An Island Vacation (not like that)

Post date: Aug 15, 2017 10:22:15 AM

But it all started with a long drive to a ferry ride. That’s right, Jordan and I drove from Germany to Dunkirk and took the ferry to Dover. For Americans, a 6-7 hour drive in nothing, for Europeans that is literally across the continent. So Delphine flew and met us in Glasgow.

During the two hour ferry ride I kept telling Jordan how amazing the white cliffs of Dover were but he remained entirely unfazed.

Did I mention that this trip was on a super budget? As a result, we planned (and succeeded) in camping almost the entire time. We slept inside ~ 4 times over the course of 35 days.

While it made a strong case for being able to live out of a car, it definitely has its ups and downs.

In England that involved campgrounds, like the one above in Dover on our first night in the UK.

But in Scotland, wild camping is a thing. What is wild camping you say? Any piece of land that is not enclosed, you can camp on. You can camp on any beach, any field, anywhere for free. This lead to some GORGEOUS campsites, like the one above. It was sandwiched between two enclosed fields, but was unenclosed. The end of that road? A golden beach.

While wild camping lead to things we had to get used to (cooking with only one pot, bugs everywhere, rainy or windy nights, days/weeks without a shower) it also lead to some amazing moments, like waking up to views like the one above, falling asleep to the sound of the waves, amazing sunsets, amazing sunrises and an overall feeling of banding together.

But before we got to Scotland we had to collect and drive through England.

Jordan’s only goal while we were in England was to see Stonehenge, and I figured we would try to fit it in at the end of the trip. But as we were driving from one collecting site to another we almost literally ran into Stonehenge. We had to stop.

Jordan devised all sort of silly pictures involving the stones, and made plans to run up and climb them. There is a healthy rope around the stones, so idiots like Jordan can’t climb on them, but that didn’t stop him from devising all sorts of plans on how to get around the “guards” and fulfill his Stonehenge climbing destiny. We left without getting arrested, and the stones remained unmolested by Jordan.

We had remarkably good weather for the highlands, but there were still a few days when we woke up to gorgeous views and wet tents.

Make no mistake, this was not a vacation by any stretch of the imagination, and we worked almost every day. I can say “almost” because we took one day off. We were going to spend two days on Islay and Jura, which are RIGHT next to one another. Moreover, you basically can’t get to Jura unless you take the 5 minute, 7 car ferry from Islay… But we checked the weather on the ferry ride to Islay and while it was supposed to be sunny the first day, it was going to rain the second day. Fun fact: bees don’t fly in the rain… so we planned on trying to do two collections in one day. This proved difficult, in that finding bumble bees on Islay was such a hassle. But when we got to Jura there were SO MANY BEES, with a little work (and a fairly long day) we were able to get it all done.

So the next day we went whiskey tasting. Apparently some of the best whiskey in the world is made on Islay, but I prefered the whiskey on Jura!

Our favorite tasting room. The day of whiskey tasting reminded me of something very important: I don’t like drinking whiskey. Even if it’s the best whiskey in the world.

It looks like I’m sightseeing, but we’re really catching bees instead.

In other awesome collecting news, we had a full day on Mull, one of the inner Hebrides. We quickly found the bees and their beekeepers maintained a wildflower garden around their place. PERFECT for bumble bees. It went quickly and painlessly.

With the extra time we dashed south to the little island off the coast of Mull, Iona. Iona is known primarily for an Ancient Abbey. We got close enough to see the Abbey, but we only had 2 hours and spent every moment intensely focused on catching bees. Still, good scenery.

The local wildlife. Zero fucks were given by this highland cow.

Loch Ness. Not pictured, Jordan trying to make a stick he found into Nessie.

Even when we’re collecting hard, the view is still pretty good.

There was an awesome amount of Silene, the genus I studied during my undergraduate, all over the UK. Moreover...

There were snails aplenty! I may study bees right now but never forget your roots/previous study organisms.

These dunes on Tiree were simply gorgeous. But what you can’t see in this photo is the massive horse flies that kept biting large chunks out of my leg.

Jordan thought it was a tropical vacation, and took every opportunity to go swimming in the “waves”. That’s basically arctic water that he’s jumping right into. There were definitely families vacationing on almost every island we went to, but the children instead of running around in bathing suits were running around in wetsuits. Because Scotland.

An afternoon on the dunes, on our way to the beach.

When we finish collecting early, we got to enjoy a little time on the beach, with a delightful beverage! I’m wearing a jacket while taking this photo and there’s no umbrella in my drink.

The view from one of our favorite campsites. Right on the beach, facing west to see the sunset, go to sleep and wake up to the sound of the waves. There were many moments on this trip when I wondered to myself how I would explain what I do for a living to my nieces and nephews. How do I tell them this is my job? This, taking this photo, was one of those moments.

We did a few mainland collections as well. This wildflower field is in the middle of a park, and full of honey bees and bumble bees.

We did most of our own cooking, eating our rarely. We got pretty good at predicting what we would like to eat, and even better at making our own food out of the back of the van. This particular lunchtime we were all diving into wraps, with Delphine and Jordan constantly proclaiming how delicious they were. They were the best wraps ever made! Nay, the best food ever made for human consumption! It struck me as particularly hilarious because we were at that moment located in the parking lot of the nicest restaurant we were to see on any of the islands…

We rode a lot of ferries, but the longest ferry ride was probably from Oban to the outer Hebrides. It was particularly fortuitous because we had to match up 500 caps with their tubes! Even on the ferry, we weren’t particularly glamorous and were working hard!

We thought this was a joke, but apparently on Barra, the only flat piece of land that can serve as a runway is the beach at low tide… so stay off the beach when landing airplanes… so that’s a thing.

More wildflower fields on the top of dunes right next to the beach. Rough life.

We found these standing stones on the Isle of Lewis (outer Hebrides). Unlike the book/show Outlander, when Jordan climbed up on the stones he did not disappear back 200 years. Unfortunately. Still stuck with him.

Jordan’s mom had made one request when he left the states, that she wanted a celtic cross from the highlands. Here’s the thing, outside of cemeteries, there aren’t that many celtic crosses. Trust us, we looked. Everywhere. On every island, and every town, in every gift shop and church sale we could find.

We finally found one to bring back at the last stop on the last island we went to. Mission accomplished! The one above probably wouldn’t have fit in his bag anyway.

Another example of our “fancy” meals. We decided after a particularly intense collection, to make some tea. We had a leftover scone to go with it, so we had a “fancy” tea time. Our definition of fancy had changed substantially during the trip… but we were all thrilled with the tea and scones.

I’m a romantic about boats. I love a good boat ride and the feeling of sea wind in my hair and salt on my face. And the best part about collecting on all these islands? Lots of ferry rides.

The last ferry we took was from Lewis to Ullapool. For those of you who haven’t heard about Ullapool, if you go to Glasgow and drive north until you run out of gas, you’ll probably have reached Ullapool. But because we were so far north, the sunset was very late and very pretty.

The above photo was taken at 10:15 pm, at the end of July. Our last ferry ride and probably our prettiest.

After leaving the islands, we did a few mainland collections, and drove down to Cornwall. Our last two days in the UK we took off and hung out in London. Jordan’s only request was that he wanted to see London Bridge. I had to break it to him that London Bridge is currently located in Arizona, but there’s a replacement: Tower Bridge.

On our way to drop off Delphine we literally stumbled across Tower Bridge. Check.

Nick lives in Westminster, and I have probably taken this photo or something similar ~100 times. Still gorgeous, still can’t help myself.

The best part of being in London during this trip was showing Jordan London. I’ve been there so many times I don’t usually do anything touristy, but Jordan has never been. So we did things like the British Museum to see the artifacts.

My favorite thing about the British Museum is the Egyptian and Greek artifacts. Because apparently there was a point in history where the Brits just traveled the globe stealing other people’s stuff. Why is the Rosetta Stone located in the British Museum? Why is the Parthenon located in the British Museum? Thievery. Blatant thievery.

We saw Piccadilly Circus, but the lighted display thingy was down for maintenance. It means we’ll have to come back.

Jordan had some specific things he wanted to see, like 221 B Baker’s Street. Especially relevant because we have been watching a lot of Sherlock TV shows recently.

And Platform 9 ¾ Both were a little more touristy than he had anticipated and we ended up not paying for either. Still pretty cool to see though.

Jordan also experienced another subway system! He looks suspicious of the whole “underground travel” thing.

The last morning our ferry left at 6 am, so we had to be there at 5. We stayed at the same campground we had stayed at our first night in the UK, because I like symmetry.

We were greeted by this sunrise over the white cliffs of Dover (Jordan still wasn’t impressed, because he like symmetry too), before a ferry to Dunkirk and a drive to Germany.