Day 9 was our final fully Scottish Day! The following day we were driving the length of Scotland and spending a night in Windermere to break up the journey before taking our campervan back to the rental place.

Danielle and I had left the final day with alot of wriggle room with a few waterfalls and barely any driving so we loaded up on brekkie and then headed out to the first place which was only 20 minutes up the road: Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach.

Corrieshalloch Gorge is a gorge not far from Ullapool and is 60m deep and 10m wide. From the trail head you walk for a few minutes before coming to the suspension bridge over the gorge. From here you can see the Falls of Measach. The bridge is quite high and you can see through the slats on the floor so I imagine some people might get wobbly legs. I certainly held on tightly to my phone!

From the bridge you can walk a short walk along to the view point which is a man made balcony jutting out over the gorge. It just gives you a different view of the falls.

There is a walk that loops around the waterfalls that takes you up into the woodland and back to the main car park.

We did this and then headed to the next destination: Rogie Falls!

Rogie Falls has a big car park that campervans are allowed to camp in overnight so Danielle and I decided to make this our final wild camping spot. It was a really sunny afternoon so after grabbing lunch in the van we whacked on the sun cream and started the 15 minute walk to the waterfalls.

Rogie Falls are another set of waterfalls that sit along the Salmon Trail. So once again we perched ourselves by the side of the falls and waited to spot the salmon trying to leap upstream. If we thought the last waterfall we saw salmon jump in (Falls of Shin) looked tricky then it was nothing compared to this!

Once again, after sitting and watching the falls for a little while you can take a walk down by the river and up into the forest. We decided to go down by the river and see if we could spot any salmon that had made it past the falls.

Unsurprisingly we didnt spot any!

At this point we were nearing the end of our final day and there was only one thing we had left to do. Something that we couldnt come to Scotland and not do.

Drink Whiskey!

Once we had finished our river and woodland trek we left Rogie Falls and headed over to the Glen Ord distillery. For £10 you can visit the exhibition, learn all about how the whiskey is made, see some of the old tools and of course taste some whiskey.

I knew virtually nothing about whiskey as I dont drink it so I found the exhibition really interesting and found myself going oh so thats whats in it!

Once done with the little tour one of the guides sets out a dram each of the 12, 15 and 18 year old whiskeys along with a little bit of water if you want it.

For those driving you get given little bottles in a neat case to take away and try at your leisure. The guide explained a little about each whiskey and what type of barrel they had been kept in etc and how best to drink it before leaving us to it.

Most of us arent whiskey drinkers and I think its safe to say I wont ever be! Not because this whiskey was bad but I just dont think its to my taste. I poured the rest of mine into Liams little bottles to take home.

By this time we were still feeling quite energetic and I suggested we carry on driving south and camp somewhere further down to take some time off the long journey the next day. As Liam was the only one who hadnt had whiskey he happily agreed and we started heading down Scotland with the guys navigating our way down and Danielle and I searching for where to stay.

We ended up going for a spot in the Cairngorms National Park. It is free to overnight camp there and there looked like there would be plenty of room. Some of the park rangers were in the car park and once we had parked up and jumped out to have a look around one came over to tell us about the area and the local walks and rules.

On the way to the park we had passed a town which claimed to be the home of the National Porridge Championships! We asked him about it and he told us that every year there is a porridge championship with various different rounds. Some rounds include flavoured porridge but the most prestigious is the simple oats, water and salt round. However, there was apparently a scandal last year as this most highly regarded round was won by an Englishman! Who knew there could be so much drama to porridge making. Get that on the BBC!

After our chat with the ranger we headed straight to the loch which was right at the end of the car park and was looking beautiful with the setting sun.

There were times on this trip where we felt like we surely must be in Canada or a US National Park. We did not know this kind of landscape and beauty was right on our own soil. I have a similar picture of me in a lake in California and aside from that fact Im in a bikini not jumper and hiking trousers you wouldnt know the difference (apart from maybe the lockdown weight)

After our short little exploration we headed back to the camper to start the challenge of the next couple of days…eating all the left over food. It wasnt to anyones surprise that Liam was able to make the biggest dent in the food that we had left over. It turns out 4 people dont need quite as many snacks as we thought we might need at the beginning of the holiday.

The next day dawned and we trundled down slowly to Windermere and stayed there for the night mostly packing, cleaning out the camper, eating all the food and discussing the trip.

Once everything was totalled up it transpired we had spent around £240 each for the 10 days away which included all food, campsites and experiences (although most were free) and that on top of the £1500 we spent between us for the camper didnt seem bad at all!

We feel lucky to have been able to have this holiday this year as a lot of people wont be able to get away or wont feel comfortable doing so. We had our apprehensions but found most people followed the rules and on a trip like this you can mostly keep away from other people – thats the luxury of a campervan!

The NC500 road trip is one of those holidays that I imagine Id have said “one day I will do that” and keep putting it off in favour of holidays abroad or holidays to “tick off”. Therefore, Im glad that even though the circumstances in which we came to do this were due to COVID-19 I think this type of holiday really reflected the underlying theme of 2020, which to me is getting back to basics, appreciating friends, appareciating family and appreciating your country.

I thoroughly recommend it. X