When my wonderful cousin visited the UK for the first time since COVID hit she wanted to visit as many members of the family as possible. This included arriving in London, visiting special friends in Kent, travelling to the Cotswolds then up to the Midlands. We share another cousin who, just over 3 years ago moved her family from Purley all the way up to Inverness! We chatted together about taking the sleeper train, but knowing that if there was a chance of a family visit I wanted to be on it I volunteered to drive Jessica, myself and Matilda up to Inverness for a few days.
Jessica is actually my first cousin once removed (or my Dad's cousin). I often refer to the cousin explainer to figure it out : COUSIN EXPLAINER
We drove all the way up from Rugby on Saturday morning, stopping only for short breaks as the day was going to be long enough without extra time. The sat nav said 8 hours, we did it in 9.
Our visit was a real balm. We were met with the warm welcome of a loving home by our cousin Liz and her lovely daughters. We spent the next couple of days visiting Loch Ness, Inverness Central, Culloden Battlefield and Nairn Beach. Evenings were spent playing family games: Dutch Blitz again, Smuggle and a clever game where you gave bids on how many of an unknown topic you could think of - Jessica won with two topics, lingerie and gemstones! We also had a gentle evening with face masks, reiki, massages, candles and tarot reading. The strength of our closeness was wonderful and healing.
We decided to break our journey south into two days, so, having found a cute Air B&B we said our goodbyes. We drove south through the Cairngorms, always following, but never catching a raincloud. We watched out for red squirrels and stopped to take some phots of the absolutely stunning scenery. We had planned our journey to take in Balmoral at lunchtime. The walk over the bridge from the car park and up through the pines was glorious. The autumnal colours of the trees, heather and shrubs was beautiful. We stretched our legs and breathed the clean fresh air. It is entirely understandable why Her Majesty the Queen would choose to spend her days there, secluded and peaceful. Such a calm and protected place.
As we ended our epic car journey, I was grateful I had been able to do the drive and spend a good quantity of quality time chatting, learning and sharing with my cousin. This will be an enduring memory of ours.
