Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: Scotland, mudland and beautiful Inverness

We just made it to the airport in time to meet our 7am flight - and found we were on the flight full of 'Dance Mom's' and their daughters. I've never been on a plane with so many kids - squealing girls -and couldn't wait to land and get out of there.

We literally walked off the plane to see our luggage coming out first - the fastest turnaround ever. We headed to the Thrifty counter to pick up our car - i had changed our booking the night before from Budget to Thrifty as it was cheaper by 40 pounds - hey every pound counts here! The car would be 'an i40 or similar' and as we had an i40 in Ireland, i knew our 3 large bags would fit. The short story is, the website I'd booked on was a US website - even though i specified my country as Australia and the quote was in pounds. When we arrived, we were told we'd booked a standard car without the mandatory insurance. I'd been duped. Furious, I went to every counter and the prices I was getting quoted were ridiculous. Thrifty tried to pacify my fury (being tired and slightly hungover certainly didn't help and I was blatantly rude) and they worked out a deal where ended up with a 4WD Volvo somethingerother - but there's another lesson learnt. I bloody well made sure I checked this car out and have vowed to never book through Thrifty again!

By this stage - I did carry on quite a bit - it was near 10:30am and we were starving. We were heading to Inverness for the night and so stopped at a trusty McDonalds a short distance out of Glasgow for breaky (it is just so handy!) At the counter i couldn't understand a word the young guy was saying - I felt terrible as I had to ask him to repeat himself 4 times. He just spoke so quick!
James then decided he would like to get some KFC - he just couldn't eat Maccas again. He skipped over to KFC across the carpark - 'don't run you'll slip' I yelled out after him. Well, of course you know what happened, James slipped and as he described it, 'first i was running and then i slipped and i was in mudland' The poor kid was covered head to toe in mud! It had been raining for a full week before we arrived and the grass was soaked. Terry thought he was laughing - and he was actually bawling - and as you can imagine it was chaos. I rummaged through the suitcases in the back of the car to try and find clothes and thankfully the rain had stopped just in time.

After our shaky start, off we went again. Even though i loved Ireland, I REALLY loved what i was seeing in Scotland. Terry thought perhaps i was trying to block out my convict Irish ancestry as I have ancestors that were free settlers to Australia from Biggar and Tain in Scotland.

The road to Inverness was the most crazy road we had ever driven on. It took a lot of concentration from Terry and the kids were as good as gold (most) of the way. Thank goodness the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out - it seems everywhere we go this has been the pattern and we aren't complaining! The road was so narrow and trucks were flying around corners taking up a lot of the lane. We stopped to let cars go by regularly so we could take out time - we were pretty tired after our late night and early start.

The big difference I see in Scotland is the amount of trees. Everything is so pretty and I am just so happy to be here! Terry is now talking Scottish but still sounds Irish - there were plenty of wee lassie and wee laddies coming from him in the car - it is driving us all mad!

We had a short break in Fort William and while Terry had a bit of shut eye in the car I took the boys for a walk through the main street. We called into a bakery to find a pie for Terry - they had Steak and Black Pudding pies and Sausage Rolls with Black Pudding. I just couldn't go there.

Back in the car, we drove past waterfalls, through forests, by lochs - I just couldn't believe i was in Scotland and it is just so amazingly beautiful. There are sheep everywhere too and I did see a few Scottish hairy kind of cows.

We arrived into Inverness late afternoon and we were all just so tired - i don't think I've been that tired in years. Inverness was just the prettiest town and i immediately wished we had more time there. A laundromat was up the road and I just had to take advantage of it even though i was half asleep. Our clothes hadn't completely dried in Dublin (there was a washer but no dryer) so after dinner i quickly put them through - this is definitely the less glamorous side of travelling. Our biggest challenge is washing - or when i occasionally get us lost!