Round up of the Scotland Tour Post Its, Saturday 26th October, 2013 from East Yorkshire.

I thought I would just round up the holiday with a few facts, comments and views about it all and the writing of the stories for the Caravan Club web site.

After we returned home from our first trip to Spain and back in June this year we hummed and hared whether we should go to Scotland in the September or return to the continent. It was the warmer weather that made us think of altering our intended plans. Because we had honeymooned touring Scotland 34 years ago we decided we would go back because if we did not do it now we would likely never return and we wanted to see the scenery as much as anything else.

The worst bit of the holiday was the weather, we are really fair weather lovers and since we spent 16 months in Spain a short while ago it really reinforced that we like the warm dry climate best. On this tour we had lots of rain but the really surprising thing was that we were extremely lucky and managed to avoid getting ourselves really wet. We were either in Bessie or a NT property and occasionally a pub and when we were out in the rain we would walk rather than cycle and take our big umbrellas with us. The temperatures were quite good for the UK and we only had really low temperatures for a short period of time. No frosts or snow at all.

The best part of the holiday was the beautiful scenery we have seen and the wildlife that we encountered, Seals, Otters, Osprey, possible Golden Eagle, Salmon, Red Squirrels, Red Deer to name the ones we are not used to seeing. After returning home though I do not feel as though we have had as much relaxation this time compared to on the continent because we had fewer longer stays on sites. Next time I think I will try and get the happy medium but then again I want better weather to be able to sit outside in the warmth to relax.

Considering we have stayed on 13 camp sites in total and met lots of people I must say that the people we met abroad were generally more engaging than here. We met one couple, Cilla and Barrie, who we shall no doubt see again but these were the exception. Perhaps when its Brits abroad we tend to make the extra effort to engage with other Brits more, who knows? I was also surprised that hardly any of the Club members we met used the forum for any purpose at all. We certainly are in a very tiny minority.

We enjoyed everywhere we stayed but really loved Ayr and Edinburgh because of all the things to do with no car being needed but I think my favourite stay was the four nights at Bunree because the weather was exceptional, the scenery awesome and we spent three full days outside and cycled 40 miles.

There was only one disappointing aspect to the holiday and that was the lack of internet access on quite a number of the Club sites, I think it really lets the Club down when we cannot ensure, what has become a basic provision, is there for all to enjoy.

Would we go back? Yes but not for a long time, there are many more places to see and I for one will be voting for warmer climates or perhaps we can do one abroad and one in the UK. This is our first year of camping and we have spent 136 days away and next year I want to be away more. Smokee seems to have really enjoyed it and that makes us happy.

Here are the stats then and in brackets I have included the same figures for our holiday earlier in the year to France and Spain as the differences surprised me:

We were away from home a total of 47 (65) nights, all of which were spent on Club sites at a total cost of £821.30 which averaged out at £17.48 (£11.80) a night. We drove a total of 1258 (3244) miles, which used 202 (473) litres of diesel at an average cost of £1.38 (£1.29) per litre, total cost £278 (£609). This made an average of 28.2 (31.16) mpg which I was very impressed with as when we set off we weighed 3850 (3845) kilos. We used about 3.5kg of gas (6.0kg) for cooking purposes only as we tend to use the oven quite a lot and we spent a total of around £2300 (£2400) including everything so it averages out at about £49 (£37) a day.

If you take into account the additional fuel costs when we drove to Spain and deduct that from the total cost of that holiday for comparison it means that the UK holiday was around £17, or 53%, a night more expensive than the continental one. Admittedly we actually spent more on public transport and food away from the van in the UK but because we were members of the National Trust all the places I have mentioned that we visited were free and I have not included the cost of membership in the stats. This difference in price really surprised me but I think it was cheaper abroad because the sites were so much cheaper and the lifestyle with the warmer dry weather meant you did not spend as much on public transport or eating out. The food costs in Spain are also much cheaper where the ones in France were similar to home or slightly more expensive.

I hope people enjoyed reading my stories, I know some have said they did and our friends enjoyed reading them also. Bessie is all washed and cleaned out and back in storage so until the next tour, probably April 2014, take care and have a good Christmas.

Regards, Roy