trip around Bernary, stopping off at the seal viewing point where we were delighted to see four seals playing in the sunshine. You can just see some little heads above water in this second picture.

We found another brilliant community cafe and art gallery for lunch, where I may have bought another book on island life, then drove all the way down to Eriskay, a trip of around 35 miles. .

Our campsite was right on the coast, next to an RSPB reserve so we had a quick walk on the beach before sunset that evening. The sun and clouds were so beautiful. There were thousands of tiny shells on the shore so I have collected some to remind me of this wonderful place.

Our full day was spent on a 4km coastal walk, just spending hours watching the waves crash on the coast. I have said before how happy I am near the sea and am lucky to be able to spend a large part of my life near it now.

The people who live here have always had such a connection with the sea, fishing, using kelp to fertilise the land, and crossing it to access things such as education.

Nowadays there are many more services on the islands, we found two Co-op supermarkets which were very handy, but everything still has to be brought in to the islands by sea or air. It is such a different way of life here.

It was only a very short stay before we had to head back to Skye, involving two ferry trips and a bit of a dash across Harris past all those wonderful beaches again. We made it in plenty of time despite a Hebrides version of a traffic jam, which reminded me of life in Marsden.

I am so lucky to be able to do all of this and realise my dreams. This Scotland trip has been amazing and the final two days back on Skye were just as incredible. I will tell you about that excitement in the next post.

Meanwhile there has been lots of stitching of Christmas ornaments going on. I should finish the six for friends by the time I leave for Spain and have also done three others so you may get a craft post sometime soon!

I will then have to start on the Christmas knitting as I have promised some knitted reindeers for fundraising after the success of the Luna in the summer.

I hope that you are enjoying the last few weeks of your summer, or winter wherever you are. This year seems to have gone so fast. I am off back to Yorkshire at the end of the week and then on holiday in Wales with some ex- colleagues for a week, in a luxurious barn conversion as well.

I will be back as soon as I can. In the meantime have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Our first three days in the Outer Hebrides were spent on Harris and Lewis. We stayed at a very quirky site on Harris which I will devote a separate post to as there was so much to show you.

The area of Harris we stayed in reminded me a lot of trips to Sweden, similar rocky archipelagos and everywhere small lochs full of water lillies.

The first afternoon after the ferry crossing we drove to see the amazing beaches of South Harris. Even though I have seen them on other travel vlogs you cannot believe that the sea and sand are really that colour until you see them. They are so beautiful.

Our first full day was spent driving up to the top of Lewis, this island is very different as it is so flat, compared to Harris. We drove to the windiest place in the UK, I can confirm it lives up to its reputation!

The views of the Atlantic were amazing and it was even more exciting as we saw some seals playing on one of the rocks in the cove.

We also visited the Callanish standing stones, three Neolithic stone circles on Harris. There is lots of archaeological evidence of settlement on the islands including a reproduction of an Iron Age house near one of the beaches.

Day 2 was a trip to the little island of Scalpay, over the bridge between Harris and the island and a walk out to Eilean Glas lighthouse, we were so lucky with the weather the whole time we were there. I couldn’t believe the sky was so blue.

We also went out to one of the most remote beaches, Husinis, in search of otters. It was literally a roller coaster ride along the narrowest and bumpiest roads that I have ever seen.It was certainly an experience getting there!

I am not sure if we did see otters, they are very elusive but there may have been something in this bay.

The islands are unique and feel very different from each other. The light there is amazing and the colours seem so bright. This was even more so when we got to the next islands, another ferry ride away. I will tell you more about that in my next post.

I have been reading some biographies about island life, like much of Scotland land ownership has been an issue for many years with clearances by land owners that led to crofters losing their homes. It was significant that there are very few of the older houses left on the island and many people were forced to emigrate to USA and Canada.

Nowadays most of the area is owned by the community and there are various community businesses, such as the lovely cafe we stopped at for lunch in North Lewis.There was also a small museum and gallery where I was able to see one of the looms that made the famous Harris tweed.

I didn’t find many places that were doing weaving but did manage to buy this beautiful little purse which will remind me of all the colours of this island.

I will tell you more about island life in the next post. We are now back in England, after a very long 6 hour drive. I then drove back North through my first appalling weather to meet up with Ellen for more Steampunk fun in Lincoln. We were very pleased as this event has not been held since 2019 and a great time was had by all.

I hope that you have had a good weekend, especially if you are in the UK where it is a Bank Holiday. We are planning a quiet Monday sewing and watching movies.

Hope you all have fun anyway, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Many of you will know the song that has this line in, I have always loved it, even before it became the Outlander theme tune.

We did not go by boat but after many beautiful roads winding past loch after loch arrived at Fort William.

We had not booked anywhere to camp in Fort William as we were planning to use some of the apps to find a parking location but it was quite late by the time we arrived so ended up, with many other campervans in Lidl car park! Not the most glamorous of locations but it was much appreciated.

We did make a stop off to see the famous Eilean Donan Castle which is in such an amazing setting.

We took the road bridge over to Skye, it was very cloudy so no good pictures but the weather was glorious for the drive around the south peninsula that afternoon. We had a very good view of the Cullin Hills and the stunning coastline.

Our full day saw me able to tick off many of the things on my list that I have wanted to do for so long. We climbed up to the Old Man of Storr, a very steep and hot trek but so worth it for the views of the clouds over the lochs.

The Quiraing rock formations were equally stunning, even if the road up there was a bit of a challenge. Jacky has excellent driving skills and she has needed them on all these tiny single track uphill roads.

We didn’t far into the fairy pools sadly as the midges came out early that evening. We have been lucky and not had much issues with them and have been able to BBQ and eat outside some evenings.

The campsite was lovely, with gorgeous views of the hills and amazing cloud formations. We stayed at Camping Skye, a not for profit site run by the community. We have used as many community services as we can here, such as the excellent little cafe and craft venues.

We left Skye for Lewis and Harris on a mid morning ferry. The Outer Hebrides have been just as amazing as we thought they would be and I am so pleased to be here after so many years of watching my favourite You Tube travellers come here.

More from the outer islands next time, hope you are having a great time whatever you are doing. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Katy I have started getting the things together to turn her into a ‘no build’ micro camper so I thought it would be useful to post about some of those and my thoughts on how it is going to work. I have used pictures from Amazon, Ebay or the purchase sites to illustrate as everything is at my sister’s at present but am not sponsored for any of my purchases. I have put links in case anyone would find this information useful.

Due to the lack of time to sort things before my return to Spain I only had a day with her after she was delivered before leaving Worcester. I spent a lot of time measuring and sitting in her with various combinations of boxes to try and work out what space I had. This is a good tip that I picked up from watching You Tube videos and it helped me work out what head room I had and what would be suitable.

Katy has some very useful little airline type overhead lockers, which you can see in the picture above. I had seen these on other vans and was really pleased to be able to buy a van with them as not all models have them. I plan to use one side for food storage and the other for toiletries as there is quite a bit of space in them.

Last year’s UK camping tour was also very useful in getting me to think about minimal kit. I had everything I needed for 5 weeks travel, including the tent, all cooking stuff and all clothes, in one large bag and a rucksack so knew that I was set up for living. I now just have more space to put things away in!

My plan is to book camp sites this summer as a tent and to pitch the little tent I used last year as well as have the micro camper set up. That will give me additional storage and I will still probably sleep in the tent some nights as well. I will always love camping so will have the best of both worlds.

At the moment there is no flooring in the van. The area is luckily very clean so my temporary solution is a boot liner and a boot carpet. These will cover the majority of the area and I will just need to add to that to cover the footwells.

The seats will be removed and I am going to buy plastic storage boxes to fit into the footwells to make it level with the rest of the boot. I may create some kind of removable floor next year but for now this should work.

Later on I may buy a folding chair to sleep on like the one below, we had one of these for guests in my old house and they were great.

For the moment I am planning to use my air bed and existing sleeping bags (I have a normal and a lightweight one), plus some additional fleece blankets and cushions. I have this very cute fabric, that I have previously used for the backing for a campervan cushion for my sister pictured below, to make another version for me!

In fact I may make many campervan cushions as I still have my inspiration photos from Pinterest like the ones below. One of the reasons that I love having this blog is that I put together posts of my inspirations, like this one all about my campervan obsessions.

I also have my cute little appliques, made during lockdown two years ago, when I could only dream of learning to drive and buying a van. They will come with me on my travels, as a reminder never to give up hope!

Lot of people do make their own window covers out of reflective material, and I did consider that. However the windows are all odd shapes, and have lots of bits that protrude so I have treated myself to some custom made ones from Simple Camper Vans. They have blackout material on the inside and the silver material on the outside. They come in a great storage bag as well and though they cost more than making my own I think that is money well spent. I am planning to make some curtains as well.

It has been very helpful being able to stay with Jacky in her campervan as well, that has given me lots of ideas of kit that is essential, and what I can do without. I have decided that fixed power is not needed. Katy has two 12 volt sockets, one at the front and one in the boot, that I can use to charge my phone and tablet. I have two power banks that I bought for last year’s trip which are re-charged through a main socket and since I will be away for only 2 weeks maximum at a time before visiting people, and at campsites with facilities, that should be fine.

I bought a re-chargeable lantern at the motorhome show, and have also got some cute little battery operated magnetic lights so should be fine for power and light.

I have bought a very handy electric hook up with plugs, that I saw on someone else’s van conversion video, so may choose to book pitches with electric hook up if I need them.

I also have a little fan heater, that is more for when I will be using Katy next year in the spring, as I found I was fine last summer in a tent with just lots of fleeces. On our recent trip to the Peak District I bought some new thermals which are great as an underneath layer.

One of the things that Jacky has that is very useful is some collapsible storage boxes that can also be used as seating. I have bought one single version at present which is just the right height to sit in the van on when cooking.

I have chosen to keep my existing cooking set up, I have a single ring gas camping stove, and Jacky has very kindly given me an additional one. I can then have two rings if I need them. For my cooking set up I have my mini table from last year which is about 14 inches high and also I have bought a camping kitchen unit.

This will travel flat pack with me and then I can set it up either inside or outside. It gives me lots of storage for cooking equipment as well as a great surface for food prep. Since I managed very well with just the small table and my lap last year I am sure it will feel very luxurious this summer. I will still use my very cute and comfortable mini folding chair from last year for sitting outside and plan to use the front seats as ‘sofa’ and additional storage.

I have also bought a little table that hangs from the steering wheel, which I thought would be great for my tablet for watching even more van life videos 😉 It even has a cup holder for my wine!

I will also have running water, of a sort! Last year I managed really well with a small folding water carrier, which I am still using but have also bought this nifty little 5 litre water container that can sit on my unit and which has a tap.

I have two very useful collapsible bowls as well. Most of the time I used campsites with washing up facilities anyway last year so just need the bowls to carry things.

Other purchases that have been recommended are magnetic hooks, useful for a variety of things and some back of the seat storage hangers which will fit over driver and passenger seat and be for additional practical items such as bin bags, though I may add a fluffy bunny as well 😉

The one thing that always fascinates people about van life is toilet and shower arrangements. I will be using facilities at campsites most of the time but Jacky has very kindly offered me a spare porta potti which I may take if I have space. My alternative is I am trying out some bags that are filled with crystals from this company. Those will just be for emergencies if I am off in the wild somewhere or at night if it is raining too much!

My last purchase was a little present to myself. I love sitting round a campfire so have bought this wonderful little mini fire basket. It folds up so small, about 12 inches long so I am looking forward to being able to use that at some campsites.

I also bought some map books, much as I love Google maps I also like planning trips with a paper map, and it is always handy where you have no signal. My sister also has a journal to record her trips so I bought one of those as well.

Total ‘no build’ costs so far are about £475, in addition to the around £150 I spent on new smaller camping kit last year, which I am pleased with. The van came in well under budget and most of these purchases can be used when we are tent camping as well, or would have been bought for it as a car.

I am so looking forward to putting it all together properly in July and going off and having my first adventures as a driver. I still can’t believe that I have been blessed enough to be able to realise this final part of my dream for retirement. I am so lucky.

I have arrived safely back in Spain and have been spending time unpacking my additional craft purchases and catching up with family. We have lots of fun trips planned, starting this week as there are the amazing Easter celebrations here. I hope that you have all had a good week. I will be back soon with more adventures so until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.