Road Trip!

Before you get too excited I have to admit I might have been a bit over enthusiastic with the title. I went on a trip, in the car, which was on the road – so technically it’s a road trip…right? Whilst technically the answer to this is yes, in practice it wasn’t really the long-haul, open country road, music blaring trip-of-a-life-time debauchery we tend to associate with the phrase. But would you have read this far if I’d not employed a little artistic licence  and actually told you that it was really a day trip to Perthshire with my parents (and the dog) to visit my great Uncle? Didn’t think so.

Whilst I am sure it’d be fascinating to recount the conversation we had at my uncle’s (“don’t use the great, it makes me sound old”. He’s in his 90s…) I don’t think I will. Let’s be honest, you’re not interested. Like most, I’m not always the biggest fan of the obligatory visiting of relatives, but this for me is different. Let’s just say that if I have stories which are half as good as his when I’m old I will have lived a very varied and happy life.

Owing to being away for a good 9 or 10 hours we decided to take the dog along with us, so I was slightly thankful that it wasn’t too hot as the dog was in the backseat with me. For those of you who aren’t aware of the joys, ‘hot car dog smell’ is not a particularly pleasant aroma. And that’s putting it mildly.

This of course meant that she needed a walk somewhere, so we took her to a national trust park en route for a bit of a wander round. The Hermatige sits nestled in the forests west of Dunkeld and is literally a stone’s throw off the A9. The National trust describe the area as an “attractive woodland walk” (they really do, honest), and I can’t really fault them on that description, as it is a rather pleasant walk – if you discount the group of French school children, that is.

The main attraction, however, is where this lovely set of paths lead to. It might not looking much at first, a stone bridge and a little circular folly on what appear to be on the side of a slight crevasse, but once on the balcony outside you realise pretty quickly (if your auditory sense haven’t already made you guess as much) it is what cut through the stone that is of most interest here. The Black Linn Falls.Admittedly with the recent rainfall the falls are a little more impressive than usual at the moment, however, their power can only really be described as awesome (and I don’t mean in the ‘Totally AWESOME, duuuude’ sense). Even dog – who was even more hyper than usual – stopped and stared at them. Well, for five seconds at least.The only problem with such a tremendous tour-de-force by nature is that the beautiful settings which surround the falls are pretty much forgotten, whilst everyone gazes at the pounding of the water.

We didn’t really get much further than the falls, because we realised that at half one we really ought to get some lunch before the family visiting  and so we meandered back to the car park. Sadly by the time we got there the dog wasn’t really that impressed with me because I’d declined her obvious desire for a swim in the river – at a less turbulent point, I might add. If you think I am somewhat of a kill joy for such an act then let me just share with you that the temperature was steadily increasing and my tolerance for the notion of the car smelling of wet dog was going even more steadily in the opposite direction.

I’ll skip out the next few hours, but I will share one little part of our discussion – well a teaser for it. I now have a new alcohol making experiment to try, courtesy of my (great) Uncle. Might have to be careful making it, however, as it might come with health warnings citing the Scoville Scale if I’m not careful…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It may not exactly have been my idea of an epic road trip, however, as days out and visiting family go I think I got off pretty lightly.

If you’ve read this far through, I also apologise for my little artistic licence in the title. Hope you weren’t too disappoined.

Cr