An Epic Christmas Road Trip

We're now back to reality with a bump after our Christmas break!  We travelled almost 1400 miles (2250km) in Budgie (our Defender); from our home in Portsmouth up to Sarah's parents in Edinburgh, down to Ridley's Dad in Northumberland, back to Edinburgh, over to our cottage on the Isle of Jura, then back home to Portsmouth via Edinburgh and Northumberland!

Sarah's parents kindly looked after our dog, Hector, while we went skiing before Christmas, and we spent a lovely Christmas back in Edinburgh with Sarah's family, for the first time in 5 years.  Click the link to read more about our ski trip to Montgenevre.

We popped down to Northumberland and back in a day, to borrow a livestock trailer from Ridley's Dad, so that we could transport some tools and furniture up to Lorne Cottage.  We managed to time this trip during Storm Gerrit, so had a pretty horrendous journey down through flooded roads and snow, and we were glad we were in the Landy!  We opted to drive back via Berwick on the main A1 to avoid towing the trailer on the usual back roads.  Once back in Edinburgh we spent the rest of the day outfitting the cottage (our least favourite task is shopping, but we survived Ikea without an argument!) and loading the trailer, ready for the drive over to Jura the next day.

We had an uneventful, but wet, journey over to the west coast and a rather lumpy crossing over to Jura!

We knew that the cottage had suffered some flooding while we'd been away in Canada, and that some of the newly fitted floor tiles had lifted and cracked.  So we were prepared with tools and ready for some DIY!  Unfortunately the extent of the cracking was worse than we expected, and it was heart breaking to have to rip up the entire floor in the main bedroom.  Thankfully we managed to salvage enough full tiles which we can use to patch repair the broken tiles in the rest of the house, but we're going to have to re-lay the concrete and find some new tiles for the bedroom as the current ones are no longer in production.  That will be a job for February half-term!

It wasn't all doom and gloom though; the work we had done on the drainage out the back, seems to have done the trick, and the cottage was warm and dry!  Apart from the floor it was looking really good, and the furniture we had brought over really started to make it feel like home.

As it happened, it was exactly 20 years since Ridley took Sarah over to Jura for her memorable first visit.  The cottage certainly didn't look like it does now, back then it was a one bedroom cottage with only coal fires for heating.  We arrived over for Hogmanay (New Year) to discover that the shop had run out of coal.  Then there was a power cut, which lasted three days!  The pub and shop both shut for Hogmanay, and the only method of cooking we had was a disposable BBQ (there is no gas on Jura).  I vividly remember attempting to cook sausages and garlic bread wrapped in tin foil over the disposable BBQ in this fireplace:

Of course the BBQ didn't generate enough heat to get the chimney to draw and the entire cottage filled with smoke.  We then had to open all the windows to clear the smoke, which made the cottage even colder.  Somehow Sarah still fell in love with Jura and agreed to come back!  This year we celebrated the anniversary with our first meal in the renovated Lorne Cottage.

Jura certainly knows how to celebrate Hogmanay, and we had a great time celebrating with wonderful friends in five different houses over three days of parties (interspersed with smashing up tiles!).  The weather on New Year's day was beautiful, and we managed a quick dip in the sea from the beach in front of the cottage.

We also spent our first night sleeping in Budgie's pop-top so that we didn't have to drive down the island after the New Year's Day party and despite the cold temperatures, we were cosy and warm in the roof tent.

We were booked onto a late ferry from Islay on the 2nd of January, but because it is a Scottish holiday the wee ferry from Jura to Islay was running a reduced service.  This meant that we had to go over to Islay much earlier than necessary.  As it happened the earlier big ferry had just finished loading as we arrived in Port Askaig and still had space available, so we managed to drive straight off the wee ferry and onto the big ferry as it was about to depart - lucky timing!  We headed back to Edinburgh to return some borrowed tools to Sarah's Dad, and spent an extra evening with them.

The next day we had planned to head back to Northumberland to drop off the trailer and spend some time with Ridley's Dad, but Budgie had other ideas!  We got about 10 minutes down the road before the battery light illuminated constantly and the temperature gauge rose rapidly.  We pulled into a petrol station to take a look, and discovered a large leak of water/coolant which was dripping onto the fan/alternator belt causing it to slip.  After a quick look around, Ridley couldn't identify where the water was coming from, so topped up the tank and headed carefully back to Sarah's parents watching the temperature gauge like a hawk!  Luckily they have a large garage, which we could fit Budgie in to take a proper look.  It took a couple of days to dismantle the fan assembly, identify the water pump as the problem, order parts, change the pump and re-assemble, but by Friday we were back on the road!

We spent the weekend in Rothbury; including a trip to the tip to get rid of all of the broken tiles we had dragged back from Jura, helping out around the farm, catching up with the family, and a couple of meals out.

On Sunday we headed back down to Portsmouth, with a quick stop for brunch and a catch up with friends in Morpeth.  Budgie performed perfectly and didn't skip a beat on the six and a half hour journey home.

We now need a holiday to recover from the holiday!  What did you get up to over Christmas and New Year?