Summer Holiday 2020: Day 6

Haltwhistle Burn And The Drive To Scotland

Our final morning at Herding Hill campsite before heading north to Scotland for the rest of our time away.

The girls had to be out of their cabin by 10am so it wasn’t a late start to the day, getting everyone fed and everything squared away in the camper.

The camper on the other hand didn’t have to be off site until midday so we all decided to take a final walk down to Haltwhistle Burn, taking the shorter route down to the river so that we could spend as much time there as we could before spending most of the rest of the day on the road.

It was a lovely way to spend our final hours before heading off, and I think it’s fair to say that everyone enjoyed their time at the campsite and exploring the surrounding countryside.

I’ll say one thing for the campsite: they have – hands down – THE best shower block we’ve ever had the pleasure of using at a campsite! On top of that the site was always spotlessly clean, the staff were all really nice, and with their no noise policy after 10pm it really was a nice relaxing place to stay.

When planning the holiday we thought it would be a nice idea to head up via Edinburgh so that we could all see the Forth Bridge, something I’d never properly stopped to look at before. One bonus for this plan was it meant we’d be taking a much nicer cross-country route up to the bridge which really did make for some nice driving and scenery.

I’d done a bit of research on where to have a view of the bridge so we headed for the car park at the Sealife centre at North Queensferry.

On the way we went through Jedburgh, another place I stayed at on my LEJOG walk, having a rest day there back in 2010. We took a little break there, having a quick look at the abbey (it was closed due to COVID) and also having a loo break before hitting the road again.

Without planning it we went past a lot of places on my LEJOG route – Melrose, Broadmeadows and Peebles – all spotted on signposts as we made our way to Edinburgh. It would have been great to stop at each one but that would have been a little bit selfish of me; another time maybe?

We made it to the car park but sadly the website I’d used to find the spot to see the bridge from hadn’t really delivered. Yes, we could see some of the Forth Bridge, even seeing a train go over it, but the view I really wanted to see was only given to us as we drove over the Queensferry Bridge, looking out over the three bridges. Shame, but it gave us all an opportunity to stretch our legs before the final bit of the journey up to Blair Atholl and the River Tilt Park.

Once we’d arrived we unpacked the camper, cooked some dinner, and headed out to the local shop to try and get some supplies in for breakfast the next day. The shop wasn’t the best, having sold out of bread and pretty much anything else breakfast-like (absolutely no sign of anything even vaguely vegan) so we ended up picking up some beers (obviously), potato waffles, baked beans and some eggs so we could put a [somewhat] strange cooked breakfast together for everyone.

Shopping done Shelli and I had a quick pint in the Atholl Arms Hotel before heading back to chill out for the rest of the evening.

Photos

The Good Camera

Darren’s iPhone

Shelli’s iPhone

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