Thursday 23rd - Now it's time to pick up the hire car and hit the road. After a late start, we headed to the Avis depot and got into a shiny new Audi A4 Diesel. Then we were off for St Andrews to check out the Cathedral and Castle ruins and then to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The golfers Mecca. We finished the day with a short drive to Dundee for the night.

Typical St Andrews buildings

Ruins of the St Andrews Cathedral

Ruins of the St Andrews Castle

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club

Friday 24th - A bit of a drive today from Dundee to Inverness. Stops include The Dundee Law (the lookout), Perth, Pitlochry and Blair Castle. Over night stay is in Dores on Loch Ness (about 10 km out of Inverness).

Overlooking Dundee from the Dundee Law

Images of Perth over the Tay River

Pitlochry Village and overlooking the salmon ladder at Pitlochry Dam

Blair Castle

Spectacular Highland country south of Inverness

Beer'o'clock on the shores of Loch Ness

Saturday 25th - On the road through the Scotland highlands and across the country from Inverness to The Isle of Skye with lots of stops to see the sights.

Loch Ness - The first two from the Inverness end - The last 4 from the Fort Agustus end.

The Waterfalls and old stone bridge at Invermoriston

Some of the scenery travelling west from Invermoriston to The Isle of Skye

Now over the Skye Bridge to more spectacular scenery

Sunday 26th - In the morning we went for a drive around the island to Portree and then to Armadale to catch the car ferry across to Malig and then onto Fort William.

The morning view from our B&B

The local town of Uig

Not far from Uig people make rock castles - Phil had a go but cant compete with the pro's

Views from the Kilt Rock lookout

The town of Portree

About to catch the ferry to Malig

Magnificent views from the ferry

The Jacobite Steam train at Glenfininn and crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct

Our accommodation and beer'o'clock in Fort William

Monday 27th - The idea for today was to visit the Glencoe historical centre, take a cruise on Loch Lomond and then an easy drive onto Glasgow. But the weather was a real bitch. Cold, wet and miserable it was and driving was a nightmare. There was a nasty accident on the A82 which had us stopped in the middle of nowhere for 2 1/2 hours. Then we got to Glasgow, Bruce (the little aussie man in the GPS unit), wasnt aware that Glasgow had a new motorway system and kept telling us to do a U-Turn on the 4 lane M8 motorway. Beer'o'clock was well earned today.

The magnificent views of the Glencoe mountains (use your imagination here)

The accident site - 5km ahead of where we sat for 2 1/2 hours

Our tour of Loch Lomond from the car

Tuesday 28th - A pretty easy tourist day today. Spent a few hours on the Hop-On / Hop-Off bus then had a walk around the city area. Weather was fine but cold and windy. Planning on an early night tonight as we have a big drive to Lincoln in England tomorrow.

Wednesday 29th - A bit of driving today from Glasgow to Lincoln in England. It was a bit of a haul with some heavy rain to contend with. We did manage to get off the motorways for a couple of hours to visit sections of Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Fort at Birdoswald. All worked out well and we got to Lincoln with plenty of daylight left to look at the Lincoln Cathedral.

Images of the wall and the Roman Fort (last one is from the Visit Cumbria website)

Lincoln Cathedral (more to come tomorrow)

Thursday 30th - Another rainy morning which was a real bummer as the village and scenery around Lincoln is great. We started at the castle for a quick look before heading back to the cathedral. The cathedral is HUGE and it is impossible to get a full photo of it from any direction as it is surrounded by other buildings. While at the cathedral we booked in for the "roof tour" which takes up the narrow stairways into the bell tower and the attic above the nave.  The perspective you get from seeing things from the other side is amazing. Of particular interest is being able to see where/how the cathedral architecture changed from "Norman" to Gothic" during its life. It's also amazing the see the ceiling detail from close up. Detail impossible to see from the nave floor. After lunch it was time to hit the road for a quick 4 hour drive across the country to Caernarfon in Wales.

Did I tell you I like driving in the UK ? - People over here keep left unless overtaking and make a space for you if you indicate you want to change lanes. I'm sure I will hate driving once I get back.

The cathedral from the Castle

The castle from the cathedral

From inside the cathedral

An aerial image I pinched from the internet

High up above the nave

The 1000+ year old timber roof structure above the nave

The detail high up in the nave ceiling

Up on the cathedral roof

Some preliminary shots of Wales and Caernarfon

Friday 31st - We spent the morning exploring the many rooms and passages of the Caernarfon Castle before heading south to Cardiff. We did a few stops on the way admiring the magnificent scenery of the Snowdon National Park in North Wales.

Some images from around the castle

Images of the North Wales countryside

Saturday 1st September - We didn't plan to do too much in Cardiff as the overnight stay was mainly to break the driving into reasonable segments. We had a quick look around town before heading south to Tintagel for our overnight at the Camelot Castle Hotel. (The flags flying over the Cardiff Castle were the Welsh and Australian flags. The Australian flags were in honour of the Australian Paralympics Team who made Cardiff their training base before they headed to London)

Cardiff Castle

The charming town of Tintagel and the surrounding views of the Cornwall coast

Sunday 2nd September - After breakfast, we took a few pics from around the Camelot Castle Hotel before heading over to Port Isaac. Or Port Wenn for you Doc Martin fans. From there it was another longish drive to Salisbury.