We had a great night\u2019s sleep in the quiet car park and woke up to silence.<\/p>\n
No wind.<\/p>\n
And you know what that means in Scotland?<\/p>\n
Midges!<\/p>\n
The thing is, I didn\u2019t notice them at first when I put the Starlink outside. Then suddenly they were everywhere, swarming around me and following me back into the van.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve bought some insect repellent called Smidge, which is apparently one of the few things that actually works on them. But when I asked the Scottish couple we camped next to a few days ago, their advice was very different.<\/p>\n
They said there\u2019s nothing that can protect you. The best thing to do is hide.<\/p>\n
I remember doing exactly that in Norway last year when the mosquitoes came for us. We shut all the hatches, close the doors and didn\u2019t go outside.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Starlink was still outside.<\/p>\n
Neither of us wanted to go and get it, so I waited for my video to finish uploading and then sent Mike.
\nHe smothered himself in Smidge and went for it.<\/p>\n
I put my buff over my head, dived into the front, and as soon as he was back inside we got the heck out of there.<\/p>\n
Once we were moving, we opened all the windows and that seemed to suck most of the little buggers out.
\nThe beautiful weather we\u2019d been having had disappeared by then. It was drizzly and grey, with none of the huge Highland views we\u2019d had over the last few days.<\/p>\n
But it was still a pretty moody drive.<\/p>\n
And eventually, we made it all the way to the north coast.<\/p>\n
We drove out to Dunnet Head, the northernmost point of mainland Great Britain, where there\u2019s a lighthouse perched right out on the cliffs.<\/p>\n
By the time we arrived it was windy, wet and thoroughly miserable.<\/p>\n
Perfect Scottish summer weather.<\/p>\n
They allow overnight parking there for a fee, which was lucky because it was already 5pm and neither of us fancied driving any further.<\/p>\n
The sign said \u00a310 for a motorhome or \u00a35 for a car for 24 hours, which seemed a little anti-motorhome to me.
\nBut the view of the lighthouse was amazing and we decided to stay anyway.<\/p>\n
Then we went to pay.<\/p>\n
We put Bertie\u2019s registration number into the machine and it charged us \u00a35.<\/p>\n
Because we\u2019re registered as a van, not a motorhome.<\/p>\n
Yay!<\/p>\n
So we parked up overlooking the lighthouse, made toasted ham and cheese sandwiches for tea, and were rocked to sleep by the wind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had a great night\u2019s sleep in the quiet car park and woke up to silence. No wind. And you know what that means in Scotland? Midges! The thing is, I didn\u2019t notice them at first when I put the … Continue reading