Two days of travelling back through the highlands and today, the joys of the M6 and the M5 again. We were lucky on both days and didn't experience any delays or hold-ups.
In case you're travelling in the north - the travelling community (AKA p...ys) are also on the move swinging their caravans and dodgy vans all over the place.
We stopped and swapped the driving every two hours; had lunch in a glorious position overlooking Glen Coe - away from the crowds in "the" layby.
Arrived at the travel lodge in time to purchase a reasonable dinner from M&S which was eaten in the splendour of a travel lodge bedroom. Should probably mention at this point that we almost had to go round again as I completely missed the turn for the travel lodge and had to carry out some dodgy maneuvers to get there. That would have been a fun trip down the M6 then back again! Was right about the wifi connection - yes it was available but £5 for 1 hour. Even the dodgiest B&B had wifi available at no cost. Hotels are going to have to improve on this in the future; it's outrageous practice to charge for one hour what it would cost for two weeks on average at home or in business.
Sleeping in a service station is surprisingly quiet and I got the hairdryer on arrival. All pillows were allocated though with none extra to spare. Also had the best sized towels of the trip - best not to mention the quality though.
Decided to avoid the hot food on offer on site and stopped at Tebay for a really good, quality breakfast this morning. Local farm-sourced food, good service and a nice environment.
One more stop en route and we drove on home.
To summarise the last two weeks
We have driven 2,124 miles; visited 17 potential house sites; shortlisted four sites - all of which would be perfectly suitable to build on; made some good contacts on Skye; stayed in some delightful and some dodgy B&Bs; enjoyed a week at Fisherman's Lodge and have made the decision that we will be building and living on Skye.
Message from the estate agents on Skye - the owners of the plot at Fernilea will consider selling half of the croft that surrounds the plot we enquired about. There is already a house site available and this would give us extra land that runs down to the loch. All we have to do is let the vendor's solicitor know what we would offer for the plot and croftland. OK then; quite a bit of thinking to do tomorrow!
We return to find out there is the possibility of an offer on the house - will find out more tomorrow. If so, then we really will be doing some serious planning over the next few weeks!
We will be speaking to a Scottish solicitor tomorrow; need to understand crofting law, tenancy implications and expressions of interest.
Will update as and when things happen over the next few weeks.
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