Cycled to Yellowcraig beach for more litter collection and a lovely walk along the beach. Some nice driving before hitting B&Q to pick up a plate for our BBQ and to Tesco to get more food supplies. We arrived at Ally and John's for a lovely dinner with Andrew and Rachel. 

On Thursday we drove with Ally and John (that's their VW in front of us in the photo) up to Oban and over on the ferry to Lismore where we spent three nights.

Lismore has a bunch of old ruins and you can easily cycle from end to end in an hour or so. We did a lot of exploring on our bikes. Weather was perfect up until the last day and we enjoyed the way time stretched out with nothing particularly pressing to do. 

John and I managed to get the external hookup for the BBQ installed into the side of the van. A good many hours umming and erring which is fun in itself. We used the BBQ once in the rain and now looking forward to more especially when we hit Europe.

Sally says - we also went for two x swims (one in a pond and one in the Scottish sea), saw porpoises and seals (but no otters or puffins). We listened to the Ashes (praying for rain today). We ate cake at the cafe on the Island, went on the ferry to Port Appin for seafood and went to an Island off the South of Lismore that is only accessible at low tide.

Last night we stayed just north of Oban. Lots of rain. We're going to drive down to the Isle of Bute today and park up by the side of the road if we can find a good spot.

We're free camping on the Isle of Bute tonight. Got some steak, potatoes and corn on the BBQ.

Here's where we stayed last night. Down on the southernmost tip of Galloway. We gave the farmer £4. One of our favourite places so far.

I've been keeping a track of where we've stayed and what route we've taken. You can view the interactive version here. I'll try to keep it updated daily if we have internet over the next couple of months.

We managed to find a car park close to this castle in Galloway. A nice early morning walk and visit to the Caerlaverock castle which was attacked by an army led by Edward I of England in 1300 - when the castle finally fell it was discovered it had been defended by only 60 people. After the castle we made our way to Kendal via a nice walk around some wetlands and Gretna Green where we completed the courtship maze. We bought some sausages from a farm shop and cooked them up in a pub car park. A couple of drinks and a dessert at the pub because it would would have been rude not to.

From Kendal we headed South to Manchester. We transferred some stuff we realised we didn't need to storage and then made out way to Burrs Country Park in Bury. We did A LOT of washing. It rained A LOT. We were suppose to be watching the Game of Roses 20/20 in the evening but it was rained off so we spend an evening with Damian's work pals having a few drinks.

Next day and we're off to Auntie Rosemary's via Simon, Sally and Jack's place near Grantham. This is where the van will be stored when not in use. Lovely to see Auntie Rosemary and catch up on all her adventures. A lovely dinner and a trip to the pub for Sunday lunch.

Then we're on our way to sunny Broadstairs to see Pam and Roger. A lovely dinner at the local Mediterranean place and then a walk through town to see what was happening at the annual folk festival. Home earlyish ready for an early start tomorrow.

On the ferry from Dover to Calais - kindly provided with Champagne to toast the start of the Europe segment!

Damian has mastered the art of driving on the other side of the road in a vehicle with the steering wheel on the wrong side! We pitched up in a car park just outside G(h)ent. The first night there was a bit of a storm so we didn't see much but  up early the next morn for a walk into town and a walking tour. Many facts learned (AMA for the next 24 hours) - Gent socialism gave us the 'weekend' (Saturday as well as Sunday), Belgium Chocolate (a Swiss born man living in Gent invented it for medicine taking,

Some places here have this 'Enchantè' sign which means that if you are struggling you can: (in order of symbols) change your bandages, get some water, use the internet, have some food, groom yourself, use power or have a hot drink. If you're a non-struggling person dining there you can opt to buy an extra meal or drink and it will be passed on to others. I love this concept. 'Enchantè' means 'Nice to meet you'.

We went to a restaurant and bought an extra meal. Much nicer than tipping!

A bit rainy the last few days. We made our way though to the Netherlands yesterday and stayed on the biggest island in the Zeeland region. Lots of really practical cycle infrastructure. We found a nice seafood shop where we were able to have some fish and chips (and mayo) at the same time as buying fresh fish for today's lunch...

...and speaking of today's lunch here it is with Cajun seasoning on our BBQ in a car park on the beach. We're using wraps for pretty much every second meal. So convenient to just throw in a bunch of healthy ingredients.

We found a fruit and veg shop near our campground last night where we bought a punnet of fresh strawberries and a little bottle of advocaat (egg yolks and brandy) to gloop over them.

Windy beach where we took a stroll before lunch. We're now in Utrecht where we've pitched up at a really eccentric little place quite close to the centre of town.

Utrecht

After Utrecht we drove to Holten stopping on the way at the Kröller-Müller park (free bikes, see pic above of the chilled-out stance the bikes afford). This area in the middle of the Netherlands has a lot of sand dunes from when the glaciers of the last ice age pushed a whole lot of sand inland before retreating.

Holten with Marika (Sally's workmate from waaaay back - very exciting), Martijn and Sasha. We were there for two nights and we visited a Canadian war cemetery, had Friday fryday (chips, mayo and assorted deep fried meats), pancakes and too much Belgian beer.

Today we drove down to Cologne where we'll stay for a couple of nights to give us time to explore the city.