Our trip to Scotland

Below is a detailed review of me and my parents’ recent trip to Scotland. It was a very interesting and successful holiday influenced by Dad having a conference in Glasgow, with highlights including getting to hand-feed reindeer in the Cairngorms, seeing my first-ever African elephant in Stirling, and managing to take fairly good photos of Tian Tian the panda in Edinburgh.

Saturday 13th July We got up very early in the morning (around 5 o’clockish), had breakfast, packed the car, left at 6:30am and drove for 3 hours to Larne in Northern Ireland, arriving at 9:30am. We took the ferry for 2 hours from 10:30am, arriving in Cairnryan at 12:30pm. We then drove for about 1 hour and 45 minutes to our hotel, where we stayed for the night. After taking what we needed into the hotel, we spent some time at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, where we got a bite to eat (I had vanilla ice cream with strawberry syrup), and later we had dinner at Coopers. After returning to the hotel, Mum and I went for a walk and investigated the nearby SEC centre, where Dad had his conference the next day, as well as the headquarters for BBC Scotland, and the Glasgow science centre. In a small basin on the river Clyde just outside of the science centre, I saw a pair of female goosanders.

Sunday 14th July Early in the morning, Mum and I wandered around the nearby Festival park. We then packed the car with what we needed and left Glasgow to drive more than an hour to our hostel in Edinburgh. After parking the car, we had a look inside Mr Wood’s Fossils, where I marveled at some toy figurines of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, briefly looked into Edinburgh Castle and then headed down towards the National Museum of Scotland. There, I spent time looking at all of the stuffed animal specimens in the ‘Animal World’ zone, including a giant panda and a red panda eating bamboo together. Returning to the hostel, we took what we needed up to the room we stayed in. Later, we headed up Calton Hill, and spent time looking out over the city at sunset, stopped off at the bottom of the hill, where my great-great-grandfather lived, before heading out for a late dinner.

Monday 15th July Mum and I arrived at Edinburgh Zoo shortly after it opened at 10am. We started to head upwards to see the giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, in their new enclosure near the top of the hillside zoo. Along the way, I used my sister’s camera to take photos of the pygmy hippopotamuses, one of the sun bears, and the koalas (which were asleep just like on our last visit; koalas can sleep up to 22 hours a day), and attended the keeper talk in the Brilliant Birds building, where I took a photograph of a nicobar pigeon. We also saw lots of mice scurrying around on the ground in Brilliant Birds, the result of nearby building works. After Koala Territory, we went through the Wallaby Walkabout where I photographed some of the swamp wallabies, and immediately after this was the panda’s new habitat. I was initially concerned that we may not see the pandas, as their indoor enclosures were closed off and outdoor enclosures were largely restricted, to give the pandas time to settle into their new home. However, as we sat down on a bench, we saw several visitors gathering at the best possible viewing point, and so I went down to look. To my delight, Tian Tian was visible from a distance peering out from the door of her house, and I had enough time to take relatively decent photos of her. I also remember seeing Yang Guang threw the sunlit vertical window of his house. After spending around an hour at the pandas, we continued heading up the hill, so I could get photos of one of the Grevy’s zebras, and saw Dharma the Sumatran tiger from Fota Wildlife Park resting in her house. Going downhill, we stopped so I could take pictures of the gelada monkeys, and later a southern cassowary, which I saw through dense foliage. We attended the chimpanzee keeper talk at the Budongo trail exhibit, and later spent time observing the penguins, drill monkeys in the monkey house, Malayan tapirs (which were indoors, where I spotted another mouse) and Indian rhinos, Qabid and Sanjay (who were playing and chasing one another and splashing in their outdoor pool). We left the zoo at about 5:20pm, but before that, we had a look around the gift shop, where I bought a book about giant pandas, a sun bear plush toy, a reusable bag, and a postcard with a lilac-breasted roller on it, which we later sent to my sister, who loves the bird.

Tuesday 16th July After breakfast, we walked all the way up to the top of Arthur’s seat, where we got a great view of all of Edinburgh city, and later, after heading down, we entered the Dynamic Earth museum to undertake an immersive experience. We also later briefly popped back into the National Museum so I could have another look at the animals, but we had to leave minutes before it closed. We then went for a walk around The Meadows park, before heading off to get dinner at the nearby MUMS Great Comfort Food.

Wednesday 17th July Mum and I loaded our stuff into the car and drove about 1 hour and 20 minutes to the Camperdown Wildlife Centre in Dundee, arriving at around 10:45am. After entering, the first animals we saw were lion-tailed macaques, which came from Belfast zoo in 2017. We were lucky enough to get up close to them in their indoor enclosure, seperated by glass. We also saw Scottish wildcats, a Eurasian lynx, and European grey wolves, which had some meat to eat. The biggest highlights of Camperdown were the European brown bears, of which there were three siblings; a male named Brumm, and his two sisters, Brumma and Maja. We spent a lot of time watching and enjoying the bears, and I took loads of photos. Other highlights include the lilac-breasted roller,  and two kea parrots (one of whom still had the downy feathers of a juvenile, and was making a loud call). We also saw a long-nosed potoroo resting in its indoor shelter, which I gave a miss for photo opportunities. We had lunch in the café at the entrance, and after I had eaten, I decided to have another walk around to take pictures of a pair of noisy hyacinth macaws and a pair of silvery-cheeked hornbills (which I often spent time trying to get good photos of), taking an umbrella with me to shield the camera from the rain. We looked at the bears one last time before exiting the wildlife centre and went to visit the V&A design museum at Dundee’s waterfront. We also went to see the statues of Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx (Dundee is the headquarters for DC Thomson, which produces the Beano and the now-defunct Dandy) before heading to a hotel where we slept for the night.

Thursday 18th July After breakfast, Mum and I left Dundee and drove 1.5 hours back to Glasgow to pick up Dad and load his stuff into the car. We then fueled the car with petrol before making the 35 minute journey to Blair Drummond Safari Park in Stirling. However, around halfway to the safari park, we were caught in traffic and were delayed for nearly an hour, which we later discovered was caused by a crash on our route. Eventually, after passing the damaged car, we pulled through and arrived in Blair Drummond to see my first ever African savannah elephant, an old female called Mondula. ‘Mondy’, as she is known affectionately, was in her indoor enclosure, browsing from her high-level feeder and strolling around the separation stalls, and I spent a little more than half an hour enjoying her while my parents went to get some food. I originally intended to watch Mondy for at least a full hour (60 mins), but the time lost during the delay on the way to the safari park put more pressure on the time spent here, as we had to be in Badaguish Cairngorm Outdoor Centre for checking in between 4-5pm. Nevertheless, I was happy to spend more than half of the intended length of time, and after waving goodbye to Mondy, we got back into the car to drive through the reserves. The first reserve was home to white rhinoceros, common eland, greater kudu, red lechwe and ankole cattle, the second to a pride of African lions, the third to a troop of barbary macaques (and some white storks), and the fourth and last reserve held nilgai and four species of deer: Eld’s, fallow, axis and Pere David’s (another first-time-seen species for me). Following the drive-thru reserves, we left the safari park and, after driving for about 2 hours and 20 minutes, managed to be in Badaguish for the 4 o’clock hour. After having our dinner, we went out for a walk in the neighbouring coniferous plantation. We left the camera trap after leaving out some peanuts in a particular area, to see what animal might come to take some of the peanuts.

Friday 19th July We drove about 20 minutes to the Highland Wildlife Park, arriving at about 11am. Upon entering the park, we drove around the main reserve, where I took photos of the Przewalski’s horses, European bison, Scottish red deer and Bukhara deer, as well as the two adult male polar bears, Walker and Arktos. After parking in the main car park, we saw the wolverines out in their massive enclosure (thought to be the largest in the world), and they were being fed by keepers, giving me a photo opportunity. We then went past the lynx enclosure, snapped a photo of a Eurasian eagle-owl, and were lucky to get close to Walker and Arktos as they moved to the top of the enclosure. We attended the male polar bear feeding time and keeper talk at 1:15pm and later the 1:45pm feed at the snow leopards in the top part of their naturalistic, hillside enclosure. We then went up to see female polar bear Victoria and her 1 and 1/2 year old son Hamish, the first polar to be born in the UK for 25 years. While enjoying them, we saw the dark-green fencing of the Amur leopard enclosure, intentionally built offshow to give privacy to the secretive cats. Along the way to their enclosure, we saw the Arctic foxes and their ten kits, the Amur tigers (of which the male Marty passed away days after our visit) and a musk ox. Heading back towards the car to get food, I went to attend the red panda keeper talk at 2:15pm, after which I had a chat with the keeper. I then went to join my parents for lunch, and went to get a hot chocolate in the Oystercatcher café. I quickly brought Mum up to see Victoria and Hamish (again), and I took decent shots of the musk ox as he was much closer this time. Heading back to the car park,  I took close-up shots of the face of one of the Japanese macaques, before we got onto the bus for the 3:30pm tour of the main reserve, going the opposite way to the intended route that we took upon entering the park earlier. This time, we managed to see a female moose at the back of her paddock, which Dad took photos of, along with vicuna, wild barnacle and greylag geese, and additional shots of the Bukhara deer, bison and male polar bears, which were again quite close down at the bottom of their enclosure, and one of them was bathing in a pond. After the bus tour, we headed to Wolf Wood to take photos of the grey wolves (including young pups) and forest reindeer. We then took the Woodland Walk and saw two resting wildcats and a pair of female capercaillies (the more spectacular male was absent from the collection). We also went up to the education centre, which was situated on a small hill providing great views of the surrounding landscape. It was just a few minutes before the park closed at 6pm, but we had enough time to scavenge the gift shop, where we bought a fridge magent, a palm-oil-free dark chocolate bar, and two t-shirts with polar bears (one of which says ‘Climate Change is Real’). As we drove out of the park, Dad took photos of the takin, yak and Bactrian camels on the way out. As we drove to somewhere to get dinner, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a wild red squirrel as we drove past it in someone’s front garden.

Saturday 20th July After breakfast, we drove down to the nearby Cairngorm reindeer centre for the 11am guided hill trip to meet a  herd of reindeer, the only wild ones in the UK. We met a bachelor herd of more than 30 of the reindeer on the side of a mountain, and we even got to stroke and hand-feed some of the reindeer. We went along the boardwalk further up the mountain to take in the beautiful views of the landscape, before heading back down to the Glenmore visitor centre to get some hot drinks. We then took the hour-long drive to Loch Ness via Inverness, and had a picnic just outside the Dores Inn. We did not see anything in the loch that could be the famous monster, but we enjoyed the scenery and going out for a walk in the nearby coniferous woodland, where we saw a few birds, including bullfinches and a treecreeper. We went to have dinner at the Inn, and later as we were driving the car out of our parking spot, Dad ‘deliberately’ took a different route, 27 minutes longer than going back the way we came. We drove to a garage in Aviemore to fuel the car with petrol to prepare for the long journey home the next day. As we drove back to the campsite, Dad and I went to check on the camera trap, which we were lucky was not stolen, although the peanuts appeared to have been untouched. Back at our cabin, we were astonished to see that a red squirrel had come to investigate the peanuts. Outside of the cabin, I saw a female roe deer, about 5 metres away from where I was standing. She stared at me for a few seconds, before heading into the undergrowth before Dad could come out with the camera.

Sunday 21st July As we stocked the car with all of our stuff, I listened to a buzzard calling from the nearby forest. Once we had everything in the car, we began the 4 hour and 15 minute journey back to Cairnryan. We stopped halfway to get lunch/early dinner at the Birds and Bees restaurant in Stirling, near Blair Drummond. After finishing our dinners, we left without any dessert to make it to Cairnryan port for 3:30pm. The ferry left at 4:30pm and returned to Larne two hours later. Along the way home, we stopped at an Applegreen garage to fuel the car and get ice-cream, before continuing the journey home. We returned home at 9:30pm and got some rest after our long yet exciting trip.

Link to my blog post about Edinburgh zoo: davidtwamley.com/edinburgh-zoo/

Link to my blog post about the Highland Wildlife Park: davidtwamley.com/highland-wildlife-park/