Day 8 (27th June 2022)

 I woke with an almighty hangover. My brother's in-laws made a feast last night, and naughty Mike must have topped up my wine more than I realised. We swapped albums (I have a Dylan bootleg from his 2007 tour and in return I ordered them "Carrie & Lowell" by Sufjan Stevens) and had a very merry time. I also got to sleep in a real bed!

We have decided to travel in convoy up to Scrabster as in reality, space is at a premium and Morgan can't quite squash up as well as he used to. We stopped briefly at Arbroath Abbey, but Guy said no to going in. I was a bit miffed, so we decided on a future plan - he will be in control of food & wine and I will be in charge of where we stop.

My next choice of stop was Aberdeen. Neither of us have ever been here, and didn't know any familiar landmarks or places of interest. I hadn't really researched properly, looked on my googlemap and realised there were at least 2 cathedrals. First one we found was the Catholic one - somewhat soulless inside to be honest.

The second one we found was locked.

By this stage we were kind of done with Aberdeen, so had a quick bite to eat and made our way back to the campervan & car and headed further north until we got to Fraserburgh. This rugged town reminded me of Iceland. We checked out the Lighthouse Museum which was excellent including a tour of the Kinnaird Lighthouse by Mike who was incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining.  We were the only members of the tour and felt like very special guests. 

We still had a couple of hours driving to do, so we couldn't hang around. Our final destination of the day was a campsite in the little town of Hopeman where after supper we made are way armed with a very special prop for Stop #22

SPLIFF ISLAND

Now it may not look like it, but I really was standing on an island. There are number of rocks just off the beach in front of West Beach caravan park, Hopeman, where the band once stayed during a Scottish tour. I'm not sure who, but they wandered out onto on of these rocks and partook of a joint, naming the Rock 'Spliff Island' So so did I!

The information came from a chapter in "Do It For Your Mum", by Roy Wilkinson. I was pleased as punch when I read this, as it meant that not only did I have a pretty good idea where to look, but I could also follow suit and do the same.

Guy has just been for a swim while I write this so sadly I didn't get a chance to take a pic. Despite the rather ugly trailler-park campsite, the setting is really quite idyllic and I can't think of a better place to be stoned!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain high and out