Crawton, Stonehaven

Yesterday evening we discovered Marge's refrigerator wasn't working. Fortunately it wasn't anything too serious, just a technical fault which John fixed. On the downside, we had to throw away quite a lot of meat we'd bought a few days ago in Fort William. 

This morning our Dutch neighbours breakfasted on coffee, eggs and Lindor chocolates! Seemed good to us. Before leaving, a walk on the golden sands of Lossiemouth. Two typhoon aircraft from the nearby RAF station flew over. The noise from them is deafening. On the beach we collected some of the smallest shells we'd ever seen, which when we look at them back home in our shell jar will always remind us of this trip. 

Deciding not to head back inland just yet, we struck out to the east coast. The drive on fast roads, with Marge being chased by the impatient Scottish through banks of low cloud and drizzly rain made us question whether we'd made a mistake travelling east.

But upon our arrival at Stonehaven we were glad we had. We walked along the large crescent shaped sweeping beach, stopping often to look at all the different stones and pebbles. The mix of geology is deposited on the beach by the waters of the River Carron which originates from Campsie Fells on the eastern edge of the Grampians. 

Thinking we'd be staying overnight on Stonehaven promenade we suddenly found ourselves on the move. Yes we could park Marge, as long as we didn't cook or sleep overnight in her. So we drove a little further past Dunnotter castle to Crawton where we joined a few other vans at the parking area for the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve. Which suited us very well, as we could walk out to see the seabirds before leaving in the morning before heading back inland. We have just one problem: No Lindor chocolates for breakfast!