From sunday 9 till saturday 29 juli 2006 we (Henry Jonker en Marcel Jonker) went for holiday to the island of Britain. During these three weeks we drove the route through England, Wales and Scotland as indicated on the map (ca 7200 km).

It is sunday, the 9th of juli 2006. We wake up early and leave at 4.00 to Hoek van Holland. Of course we are in ample in time and at 7.20 the boat (Stena HSS Discovery hover) leaves to England. The voyage goes quick (75-80 km/h), only the final hour in the harbour of Harwich is slackly. We drive (left!) to Cambridge and visit the old university town. We go on southwards and in the neighbourhood of Harlow we find a camping (Royden) with a narrow entry.

On monday, we take the train to London. At Tottenham Hale we continue with the subway to Buckingham Palace. We walk through the park and see the change of the guards. We have a look at the old parlement buildings, the Big Ben, etc. Downingstreet is fully blocked. Subsequently, we go to the St. Pauls Cathedral and in the direction of the Tower Bridge.

We go on to Wimbledon, where we walk to the tennis courts (it rains). It is the day after the final. The cables of subway look rather bad and are frequently simply constructed in an uncovered way along the sides. The quality of the subway falls short as we do barely have a train or subway without delay. The centre of London is lovely, but the suburbs, where we drive through, frequently look pauperized.

We do shopping at a big supermarket near Harlow and drive west to Oxford. There we take the 34 south and subsequently the 303 in the direction of Cornwall. We visit Stonehenge; which is less impressive as we had expected; and go on to Exeter. Just north of the Dartmoor national park, we find a campingsite at Crockernwell.

Wednesday the 12th of juli we drive around through Cornwall. We go through Dartmoor, where many sheep, horses and cows walk around freely. A beautiful landscape. By Liskeard we drive to St. Austell where we have a look at the domes of the Eden project. We drive on southwestward and see the St. Michael's mount with the Castle near Penzance.

At Land's End (paid parking although the many tourist-shops, we are even not interested in, already close after 15 minutes) we see the nice steep cliffs. We go for a walk along the coast and go back to the camping at Crockernwell by the A30.

We drive to the Exmoor national park and enjoy the beautiful view at Dunkery Beacon. We drive on to Bridgwater and take the highway to Bristol and Newport. A truck just continues driving with a leak tire. We arrive in Wales. In the Brecon Beacons national park we find a campingsite at Talgarth.

On friday we tour through middle Wales. At Rhayader we take a small road through the Elan Valley. A splendid quiet nature reserve with various reservoirs and where many sheep walk around. At Devils Bridge we see the 'worldfamous' Mynach falls (not that impressive).

At Nant-y-moch we see some cows and sheep walking at the lake. We drive for a while along the coastline and after Dollgellau we go back to the midland. We drive a small road from Mallwyd to Llangywer and at Bala we find a (too big) camping at the lake.

On saturday the 15th of juli 2006 we drive through Snowdonia. The landscape is nice, but it is very touristic. There is almost no spot to stand still for a while (only paid parking). We drive through the 'castle' of Caernarfon. The stronghold is full of shops and pauperized houses, where people live in. We go on to the Berwyn mountains in the east of Wales, where we visit the highest waterfall (Pistyll Rhaeadr, 73 meter) of Britain. We drive relaxedly to the Vyrmwy lake, where we have diner (observed by a stupid dog). Afterwards we go on to the busy campingsite, where the showers already close at 22.00 (we are in time).

We leave Wales and drive the M6 in between Liverpool and Manchester to the north. Before Kendal we leave the highway to enter the Lake District national park. We drive along the touristic Windermere and subsequently by the Langdale valley through the Cumbrian mountains. The Hard Knott pass has an inclination of 30%. The environment is magnificent and the weather is great. We visit the lovely deep Wastewater lake and find along the 595 near Rosforth a campingsite (at Santon Bridge the camping owner had a bad mood).

On monday the 17th of juli we drive a beautiful route through the Lake District at Reswick, along Derwent water and through the Honister pass. Afterwards we drive by Penrith and the northern Pennies to Hexham, where we follow the route along Hadrian's wall. We visit the remains of Chesters Fort and have a walk at the wall at Steel Rigg. When we return, the pay and display machine is covered by a sack... Nearby, a car-accident occurred and there are many policeman present. It is quite warm today (30 degrees celcius). At Longtown we find a nice quiet camping. Just an reckless guy drives backwards with his mobile home and collides with a parked car.

We drive to the Galloway forest park in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. We visit Loch Trool. Unfortunately the road to the north is closed due to road-works, so we decide to go along the coast and by the highway through Glasgow to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park. It is unusual warm today in Scotland. We drive by Stirling into the old national park with mountains around 1000 meter high. It looks nice with various lakes. An overheated forest ranger drives like crazy on the road and today we are also 'saluted' by a tooting car driver showing his middle finger and is clearly in an incredible hurry. At Strathyre we find a (dirty) campingsite at the 'racetrack' 84.

The next morning we drive along the Ben More and Loch Lomond and go on through the beautiful landscape of Argyll. We have lunch at loch Awe and do shopping at a (warm) supermarket in Oban. A guy sleeps in his car (in the hot sun) at the parking place. Further north we see Castle Stalker (known from Monty Python) and Loch Leven. At Fort William we drive the road to the Ben Nevis (with 1344 meter the highest mountain of Britain); a very nice walking area. Some way back we find a (big) campingsite.

On thursday 20 juli we drive to Glenfinnan where we see the well-known bridge. We drive further to Mallaic and take the ferry (~35 euro) to Skye. We drive through some nice dales and see at the coast the Old Man of Storr rocks and the view at Kilt Rock. We cut the corner through the Quiraing mountains and go on to the westcoast. At Dunvegan we see the castle and find a campingsite, where the flies are annoying. It is more cloudy today and so the temperature is more pleasant.

We leave Skye and visit at Dornie the Eilean Donan castle. After that, we go further north through Wester Ross. We come along various beautiful fjords and lochs and find a campingsite more inland at Lairg.

On saturday the 22th of juli 2006 we drive through Easter Ross to Inverness, where we visit the first day of the Highland Games. We see the various disciplines (as caber tossing and hammer throwing). The performance of the many bagpipe bands is very impressive. Some more north we find a campingsite at Dingwall.

We drive along Loch Ness and see the Urquhart castle. We drive further through the Glen Albin and subsequently east again to the Cairngorms. It is a beautiful route, but it is a pity that the heath fields are not fully purple yet. At Braemar we find a campingsite (with some annoying kids and a drained supervisor).

Monday we drive further through the surrounding of Braemar. The landscape at Linn of Dee (paid parking in the forest) is very lovely. A walking trip is a disaster because of the many flies.

Subsequently we drive the beautiful route along Devil's Elbow and by Pitlochry to Blair Castle. Than we take the A9 to Edinburgh and by the A1 to the coast where we find a campingsite near the firehouse of Barns Ness.

The next day we visit Edinburgh. It is quite warm. We have a nice view form the Carlton Hill and walk afterwards through the city centre, the Princess Street Gardens (dry grass) and around the castle. In the afternoon we go back to the campingsite at Dunbar.

Wednesday we do shopping at a supermarket at Berwick and go further along Kelso to the borders (Northumberland national park). A man lets his dog out at the side of the highway A1. We take the A68 along Newcastle and by the 688 along Raby Castle to the Yorkshire national park. The road through the beautiful area is unfortunately covered by many death rabbits. Two women drive in a car with a leak tire. When we are enjoying the nature at the side of the road, suddenly a fighter jet flies over very low with load noise. We see the Castle Bolton and the waterfalls at Aysgarth; there we find a campingsite.

Thursday we drive further through the Yorkshire national park (a garbage truck does his route backwards-driving) and go on to York. On the way we see an Englishman who lost his bike form the car. York is a nice town with an impressive Cathedral. We go further to Howard Castle and also today a fighter yet flies over with load noise. At Wombleton we find a suitable campingsite.

Friday 28 juli we drive back to Harwich. At the 25% ramp at Sutton Bank we see an Englishman on the side with a broken clutch. On the A1 we see a caterpillar tractor slowly moving and two times how a truckdriver has to make an emergency break; it is very 'relaxed' driving on the British roads. At Cambridge there are many traffic jams, so we take a shortcut to Harwich, where we take a camping in the neighbourhood. Saturday morning we take the boat at 10.40 back to the Netherlands. We have dinner at Baumann in Schiedam and go back to Epe. It was again a very impressive holiday.