What a wimp

I seem to have wimped out on my dental appointment tomorrow. I gave it some thought but realised I am just not willing to invest a 12 hour trip in a ten minute dental appointment, especially when I can’t even do the Tesco run to help fill in time. I considered utilising my bus pass and having a day out in Stromness but the appt was at a really awkward 11:30 time. Besides, I don’t want my achilles to flare up before our next trip away and walking about all day would surely do that.

There we are, not a wimp at all, but a fully justified decision. Hah!

Research for the next trip is going well. I found a wild camping spot by the Strathnaver Museum, so investigated the museum itself. What I found was a delightful surprise: a geocaching trail. We like the look of this very much, especially as some of the caches involve a proper walk – boots required and all that. It fits in with my hoped-for plan of exploring the larger Strathnaver Trail. We shall probably use the geocaching trail to inform our plans when we go, and structure a couple of days around the doing of it. There’s a downloadable PDF booklet here, about the caches – with OS map and full details.

Researching places to stop overnight is hard work. Most of the recommended spots carry those nasty orange “No Overnight Parking” signs. The status of these signs is disputable and an agreement is in place that the Highlands Council will remove many of them as and when it can afford to. In the meantime, how can a camper tell which signs are to stay and be enforced and which are coming down? The whole situation is very confused and confusing. I understand the encouragement to use commercial sites but many of them are now closed for the season, and others won’t host us at all because of our furry friends – and then there is the cost aspect… not to mention the fact that the last place we would want to park up is alongside people… people like us. Ugh.

Anyway, I have written to the Highlands Council to see if I can obtain a list of sites for which a Traffic Order has been  obtained. Best to keep on the right side of the Law if at all possible.