Adventures in the Highlands Part 1

Well here I am back in Anglesey, my week in the Highlands of Scotland with Andy and Mel went in a flash it seems. Far too quickly for my liking, and since I've returned after a pain free week there, I seem to have got all my usual aches and pains back again I can't believe it !! So either this stupid little desk I sit at to go on the internet is the problem or my body is missing the overwhelming heat in the bus. I'm sure Mel and Andy were trying to cook me alive lol.

Anyway .... I digress, I arrived at Inverness airport after a pretty bumpy flight and got a warm and friendly Highland welcome from Andy and Mel who I'd only ever chatted to online before. For someone who usually gets very nervous meeting new people, this time I had no nerves. As we drove back to Muir of Ord where the bus is based at the moment, heavy snow started falling, a great omen for me I thought as I love snow and we get very little here on Anglesey.

I settled in very quickly and the bed Andy had made specially for the visit was very comfy. But a little too close to the roaring log burner for my liking. This fire blasts out more heat than a 100 electric fires, at least it felt like that. Within 5 mins of arriving I was stripped down to a vest top, the sweat dripping off me, as i am so unused to being in a hot room. I eventually managed to get to sleep covered only by sheet. With Mel fretting in the background about whether I'd be warm enough enough bless her lol.

The next day we sat with our fingers and toes crossed, hoping that the horsebox would pass its MOT on it's 3rd try. Whooooooo it passed and that was us off for a trip to Loch Ness somewhere I've always wanted to visit. What a beautiful place, surrounded on all sides by snow covered pine tree's the loch seemed to stretch on forever. Mel and Andy took the boys Dylan and Custard down to the lochs edge for a run while I stayed at the top of the snow covered steps. Dylan, who is a collie with a strange fetish for licking people's feet lol, stood in the freezing cold water barking for all he was worth. After driving a good way along the loch it was decided that it was time to turn round and head for home via a chippy for dinner. But just before we got to Beauly and the chip shop the horsebox chugged to a halt, by sheer luck it happened right by a small layby ..... we'd run out of diesel !! Andy as resourceful as ever had two 5 gallon jerry cans of spare fuel in the back. Once refuelled, the engine turned over and over but wouldn't quite fire up. I lost count of the number of times Andy tried to get it going, but eventually he decided there was an air lock and he would have to bleed the pipes. Even that didn't seem to help and almost ready to give up and get someone to come and fetch us Andy got Mel to fire Quik Start into the engine while he had one last go, sucess at last and off we went to get some well earned chips with Andys words " Well that was one way to get to know my new van " echoing in my ears.