April 6 & 7: A more successful attempt at camping and meeting a sea monster expert
When we entered the gift shop beside the ruined cathedral in St Andrews, the attendant assured us we should come back in the afternoon when the fog had lifted for 'a better view'. How naive.
We are currently sitting in the café beside
the Beatrix Potter Exhibition, which is beautiful and everything a Peter
Rabbit-loving child could hope for.
There is greater diversity at the café, but in the exhibition itself we
were the only people present aged between 7 and 70. That’s a story for tomorrow (or the next time
I have internet).
I’ll start with Monday, the day before
yesterday. We woke up quite early and
left from our room in Cupar. The family
we stayed with laid out a lovely breakfast, including plenty of blueberries,
chocolate croissants (needless to say I’ve been not-very-vegan on this trip)
and delicious corn bread. They joked
that they’d do “anything for a good review” about five times. It wasn’t a joke. They went above and beyond (not complaining
though).
From there we headed from bright and sunny
Cupar to St Andrews, where the fog was so thick you couldn’t see its famed
seaside. Its ruined cathedral poked up
and out of the mist which fell on the tombstones in front of us. Totally creepy. It was still early, so there were very few
people wandering around the (probably haunted) graveyard. Nicholas insisted on scooping pennies out of
a (probably haunted) well, and I insisted that I wouldn’t exorcise him
later. In the gift shop we picked up a
few postcards (which are our weakness, though none have made it back home yet)
and a copy of a 1610 map with sea monsters on it. This was the start to a very sea
monster-inspired day, as I would be meeting a genuine sea monster expert for
lunch.
A copy of the map. It looks like I'll be returning to Australia with souvenirs entirely comprised of maps, ghost books and postcards.
St Andrews is terrifying(ly cool!)
Despite just having plenty of breakfast, we
made our way to a bakery shop called Fisher and Donaldson (having been referred
there by a local) and ate some donuts. A
few months ago, I contacted a lovely
local Scot for some advice about where to visit. Her response was a 31 page PDF of where to
go, what to do and which donuts to purchase.
This was our first stop on Around Scotland in 80 Donuts. They were pretty good.
After we had finished our donuts and rose lemonade outside Fisher and Donaldson, Nicholas went to use a public loo. When he came back, this crippled raven was sitting above my head. His eye was completely covered over in some kind of scab. There were a lot of ravens in St Andrews.
At 12.30 prompt, I met the Doctor (who
should probably remain nameless) who I had been in some email contact with
leading up to this trip. I had read some
of his material, enjoyed the tone he took when discussing science and sea
monsters (skeptical, yet not critical) and had asked to meet. Needless to say, all was a success. He immediately led me to the old zoological
museum (one of the last of its kind, as most were turned into more ‘useful’
rooms of study), to discuss oarfish (a plausible explanation for sea serpents)
and show me a very well-preserved thylacine.
We discussed skepticism, the Carte Marina, science, how to gather
evidence of ghost sightings and, of course sea monsters. I took him for a sandwich at a local café and
before he had to rush back to being a professor of things-that-aren’t-sea-monsters,
he hurriedly showed me a ceremonial mace of the university – featuring a wild
man.
I wore a t-shirt (double sided one) with this print on it for my meeting with the professor. He liked it. I thought he would.
He mentioned that he was part of a team
cataloguing monsters throughout Europe and it could be beneficial for them if I
could work it into an exhibition I was holding.
This sounds like good news to me, too!
It means I could have access to some cool reads and be able to share
their findings as part of some kind of artwork.
This makes me pretty excited.
While I met with the professor, Nicholas went and sat by the sea. While tourist photos will show clear water, colourful seaside shacks and people eating ice cream, Nicholas' photos are much better.
From St Andrews, we started driving to
Glamis and found lodgings in a slightly creepy forest nearby. We slept surrounded by mossy trees and lots
and lots of birds. There were many
pheasants around and Nicholas enjoyed making fun of their silly squawks and fat
bellies wobbling as they tried to flap away.
We woke up with the sun (and more tweeting
birds) and set course for Glamis Castle – famous to some as the home of the
Queen Mother, famous to me as the setting for Macbeth. We were a bit early for the opening, so drove
a little way north to a tiny war kirkyard that housed a Pictish carved stone. We saw on our map that we were very close to
the childhood home of JM Barrie, so we drove even further north to have a poke
around. The museum itself was currently
closed for renovations, but we looked through the windows at the gift shop,
spying all sorts of stuffed crocodiles and pocketwatches and illustrated Peter
Pan books. Nicholas fiddled with a
doorknob that turned out to be a bell, it rung, and we had to scamper away
before we were caught by the old man renovating inside.
The morning after our first night camping
I don't know if I mentioned how brand new our car is, but it's pretty brand new. It had 17mi on it when we picked it up. Here it is featuring in an exclusive advertisement, directed by Nicholas. This is where we parked it overnight.
Nicholas made friends with this furry farm cat (who clearly thought he'd found a long-lost brother) but he fled when he heard the shutter.
The birthplace of JM Barrie
A sadly dilapidated hotel, closed and up for lease. I tried to convince Nicholas, but such a creepy exterior can put one off. Nicholas was an example of this.
Glamis Castle was big, gaudy and didn’t
allow photos inside. There were multiple
taxidermied bears, rhinoceros horns and lots of tortoiseshell. It was actually pretty strange. They only gave guided tours, probably to stop
people nicking all the expensive silverware and coveted (illegal) animal
parts. We had a wander through the
grounds, having a chat to the Highland Coos who lived in the farmland by the
property and walking through the trees.
Glamis Castle as you come up the driveway
Glamis Castle from the gardens
From Glamis, we were heading straight to
another palace - Scone Palace, where the kings of Scotland were crowned. We had seen the Stone of Destiny (a block of
sandstone) in Edinburgh Castle, but they had a replica here called the Stone of
Scone that you could sit on. I insisted
on many photographs being taken of me ‘overseeing my kingdom’ but they’re all
too embarrassing to post. Sorry.
We also made our way through the star-shaped
hedgemaze while we were there. Nicholas
made it out before I did, but I think he cheated and looked at the
picture. Apparently they had a horse
there, but we didn’t see it. We did see
the 2-week-old coo, though, which was named Princess Anna. “From Frozen,” the young guide told us.
Nicholas frolicking through the daffodils (I told you Scotland was covered in daffodils)
The hedge maze
Wandering through the hedge maze (getting lost, evidently)
Nicholas in the Pinetum at Scone Palace
We also saw lots and lots of peacocks. While most signs advised staying away from
the ‘temperamental’ peacocks, we found seven of them sitting in a dilapidated
graveyard, who weren’t too bothered by us coming up close for some
pictures. They looked pretty metal
sitting on the gravestones (more metal than the ravens at the Tower of London).
We drove from Scone back up to Pitlochry,
which is a bit of a fishing town. I can
see why people rave about its beauty in summertime, but it was particularly
brown in spring and reminded me a bit of Australia. We found a cosy campsite on the edge of a
hill near a waterfall and fell asleep listening it (and subsequently waking up
desperate for a wee). We think we might
drive up to the Cairngorms tonight instead of staying longer in Pitlochry
(couple the brownery with unfriendly café service and very little in the way of
vegetarian foods, and we haven’t got much reason to stay). Apparently there’s still snow up in the
Cairngorms – which we are very, very unprepared for – so we might pick up a
spare sleeping bag on the way. We
realised after we arrived in Scotland that my bag wasn’t -5 degree warm, but
actually +5, which does little to keep you toasty in genuinely freezing
weather. That was a bit of an oversight.
This super cool peacock had no issues being up close. Scone Palace is currently having a photography competition, but I don't think our sweet pics of peacocks napping on tombs is really what they're looking for. Their loss.
They also have an albino peacock!
This was sunset at our campsite last night. To the left you can see the waterfall bubbling away.
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