We've lost our travel fitness! 8 days on the road has seen us trundling back in to Nigel and Wendy's place for some more much-needed R & R. With that being said, we've had some pretty full days. We covered over 1000 miles (1700km), committed four whole days to hiking, and took full advantage of the insanely long daylight hours you get in the Scottish Highlands.

This road trip was a Suitcase Of Dreams gift from Nanny and Poppy Whetton. Thank you so much to both of you for this experience. I know it was initially meant to be the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland, but the west coast of Scotland delivered some serious scenery nevertheless. A fair trade off I think!

The first stopover for us as we hit the road was a little speck of a town on Loch Lomond called Tarbet. Highlights here included staying in a castle (not even joking - this is what happens when you let Sjane organise accommodation), the views overlooking the Lake for an early dinner and picnic lunch, and a few hours spent hiking the hinterland around Tarbet (the lady at reception warned us against climbing the adjacent "mountain"... it was little more than a hill. Didn't she realise we're descendents of Russell Coight?).

On the road again we started to see the very obvious difference in landscape between England and the Scottish Highlands. Scotland is wild! That one word encapsulates the mountains, the scrubby undergrowth and the vistas. The land used to be intensely volcanic, and it shows: monstrous slabs of rock war with rolling hills and serene lochs, while thorny undergrowth and bushes feature delicate flowers that simultaneously invite you to come closer and warn you to keep your distance. Its a fascinating place. Aside from the black and grey stone studding the landscape, the colour palette runs somewhere between deep burgundy reds and straw yellows and tans. Its not pretty, pristine or delicate. It's rough, rugged and intense. And it is most definitely beautiful.

So anyway, this landscape welcomed us to our next stop; the "adventure capital of the UK" - Fort William. Sitting close to the hulking snow-capped mountain Ben Nevis, it just invites outdoor adventure. Fortunately our good run of luck with UK weather continued and we spent the day circumnavigating and summiting Cow Hill (a 1.5hr hike that took us over 3hrs to complete and featured great views of Ben Nevis but only one measly cow) and climbing the ravine to Steall waterfall and meadows. Naturally we were pretty stuffed by this point and I swore we would not be hiking the following day.

That obviously didnt last. The Isle of Skye invites hiking the same way Easter invites excess chocolate consumption. Needless to say we spent a few more hours tramping around - this time around and over the Quiraing. This was an awe inspiring experience. The wind screamed over the pass as we strolled land inhabited by Scots for generations. It was easy to imagine thousands of hairy, angry Scots pouring down the pass in ambush of the unsuspecting Nordic vikings in days gone by. A very old place, and of course very beautiful. The photos speak for themselves.

So after a night in Inverness and a quick detour to a whisky distillery (couldn't come to Scotland without tasting a few of the local brews), we found ourselves back down in Edinburgh. This UNESCO world heritage city played host to us as we caught up with some old friends.

Our final leg of the road trip saw us re-entering England and heading toward the renowned Lake District. This area is famous for two things: its beauty and its hiking. Beatrix Potter was conceived here, and poet William Wordsworth spent his life writing about how beautiful it is. The quintessentially English lakes and countryside make it easy to understand why. The hiking was superb as well. Countless trails are laid like a spider web across the National Park, giving essentially unlimited opportunity to get out and about and soak up the beauty of the region. Needless to say at this point that we were out ambolling around all day (Sjane going gaga at the plethora of newborn lambs that were about, me taking advantage of the photogenic landscape and navigating our way around thanks to google maps). Date night consisting of dinner and a movie concluded a great day and an even more epic road trip.