Day 10 (Things I ate About You) Friday 1st July

 The Helmsdale Hostel is perfect, everything I could have wanted and I want to come back to Scotland now just to stay there again. 

I was about 30 mins behind time, but there is so much flexibility built into my plan, it's never a stress. It was a long old run down the A9, but with some lovely coastal views. Through Inverness and along Loch Ness. Which frankly was a disapointment. I'm sure it's just as stunning and remarkable as the other Lochs I have seen, but the road alongside is lined with trees and there is not much to see. I reckon it HAS to be seen from a cruise...... 

Next was Loch Lochy for a (late) breakfast stop and this one had a huge impact on me. It felt as though it needed exploring more and for as short a time as I was here, it's definitely one of my favourites. 

Onward and up to the Cairngorms another incredible area, but with a very different feel to the Highlands and North East. Again, somewhere to focus on next time. 

Then it really was the long haul down through South Scotland, across the Queensferry Bridge, skirted Ediunburgh and onward, and onward, and onward. At one point, coming towards me off a roundabout was a family car with smoke billowing out of the back. I flagged him down, spun round and now he had parked on the verge, it was clear..... we checked it over and there was nothing obvious , so I got him to start the engine to rev it rather than drive b ut even that wasn't necessary, as soo as it fired up, it pumped white and blue smoke out of the exhaust. He phoned the AA and I left him to it. 

I was in the groove and running ahead of time so I pushed on to Kielder Forest Park in Northumberland and found my bedding down spot for the night. 

Halfway through setting up camp (about 4 minutes in) I realised that the midges were rallying and there were literally clouds of them. I coimpleted setting up dived in and hid. It was about 7pm and I set up the netbook downlaoding the cam footage of the day and fell asleep. I hadn't realised I was so tired. I woke at about 2130, packed the chrome book away and fell straight back to sleep. 

It rained in the night. I stayed dry. Good Enough.