Heading South

Tuesday was mostly a driving day as we wandered around the backroads, various peninsulas and bays in western Scotland. Extricating ourselves from that part of Scotland wasn’t a quick or direct process. We stopped briefly in Stirling – there was a very large monument to some famous Scottish guy – it’s another history thing, I understand….

Once out of Stirling, it was mostly “dual carriageways” past and south of Edinburgh. We did a repeat night at a nice campsite near the Tweed River and Berwick, at least partly because we knew the place had a microwave so we could have some hot food for a change.

Some distance south of Berwick, we hiked to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, located on a small point of land along the coast. Further south was Alnwick Castle, used for some Hogwarts scenes in the first two episodes of Harry Potter. The town itself was another in a long series of quaint English villages, always worth a walk around, so we did.

For another three hours, we drove on busy dual carriageways further south past several medium-sized cities to arrive near Whitby, a small town on the East Coast, noted for it’s connection to Captain Cook, who was born nearby and whose ships were built in Whitby. Our camping for the night was in possibly the first “forest” we’ve been in since we left home. Camping in a pine forest – it was so Canadian!

What followed, in order, I think, was a 3-hour walk along part of the Cleveland Way between Whitby and Robin Hood Bay. Nice enough, but not as nice as other coastal walks we’ve done. Then some driving to get us close to York. Camping with some light showers overnight. In to York first thing in the morning and a couple of hours exploring York Minster – excellent guided tour. Then a 4 ½ hour drive on busy motorways to get us a few miles from Oxford with only 30 minutes sitting in traffic gridlock because of an accident somewhere. Free parking on the outskirts of Oxford with a walk into town center. Exploring Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, Museum of Natural History and various colleges of the University of Oxford. Drive to the Heathrow area, unpack the car at the hotel and figure out how to get the rental car back and then figure out how to get back to the hotel. Only took 2 hours….

Our time here is now definitely at the short end.