A week to go.....hopefully!

A month or so ago, the Scottish Administration declared that Monday 26th April was the day that they were to lift the travel ban for the whole of Scotland. This announcement was augmented a week ago on Friday when the Covid-19 restriction to remain in our homes was lifted and replaced by the welcome news that we could travel outwith our local authority region, with the caveat that we could not stay away from our home overnight. This precluded us from heading out in Iona Cali for more than a few hours. However, day visits became possible, which was a fantastic extension.

So, with seven days to go, we are getting excited about where we will head to first! But, and as is often the case these days, there is a BUT which is that from the 26th Scotland will be placed back into our previous tier system and these levels/regions have not yet been designated. It is, therefore, possible that the Central Belt, our region and that of the vast majority of Scots, could be declared Level 4 i.e. a Level from which one cannot travel to a lower Level thus maintaining our localised restrictions. We await with bated breath to hear what will transpire......

The good news is that we will use the time before next Monday to charge our e-bike, helmet, head-torch, camera batteries. We will also charge the Bluetooth Speakers, the DVD Projector, the travel toothbrushes and anything else that needs to be powered up! We will clean Iona head-to-toe, spruce up the bed linen, wash the floor rugs, fill the clean water tank and sluice out the grey-water tank, wash all the crockery and cutlery and much more besides. Any non-campers reading this may well think “Wow, what a faff” but believe me, these are not “chores” to Nadia and I. These are labours of love as we get to live the reality of alfresco camping, sleeping under a jet black star-studded corona and to be woken up by unusual birdsong, lapping loch water or rolling sea waves, with wind, hail or sun battering the windows. Heaven right here on earth!

We sincerely hope that in just a matter of days we will be able to bring you “live sights and sounds”, from wherever we rock up to, and for as long as we are allowed to!

UPDATE (20th April 2021):

It has today been announced that Scotland will be placed in Level 3 from Monday 26th and so we will finally be able to crank up Iona and point her out into the Scottish wilderness, way hay......!