Ep 3: The Scottish Highlands | Our Van Life UK Adventures ( NC500 )

Damn, that's got some flavour to it Not very nice town next to a Weatherspoons in a car park it's just not  what we came out here to do I think tonight's gonna be a bit of an experience that's gonna happen to us me and liam are having a complete disaster now welcome to our first proper day on the nc 500.   today we're going to one of the first  stops uh along the route on the east coast   of the north coast 500 called dornick  followed by waterfalls and um and other stuff   uh on our journey who knows what what's around  the corner but we're looking forward to it [Music] this is the dornoch general stores and we hear  that it's pretty vegan friendly and the reason why   it's so interesting that is because so far outside  inverness it hasn't been very vegan friendly so   for this to be actually vegan friendly it's  quite amazing so let's go and check it out like you can do your refills as well like  zero waste cleaning station which is amazing   oh that's a nice big hat in it? does it make me look does  it make my head look massive no give us a spin i like it, I fancy one we're not allowed to buy the same clothes it sticks up. It doesn't look quite right on me  does it it, it really suits you it looks like an elfs hat yeah that's the problem with me wearing things   like this is i want it it's going  to look like i'm wearing an elf hat found some scottish shortbreads uh by  lazydays i didn't realize lazyday did um   uh shortbread so that's really  cool might get some of those   next place we're going to is a place called milk  and honey which sounds like the opposite of vegan   but apparently it's a little bit  more vegan friendly so wish us luck so they've got a veggie breakfast and with that  veggie breakfast it's almost vegan but you just   take away the eggs but it's too late we're 20  minutes late to have that now so we're on to the   lunch menu and they have got um they've got like  a roasted red pepper tomato avocado and hummus   sandwich and with that they do a deal where you  can get a soup and i think they've got like a   yellow split pea soup or a thai vegetable soup  or something like that and so you can get a soup   in a sandwich and they've also got a vegan option  in their cakes as well so they've got a couple of   options she even said you know we can if we find  something on the lunch menu that is actually vegan   we can sort of mix and match and make our own if  we want but i think i'm just going to go for the   sandwich and the soup to be honest i think  i might as well yeah and a cake sounds good the sandwich was actually delicious   jam-packed with veg and a generous  amount of hummus we were impressed   really good that is excellent it's so good it's  like the nicest carrot soup i think i've ever had Damn,   that's got some flavour to it it's a um  a strawberry and almonds and pear i think   um cake and there's another awesome looks so good that is delicious it's halfway between a cake  and a pudding it's so good moist isn't even   the word it is amazing i just thought it  was like the castoff cake oh give him that   that is up there is one of the nicest cakes i've  had in a very long time our friend uh fiona has   recommended this play saying um they've got plant  milks and it's a cocoa mountain um so obviously   chocolate Janine wants a hot chocolate maybe  potentially let's go and have a look shall we so they got vegan hot chocolate  and so janine's really happy   and look at all of these lovely chocolates  that they got and they've got oat milk   and soya milk this is a really  good recommendation fiona thank you okay so i've got my new hat and  a hot chocolate so i'm all snug   today but i'm going to try this because  it sounds like it's going to be amazing that is delicious it's so creamy it's really nice i swear to god there's castles everywhere  in the in scotland which is amazing just   shows how amazing this place is there's a  castle behind me in fact it's also the place   where they burnt the last witch in scotland is in  this town as well which is quite um don't worry it   wasn't like you know five years ago it was in the  1700s i believe um so so yeah really interesting   town fully recommend it it's so so so pretty uh as  you said madonna and guy richie got married here   elon musk comes here apparently and um it's just  really really picturesque funnily enough something   i spotted is that um i would say 75 percent of  the people i've spoken to are english are english   which is i've got an english accent anyway which  is really interesting so it must be quite a good   so quite a expatriate sort of place as well if  you can call them that if we're going from going   to england scotland anyway just an interesting  observation onwards to the next destination so we're heading towards a place  called wick but we're going to   stop off at a few places along the  way so we're about to get in the van   i'm waiting for liam to come and pick  me up and then we're going to shoot off i have to say the star of the show at this time  of year so it's this is if you're watching this in   the future this month is may we're in may this is  the month of may and i don't know what the gorse   situation this plant here is called gorse,  apparently you can make vegan honey out of it as   well looks like the tea tree plant uh the manuka  honey plant from new zealand but yeah it's on   full display at the moment i don't know people in  scotland probably tell me here all summer long but   it is amazing right now there's also uh along  with that you've just seen a video of the um   there's christmas tree farms everywhere we've  seen loads of them so far so getting well prepared   for christmas and of course it's pine forests  quite a lot of pine forests everywhere as well   and the spring blossom is out at the moment so uh  magnolia trees plum trees apple trees they're all   in blossom it's the most beautiful time probably  to be here i would say and i've got no comparison okay so we have just arrived at the big burn  walk so we're at the start of the walk now um   i think it's like one and a half k to get there  or something but i just wanted to say as soon as   we pulled up and i got out of the van and started  walking i just walked up here on my own without   liam my mood just instantly got better like i was  a little bit sort of not feeling great i'm not   sure if i had the best night's sleep last night  and i'm feeling really tired and i wasn't actually   looking forward to walking i was thinking oh god  you know what it's like when you're really tired   you can't be bothered to walk but as soon as i  got out in this here my it just lifted me and i'm   really up for walking now it's only a one and a  half k but i'm just so excited to do this walk and   to get to a waterfall as well i love waterfalls  um so yeah i just thought i'd say maybe it's like   just getting out in nature can really lift your  spirits and it just did it like immediately for   me so yeah if you're inside and you're feeling  a little bit glum get outside into nature   okay so liam's just informed me that actually  it's one and a half k there to the waterfall   and one and a half came back so it's like a 3k  round trip so i just wanted to correct myself   just in case you're thinking of coming yourself  so yeah and it's in a town called golsby as well   whoa how amazing is this it looks so gorgeous  it reminds me a little bit of new zealand i love you wow that waterfall was way more  incredible than i expected it to be   i would highly recommend if you're passing through  or you're in the area um of golspy then head to   big burn waterfall it was really nice um but now  we are off to one of scotland's oldest castles dunrobin castle is just a five minute drive from  big burn waterfall and well worth checking out   they charge around 12 pound per person to  explore inside the castle and the amazing gardens   but it's free to wander around the  outside which is what we chose to do   perhaps if we had more time we  would have gone in to explore pretty stormy right now we've hit the beach  just to get the epic dunrobin and castle shot   will it be worth it i hope so check this out oh out god it's suddenly got really  windy and really cold like it's   freezing now how cute is this little house   i know we're at a castle i know we're at a castle  but that is like my ideal house it's so cute you know what i think back home about driving  around back home and why are you in the m25   and then you look at the bloody scenery out  here you just think my god like do you ever   get do you ever take this sort of scenery  for granted if you live here or is it just   always always epic because i'd go with  the latter with this it's just absolutely   outstanding as janine quite rightly said  it's the probably the most magnificent bit   of the of coastline we've seen it's  just absolutely staggering look at that how cool was that they were long-haired highland  cows they're on our bucket list of things to see   because they're so beautiful we've just pulled up in wick janine needed an  external hard drive because we ran out of space   for these videos we're making for you um wick is  where we're gonna stop for the night i think uh   we're gonna go i've checked park4night, park4night  is the app that you use to try and look for uh   park ups potential park ups so we're gonna  go to the harbour because i think there's   um there's a potential park up there there  isn't many park ups here by the looks of it honestly we just arrived um in this location and  we got out the van and it's absolutely freezing   here i don't know if it's just like got colder  all round and maybe like everywhere it's just   a few degrees colder or if it's because  we have come north but like more north   but it's so like bitterly cold out there my  hands are just like bright red you know when   they go tingly they're so cold yeah it's really  cold i hope we've got enough blankets and stuff   for tonight because i think it's gonna  be a bit of a struggle hopefully not but so wick is a funny old place a funny  old place a funny old place indeed we just went into the town of wick um i  don't know it's just because it's a grey   day or whatever but it doesn't  look that nice uh out there um   it looks a bit it looked a bit sort of  dodgy it looks like sort of staying in like   a bit of a sort of not very nice town next to a  weather spoons in a car park it's just not what   we came out here to do um so we're but staying on  a harbour is okay i'd like to like look out over   boats and the sea so um one thing that we did was  when we drove down here we had to get to argos   before they shut because we knew it was probably  the only place that we can get an external hard   drive if we didn't get an external hard drive we  couldn't make that we couldn't keep making the   videos so we've done that now we've actually gone  past a few places that we wanted to stop off at   so tomorrow we were going to go back on ourselves  anyway so we might as well stay overnight just a   bit further out still and uh come back and come  back through this way tomorrow so that's what   we're gonna do so if you wish us luck hopefully  we'll be another sort of like smaller villagey   town harbour soon um for a park up and i'll  be making janine a banging vegetable curry we actually went back to wick the  following day and it was a nice town   we obviously just caught it in the bad light these weird little towns are really dark   but the buildings are dark and the sky  is dark and it makes the whole thing dark this little village or town was  just a few miles away from whaligoe,   blink and you will miss it  but i'm so glad we didn't   yeah it is it is you can't drive down the  bottom because you'll end up in the water   basically that's gonna happen  to us we're not careful it says uh campervans are welcome to park  here overnight on the hard area at the harbour   in my opinion there's a couple of hard areas  at the harbour um anyway and the sea's really   choppy as well so it'll be an interesting  evening um just don't park on the grass area   so we're gonna go back up it's very difficult to  turn around it's very um very narrow and tight   so we're gonna go back up here turn around go  back down again and that's us for the evening so yeah we're gonna be sleeping on that hard  area that we just turned around at a second ago   um in the harbour and the sea looks so choppy wow   it looks so rough as well down there and really  windy today as well so i think tonight's going   to be a bit of an experience so  i'm a little bit nervous but yeah this is the beautiful libster community  harbour it's a dramatic little park up   and even has a community cafe  here during the busy season so anyway looks like we're going to park here  for the night um the the thing on the app said   that it's okay, its a community community run  harbor and that it's okay to park on the hard   standing well this is hard standing that's hard  standing the difference between this and that   is this is a little bit higher that has, the  campervan behind us said that its got waves   crashing over the top um which means it's  probably slightly dangerous because the   the sea's really choppy today um and you don't  want to be stuck down there with with all of the   sea coming over the top of the top of it so we're  now parked on this beautiful stunning little beach   here which is right next to the harbour it says  no overnight parking but if anybody wanted us to   move on all we would have to do is drive down  around the corner and that would be right so   i'm feeling pretty comfortable with it i feel a  little bit safer being on a bit higher up because   the waves are pretty big and i'm actually really  excited to be in this beautiful location for the   evening um it's so cool listening to the sound of  waves at night brilliant um so let's make a curry yeah i've got to admit it is absolutely  stunning here like just looking around   it's so it feels so sort of rough  and rustic and like you're kind of   in the heart of scotland um and that's  really exciting this is why we came here   for experiences like this so i really do hope  we don't get moved on um if we do we'll just   end up like right in the harbour anyway um  so that could be quite interesting but yeah   this park up this park up is um is going to be a  really good one i hope we can stay the night here i may as well film this because me and  liam are having a complete disaster now   um we so we stopped off at this marina and i  got in the back of the caravan uh the camper van   and um i started charging my battery for  my camera and it knocked off the bed and um   completely broke it smells of smoke  so something's blown inside it   and um that was the only one that we had we  did have another one but it's not working um   so we've had two break on this um on this trip  yeah we're in the middle of nowhere and nowhere   sells the battery charger we've got another  week seven days left so we need battery for my   um camera there's an argos down the road  but they don't sell it they sell the camera   but they don't sell the charger but anyway  we've cancelled the curry now i thought i'd   do this update we're having a disaster um we  hope that this isn't gonna completely just   destroy everything because it's really upsetting  if it does um and yeah we'll just wait and see yeah... buy now... oh god please get there   we could be spending a week at the argyle  hotel in the ulapool if we're not careful oh that's so good yeah saying it's gonna get there  um let's just double check it oh it's only two and   a half hours three hours of absolute worry and  all that sort of stuff i really hope this is the   the real deal i'm up here by the way because it's  the only point to get the actual bar reception to   get it that's the one isn't it e ep 12 for canon  m50 yeah so it turns out that amazon we're trying   to get find a place where amazon could deliver to  they obviously can't deliver it to our campervan   so we tried everywhere all on the north east coast  of scotland and they won't deliver it there at all   for some reason they won't deliver there uh or  it will take like a week to get there rather   than overnight as it usually does but we're  heading to somewhere called ullapool which   is supposed to be really nice along the route i  don't we don't know when we're gonna arrive there   um but looks like now it's gonna have to be around  the sunday night mark um just so we can get the   battery charger so we've got to make the batteries  now last for the whole of tomorrow which is friday   the whole of saturday and some of sunday as well  that's our challenge now so uh we do have phones   but when you're in the highlands and stuff it's  just not the same um and we've come all this way   and we've bought you know a campervan and all  that sort of stuff so um yeah fingers crossed   for us please uh it's uh and now i'm gonna go  outside with the phone and show you this place so we've left that lovely location now and it  was absolutely gorgeous there we both we both   said how much we enjoyed our stay there because  it was just so gorgeous one of our favorite spots   um waking up this morning and just looking out  the window and having the sea right there in   front of you and it was really rough as well  so it was quite rustic it was so loud when we   were sleeping but it was nice anyway but now we  are off to the most northerly point of britain   and we're going to show you that  and after that we're going to go to   some steps that everyone keeps telling  us about they keep telling us to go to   and we don't know why they're so special but  we're going to find out and show you as well so if you want to see the most  normally point of scotland and these   magical mystical steps that we've got no  idea about but everyone's raving about   um then make sure you subscribe so you see when  the when the video comes up hit the notifications   bell as well because that also reminds you when  the the next video has been posted thumbs up if   you liked the video you know the drill and uh  i think next time we're going to long overdue   cook a bit of scottish food in our  campervan and i've got a recipe in mind so   yeah make sure you tune in to watch that thank you  for so much for watching and following our journey [music] ok, so loreim... loreim? Ive turned scottish liam's taking on a scottish no name he's really  getting into the spirit of things lorraine

Channel: Those Happy Days

Views: 3,638

Rating: 4.9563637 out of 5

Keywords: Van Life UK, uk van life, North Coast 500, nc500, van life, van life Scotland, campervan, scotland Road trip, tain, wick, dornach, dunrobin, van life adventures, vegan uk, uk vegan, vegan food uk, van lifers, tiny home, Highlands, waterfalls, travel Scotland, uk travel, travel uk, vegan food, camping, scotland vegan, vegan Scotland, East Coast Scotland, Ford Transit conversion, van, park-up, park for night, wild camping, free camping, wild camping UK, wild camping Scotland

Id: LR1iSEhqRsk

Length: 24min 46sec (1486 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021