A very early start for us this morning with the ferry due for departure from St Margaret's Hope at 7:15am. With a 30 minute drive from our accommodation in the dark on potentially icy and certainly windy roads in front of us, the alarm didn't really need to sound at 5am...I was already quite alert by that time.

The drive was uneventful and the ferry loaded smoothly. Again, the temperature, swell and wind were in out favour and it was a great time crossing the Pentland Firth again, identifying landmarks we remembered like Duncansby Lighthouse, the coloured fishing huts and John O Groats et al. Off the ferry and on the road again, Willie Nelson style.

Ahead of us was a 5 hour drive down through the highlands past a number of towns we'd visited. Places like Lybster and Inverness slid by, although the weather was decidedly more wintry with pretty frequent showers of wintry mix and temperatures hovering just above zero much of the day making the roads a bit on the slippery side but nothing too terrible.

We had made the decision not to detour to Glenfarclas distillery, one that was super highly recommended to us by whisky "knowledge god" Andrew Derbidge. Unfortunately, the hour side trip and the time needed to really enjoy the experience would have made for a very late arrival into Allan Park in Stirling in the dark. So, we pressed on to another of Andrew's recommended stops, the Whisky Box in Dunkeld, about 15 minutes south of Pitlochry on the A9. Well, what a recommendation. The owner and good friend of Andrew's from several whisky society tours of Scotland that they have organised, Will, met us like we were old friends. He was such a welcoming guy, uber knowledgeable and passionate about the craft of whisky. His keenness to share the local products, but also to be able to take the highly limited "what we like is..." and offer us some generously complimentary drams...a rare treat in life. My two faves were Glenturret (unpeated) and Ballechin (peated) from Edradour distilleries. A couple of little bottles purchased we were off to have a quick explore of the town too. On a Saturday, it was really quite busy and something of a shock to the system. We had good fortune (thanks to the ghost of GJR) in finding a nearby parking space and we looked up and down the street for a bit.

Back into the Mocka and the last 55 miles into Stirling were uneventful. As we entered William Wallace country, it was great to see the sight of the impressively restored Stirling Castle sitting high on its volcanic outcrop and also the Wallace Monument sitting high on a hill too. We arrived at our accommodation, centrally located Allan Park and went to our room. With it being Valentine's weekend, the hotel restaurant was full but we were recommended another local place called Fletchers so we walked there for a tasty tucker of Scotch egg (Haggis and pork mince) with picked onion, tomato relish and pea shoots along with Wallace loaded fries (Haggis, Cheese, Black pudding and whisky cream) for me, and Bronnie had a yummo vegetarian risotto! A good recommendation. Tomorrow, we explore Stirling.