Yesterday was another crazy day of sorting out Mac housekeeping jobs, sorting the house out etc and final packing into the early hours of this morning! I had a phone call from the parts department at Skoda yesterday to say my replacement door seal had finally arrived – this is what the technicians thought was causing my sqeaking air conditioning, so flew over to get that done.
I eventually left at 9.30am this morning, to head north to Dunbar in Scotland. It took me almost an hour in crawling traffic just to get as far as Fosdyke along the A17 with major roadworks! This was not a good start! I stopped twice on route to add more petrol and had no issues with queues at all. I also stopped just east of Hampole (along the A1) for an hour and a half and had a 'Burger King' vegan burger in a bun with salad, chips and a coffee. Then I had a lovely nap in the car park to catch up on some sleep. Vile toilets here though and the hand dryer was not working. I left here at 1.55pm and apart from stopping to put some petrol in, I didn't stop until I reached my hotel 'The Bayswell Park Hotel' at Dunbar, arriving at 6.20pm. There were so many roadworks on route, I couldn't believe it had taken me that long! 307 miles in total and was supposed to take 5 hours and 37 minutes, but in fact without stops, took approximately 7 hours.
The hotel looks very grand on the outside and is overlooking the Bass Rock and The Isle of May, what a view from my room window! I just had time to go for a walk in the failing light before returning to the hotel. First use of the new Swarovski NL Pure 8x42's and I was seriously impressed – they are awesome in failing light and feel far less heavy than my previous EL's. Saw some seals on rocks, but no birds of note in the darkness! Returned to my hotel and was too tired to go down to dinner, so just ate the rest of my packed up sandwiches, did the blog and phoned my sisters.
The dressing table is far too high to touch type from, but I've managed to do it! I have a jacuzzi bath and shower in my bathroom, which I wasn't expecting. The mattress seems a bit too soft for me, mind you I'm so tired, I'm hoping I will sleep! Need to get up very early and be packed up and ready to leave before they do the first breakfast sitting at 8am. If I feel up to it, I will go out early morning birding round the hotel.
I had a worrying message from NorthLink today and a phone call too.... "Due to forecasted adverse weather conditions, M.V Hjaltland is likely to depart Aberdeen at the earlier time of 16:00. An update will follow tomorrow morning....."!!! Oh dear!
I leave for Aberdeen in the morning and have to be at the ferry terminal by 2.30pm latest for looks like a very sickly 14 hour trip!!! I might wish I had flown! Good night!
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