Oof! Right In The Trossachs.

We have now officially Escaped To Scotland!

As I write this from the comfort of the sofa in our cosy little cottage (rented), I glance to the left and see the sun beginning to set over Queen Elizabeth Forest Park through our kitchen window.  To the right, westward, the blue sky still hovers over a line of tall fir trees surrounding the garden. The newly-lit fire is putting up a valiant fight but in the end I shall vanquish and we shall have roaring flames. Is that the squealing siren of a police car I hear outside? Aah no, my mistake, it's just a bird tweating its goodevenings.  I really am sorry if any of this sounds smug, but if you have ever dreamed of something for several years, worked to achieve it, and then finally got there, then you'll understand why I can't keep the smile off my face.  Mind you, this is not the end of the journey by any means. We still need to find a permanent home and start a business. But for now its time to enjoy 'the now'.

We moved out of London on Tuesday in our self-drive hired van.  Boy, was that a squeeze - even though it was 7 metres long. With the help of the brilliant "Jan, Man With Van", a czech guy we paid for 4 hours of grunt work, no gap was left unfilled.  (Could have got confusing, what with my wife being called Jan too.) I reckon we had over 4 tonnes in that 3.5 tonne van - the back end was worryingly close to the road!  What a dog it was to drive too.  Getting the thing moving was like that event on The World's Strongest Man, where the contestant has to pull an HGV from a standstill. Infact, after 2 hours of 1st gear traffic jams on London's North Circular, the poor van eventually gave up the ghost!!  The clutch must have overheated or something, because when I put my foot down the van refused to move.  I had to pull over onto the hard shoulder.  Imagine my horror.... three of us had just spent 6 hours loading it with 4 tonnes of stuff, and now I was faced with the prospect of having to move everything to a new van!  After a few frantic phone calls I decided to just wait 15 minutes to let things cool down, then tried again. Hurrah!! It worked - and now the traffic was lighter and I could get into sixth gear.  Just as well, with 10+ hours of driving ahead of me and a top speed of 60mph.

We broke the journey into two parts, stopping over at Jan's (i.e. my wife's, not the czech guy's) parents place at Newcastle. Arrived there at around 1am, absolutely exhausted and beginning to wish we'd just paid someone to do the removals!  Next day I followed Jan up to Scotland, she in the car.  We agreed to stay close to each other, but despite my telling her that the van had the accelleration capability of a block of flats, the brakes of an ice hockey puck, and the wing-mirror visibility of a one-eyed mole, she drove ahead of me through the centre of Glasgow like she was a test pilot for a new ultra nippy model of pizza delivery scooter. 

We arrived at 3pm on Wednesday.  The cottage we are renting is already furnished, so we have had to somehow squeeze in a second house-load of furniture.  It was stressful at first, but by Friday night we had managed to get our own bed put together and made the living room comfortable enough for a couple of bottles of red wine.  What a lovely night - our first chance to take a breath for about two weeks, we worked out. Today, our first Saturday, we explored the area and picked up a LARGE stash of leaflets and maps from the Tourist Info Centre at Aberfoyle.  Let the new life commence!