Rainbows, Waterfalls and Castles

Settled back in to London pretty quickly when we arrived from Australia and the jetlag wasn’t too bad for once as we went back to work straight away.

It is definately Spring time with the days starting to get longer, the sun is making special appearances and there are bulbs and blossums everywhere.

I have started playing netball on Tuesday nights (last week we won 26-6!) and David is back in Dusseldorf a couple of days a week.

For the Easter long weekend we headed up to Scotland for four days with a girl from work, Ola, her husband, Remy and house mate, Aga.

It was a mammoth trip, we drove all the way from London so covered 2700km in the four days but had a fantastic time!

After a 5am start, on the Friday we drove up the West coast of the UK, passing through Glasgow, Glencoe, Fort William, past beautiful mountains and lochs and over to the Isle of Skye. It was cold and wet but the scenery along the way was incredible. Waterfalls and rainbows everywhere!

We stayed overnight in a tiny village called Kyleakin where we explored the ruins of an old castle.

The following morning we drove up the Isle of Skye to Dunvegan Castle where we stopped and explored the gardens. Also on Skye we visited more waterfalls and ruins of an ancient fort. More dramatic scenery along the way.

At lunch we stopped in the pretty fishing village of Ullapool (back on the mainland) and took a dramatic drive up to the town of Tongue where we spent the second night.

On the way to Tongue, we stopped at Smoo cave which is a cliff cave with, you guessed it, another waterfall!

Our hostel in Tongue was lovely. It was situated on the edge of a lock and was an old 18th centuary hunting lodge.

On Easter Sunday we woke up to a fantastic Polish breakfast (the others we were travelling with were Polish) before heading out again. This time we followed the coast along to Dunney Head, the most northern point in the UK. Along the way we stopped and visited the ruins of a 15th centuary church, St Marys.

We also stopped at John of Grouts, the lovely town of Lybster where we had lunch by the harbour, another ruined fort and the beautiful Dunbeath Castle.

That evening we stayed at the Hilton Aviemore before an epic drive back to London.

We saw so many amazing sights in Scotland. It truely is a beautiful place. We have wonderful sunny weather from Saturday and saw so much wildlife including deer and seals. As you will see in the pics there are a lot of photos of castles and mountains and waterfalls. I haven’t been able to name many of them as they were just everywhere! In four days we managed to see so much.

Back in London we have been spending a bit of time fixing up our little garden and enjoying the sunshine. The garden is coming along nicely and came complete with some nesting birds.

Off for a bike ride while the weather is lovely!

Published in:  on April 19, 2009 at 3:17 pm Leave a Comment
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A Beach Wedding (make that two)

After a lovely stay with David’s parents (sorry about the jetlag) we headed up to Port Douglas for a week in the sun and my brother’s wedding.

Arrived into Cairns, to wonderfully hot weather and a shock of humidity, where we met by parents.

The drive up to Port Douglas has to be one of the most beautiful drives you can do. It takes you up along the coast and pretty breathtaking.

Our first day in Port Douglas was spent exploring the town (very pretty), shopping, relaxing and of course enjoying the sun by the pool!

Did have two encounters with snakes on our first day, including one with the pool with us. After trying to convince people in the UK was safe and that you rarely saw snakes, spiders and sharks (more on sharks later) in Australia we had to have a laugh. They were only tree snakes but it is a bit of a shock when you turn around in a pool and realise that oh, there is a snake swimming next to me!

The next day we spent out on the Great Barrier Reef. Mum and I went scuba diving while dad & Dave snorkled. We ended up doing three dives and had an amazing time. It was the first time mum had dived and she did really well. I had not been out to the reef before and it was just amazing. So much to see, the coral was beautiful, so many colours and fish just everywhere. We saw lots of clams, slugs and other creatures as well. On one dive we had a huge Mauri Rass (I think that is spelt right) following us around for the dive and it kept coming up for pats – very cute in a huge fishy kinda way.

On our second dive we were greeted by five or six reef sharks! They were amazing, we swam below them but they were very quick so it was kinda freaky as every now and then one would dart past and you’d think – OMG it’s a shark! Very silly I know but they were cool.

Over the weekend we did Mossman Gorge and the Port Douglas Markets. The rainforest at Mossman is pretty impressive, as long as suspense bridges don’t freak you out. Was really looking forward to a refreshing swim in the Gorge after our humid rainforest walk and once you got past the water being so cold you were numb part, the swim was lovely.

The markets at Port Douglas were good too. Had a very nice massage by the beach and we bought some lovely lemon myrtle pasta that we finally ate last night (very yum). We also caught the old sugar cane train back to our villa that afternoon which was fun.

Then it was time for my little brothers wedding! About 20 people had come up to Port Douglas for the wedding (the larger wedding celebration was being  held in Sydney a couple of days later), it was mainly family and the bridal party and we had had a great couple of days before the wedding catching up at BBQs and the boys had played some golf. The ceremony was held at the chapel at the Sheraton Mirage which is just lovely and overlooks 4 mile beach. Aaryan had an amazing dress (pics below) and the whole wedding was very touching.

So amazing to see Lindsay and Aaryan married and it was very special that they asked me do to a reading and witness on their marriage certificate.

The reception was held at the house where Aaryan’s family were staying. Lindsay and Aaryan had found a brillant chef to do the catering and the food was so yummy.

Our last couple of days in Port Douglas were spend relaxing and soaking up the sun before we headed into Sydney!

It was so nice to arrive back into Sydney (home!). We spent an afternoon in the city, taking the usual tourist photos and just wandering around. It was a bit of a mad couple of days travelling around Sydney and catching up with people.

On Saturday, Lindsay and Aaryan had their second wedding! Everyone was instructed to meet at Akuna Bay in the afternoon where we were picked up by three very stylish cruisers. It was a suprise and people had no idea where we were off to. After about a 20 minute boat ride, we rounded a headland and were greeted by a beautiful set up on St Hallets Beach in Pittwater. Along the beach was an amazing set up of gazebos and one long banquet table – it looked just incredible.

We had a wonderful dinner under the stars in the most stunning location. The whole set up was very impressive and we had great night. The beach can only be accessed by boat so we had the whole place to ourselves (although we had to share it a couple of hungry goannas).

Lindsay and Aaryan had planned an amazing wedding and we wish them a very happy and loving life together.

The day following the wedding we had a great BBQ at my parents and it was so nice to catch up with so many people.

Sadly, before we knew it, Monday had come around and it was time to fly back to London.

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