My last Part 3 blog post had so many photos but I really wanted to add one more really special one. This photo shows why many people travel all over the world to visit Bodnant Gardens in Wales, and I forgot to add it to my last post on it! So here it is in all its beautiful yellow glory! The laburnum arch looking fantastic!

I just love travelling to natural environments such as these above. I seek out places of beauty, mostly nature, and enjoy soaking it all up. We just don’t get outside enough! Perhaps in the future I should take a massive walking holiday and walk every day and camp outside? Now that could be fun.

I had a few rest days in Manchester staying at my friends place, chilling out and enjoying being on holidays. Not rushing off to work every morning is a real treat. I took a walk into the local shopping area here at Ashton under Lynne, and enjoyed a few nice gardens along the way. As per usual I am attracted by the vibrant colours and perfectly imperfect shapes.

In the city centre I couldn’t believe how many people were smoking! It was actually really disgusting. I am totally turned off by cigarette smoke these days, well correction, I have always had a huge adversity towards it. And considering both my parents died of Lung Cancer you may be able to see why. To me it is one of the worst habits on the planet, let us hope it is one that eventually becomes non existent.

I decided to go for a swim at the local pool, and try out the steam room. I smashed out enough laps continuously in the mankiest pool I think I have ever swum in. I tried not to think about my germaphobia, as I glided through the water. Even the floor tiles had a disgusting coating of yellow (encrusted urine?) on them, eeewww. I lasted about 3 minutes in the steam room, it was sweltering hot. I perhaps should have alternated cold showers then back in, but I really wasn’t that dedicated.

When I returned outside, the previous sunny day had turned to rain and mush. Welcome to England. Oh how I already miss my beloved Aussie blue sky! Travelling is fun, don’t get me wrong, but one of the best parts about it, is it can reground you and make you appreciate where you do live. The grass can be greener outside, but it is just not home. I will always love travelling and exploring this big wide world, but I am starting to realise the importance of a ‘sense of place’. Now that my parents have gone, I used to rely on them for this feeling, and now I need to create this for myself.

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Okay I am now in Scotland!! So I need to catch you up over what happened the last few days… I mooched around my friends place in Ashton for the last few days, enjoying some relax time before our planned road trip. We went out for a final Indian dinner with my friends family the night before our departure, and that was really nice. Before you knew it, it was time to start our road trip, and I was VERY excited!

We headed north on the motorway, fairly consistent tree lined scenery, very green and lots of trees so that was enjoyable as we zoomed along slightly above speed thanks to my wanna be race car driving friend. We did see something pretty alarming, a car was on fire along the side of the highway! Crazy! Looked like no one was hurt, just a blazing car, seemed very unsafe and we were glad it was on the other side of the road. Why it didn’t explode I don’t know!?

Soon we were on Scotland soil and the terrain changed pretty quickly to rolling hills and bright green every where. It was lovely! Our first stop was for Loch Lomond. I had been told to visit here before I left so I was glad to find it on our route to our first over night Airbnb stay. We pulled up to a cold blustery day, and spitting rain, beauty! There was a boat ride option, but the weather just wasn’t conducive, so we went for a nice big walk to around the grounds.

We headed on for the last hour or so left of our driving for the day and made our way to Kames on “Argyll secret coast”. One more photo opportunity came along and we jumped out here for another windy cool photo shot.

The drive was very scenic all the way along, it was amazing to finally be driving the roads of Scotland. I was loving it! There was one more epic view before we made it to our resting place for the night. Here it is here:

And then we arrived to our first little Airbnb for the trip. A lovely little cottage right on the water, everything seemed brand new like it had recently been renovated so we were very spoilt! We rested in the evening, watching a few movies and eating our left over Indian food from the night before. There may have been a few ciders in there too…

So far the road trip is going really well! In my next post I will share with you some more photos and more stories about our trip driving all around Scotland.

Anita xx