End of Summer trip with our Grandson Day 5

View of Eileen Donan Castle taken from our campsite

The little campsite we were in last night was really nice, and I would never have expected to feel that way at first sight.  It appears to be just a random field set up for camper vans.  Nothing special, and it isn’t really….  But the toilets are nice, it is inexpensive, there are baskets with fresh eggs, biscuits and juice on offer, not free but there with an honestly box. (The biscuits are British biscuits - otherwise known as cookies in the US!)

The little pizza place just across the street from the campsite

The view of Eileen Donan Castle is a fabulous bonus and there is a darling little pizza place and bakery just across the street - Pizza Jo's and Manuela's Bakery  What is not to love about it?  I would return in a heartbeat!  Oh, not to mention Dornie Village just a short walk away!

Breakfast from Manuela's!

We started the morning by visiting Manuela’s Bakery and getting a Nutella Croissant and a apple and cinnamon “cookie” (which looked like a Danish to me).  Both still warm so we ran back to Ruby and tucked into these delicious baked goods! 

Our next stop was all the way to Aviemore and the Highland Wildlife Park to see the first Polar Bear cub born in the UK for 25 years!  His name is Hamish and he was born in this park in December 2017.  According to our satnav, it was only a 2 hour journey, but the satnav treats us as if we are travelling in a normal car at normal speed.  Add that to the slow traffic due to road construction and temporary road signs, it took us over 3 hours to get there! So we arrived about 2pm.  

The first thing I wanted to do was get some lunch, since I had not even let Alan stop for that!  But Corbyn asked if we could go straight to see the Polar Bears and this was his day.  I know  a few people who have travelled up here that never saw Hamish.  There is no guarantee, he is a baby after all and might be taking a nap or something.  But we were so lucky! We saw him playing and swimming and getting fed.  Loved every minute of this.  His mother, Victoria, was there too, obviously, and I could just imagine her saying, what have you got in your mouth now, Hamish! If I had insisted on eating lunch first and hadn't listened to Corbyn, we might have missed all of this! 

Corbyn and I also saw Wolverines and wolves and a snow leopard and a few other fabulous animals. This park only keeps animals that can handle the extreme cold that happens in the Cairngorm Mountains.  Eventually it was time to leave and off we went to be collected by Alan where he dropped us off.

Why did he drop us off and not come along? Because dogs are not even allowed in the car park!  So we got out at the gate and walked 15 minutes to get to the park. When we purchased our ticket, we had to sign in and leave a mobile. Then, if we didn’t sign out, they would contact us to make sure we were ok.  Hmmm, not feeling too great about heading into what is really a safari park designed for cars to drive around!  But it was fine and we saw quite a bit.  On the return, I missed the office where I was supposed to sign out and had to ask the security guard at the entrance to the car park to contact them for me!  

Herd of red deer seen on the way to Blair Atholl

Alan entertained himself and Kenzie for 3 and a half hours and we are very grateful to him for allowing us to be able to go to the park and have this fantastic memory.

We were all very tired after this and stopped at the nearest place that made sense, this was about an hour away from the park - at Blair Castle.  The park is appropriately called Blair Castle Caravan Park.  It is lovely and must be on the grounds of the castle, which is right next door. There is a shop and even a hairdresser, and the grounds are very nice. The fee was very high too.  But there is nothing exciting about being here.  I think last night’s exceptionally basic campsite with Eileen Donan in our view was must more interesting.

I messed up on buying our dinner supplies. I declared early on, I was not cooking in the camper. But I didn’t mind the odd ready made meal going into the oven.  So this had become a staple to pad out the times we might eat in a restaurant or chippy.  But I bought meals that had to be microwaved and we don’t have one!  So we had to go find dinner after setting up at Blair Castle. 

Lo and behold, just across the street, in Blair Atholl itself, is a marquee with a fish and chip shop!  This looks like an event  called Food in the Park, with a marquee and stage.  But the way it is reviewed on Tripadviser it sounds like a permanent set up. Once you walk through the chippy, that is where the marquee is and a huge temporary bar is set up on the other side. The rest of it looks set up for live music, which happens on the weekends.  (the things we miss…..)

We decided to just eat there and not get it to go.  Corbyn got a gorgeous looking pizza, Alan got a Sausage supper and I got Fish Cakes that were delicious!  And their chips were amazing!  I hardly ever eat my chips so the fact I barely left any says it all.

Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.      

Jack Hanna