The journey up was quite painless and easier than even my most optimistic expectations. We left Eastleigh just before 0500 and reached Tebay services by 1100 (having already had a breakfast stop). Tebay services is an essential stop for anyone travelling the M6. They sell lots of lovely homemade cakes, including ENORMOUS meringues. There is also a farm shop and butcher selling lots of lovely looking meats and pies and fruit and stuff. Most high streets don't have a butcher now, so very welcoming to find one at a motorway service area.

We stayed self-catering (£315 for a week in the height of summer - beat that) in a static caravan that was advertised as "one step up from camping" but it was way better than that. Warm, dry, comfortable - a very good find. And as the site also had camping pitches, we were able to see at first-hand how much better our accommodation coped with the rain than tents did.

We saw these cute critters:

We took a train ride from Crianlarich to Mallaig. Look them up on the map, and see where the railway goes. Through some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK. I didn't get many photos as it is difficult to take photos from a moving train because the object goes out of sight before you have a chance to compose your shot, or is hidden by unexpected trees or a tunnel just as you press the shutter. Or you just end up with a photo of a reflection of the inside of the indow.

At Mallaig we saw a seal swimming in the harbour and on the way back we saw a lot of deer on the moor. No photos though as both the deer and the train were moving too quickly, and generally in opposite directions.

At a forest visitor centre there was this apparatus where you could damn and unblock your own channels. Possibly to discourage visitors from damning and unblocking real streams. I spent quite a few minutes playing.

Various walks included Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, Ben Lomond, and a woodland walk at the forest visitor centre. Lots of different plants in the forest, including wild raspberries and winberries. At least, I think they were winberries. They might have been poisonous berries, but as I am still here to tell the tale I think we can safely assume that they weren't.

Ben Lomond is a steep climb. It was a hot sunny day on the way up and we had great views from the top.

However, the weather quickly closed in (remember: "if you don't like the weather, just hang around for ten minutes") and we had a very wet descent.

And here's a really important tip: if your rucksack contains apples, make sure it is not pointing down-slope when you open it at the top of a mountain. But if in ten years' time you hear of a wild orchard in Glen Lomond, you will know that I started it.

We spent two days in Edinburgh, staying overnight with CGF's cousin, who also gave us a lift to and from the city centre.

We spent a couple of hours at the Museum of Scotland where there is a varied selection of exhibits, a bit like the V&A in London. We also went to the Camera Obscura as I remembered it as being good from my last visit to the city. As well as the camera, there are lots of examples of optical illusions, visual tricks, etc.

There were some large "magic eye" posters, which I've never been able to see. It was quite odd to hear CGF explain what was there: "two sharks playing cards around a table". "Yeah, right" I thought, "you could be making anything up and I wouldn't know". CGF bought a magic eye book from the gift shop and later I looked at it and, guess what? I COULD SEE THE HIDDEN IMAGES. It was so exciting.

In the evening we went to the Edinburgh Tattoo. It was spectacular. Great entertainment. The arena is about the size of a football pitch and we were sitting near the top of the stand about half-way down, so had a great view.

There was well-organised crowd-control to get thousands of spectators through the narrow approach as quickly and safely as possible at the end, with marshals stationed along the route, some with loud hailers ("if you want a coach, turn right; if you want a train, turn left; if you want a taxi, good luck").

On the second day in Edinburgh we climbed Arthur's Seat (as previously mentioned), and then walked up the Royal Mile and watched some of the Fringe street theatre.

At Stirling we looked at the Wallace Monument but thought that £9.45 was an outrageous admission price so didn't go in. It would be like making the French pay to see Nelson's Column. We also walked through the town and up to the castle - but again didn't go in as the price there was even more outrageous and it was almost closing time.

After a few days to pluck up the courage we went back to the forest visitor centre where there was a Go Ape site. If you haven't come across Go Ape before, it is a series of tree top walks and swings and zip wires. And having been on it I can say that it is awesome - another of my "eleven and three-quarter things to do before I am 50" ticked off the list. This site was able to make use of the topography to create really long zip-wires. The final one was 426 metres long, and you couldn't see the bottom from the top because of the trees.

We stayed overnight with CGF's parents on the way home, and brought them back with us for a short stay. Yesterday we went on an overseas day trip, and today I was back at work. But that is for a later post.