Fife

After a cool night, I got up to admire the view over Loch Tay. And noticed the mount across the Loch had a dusting of snow. No wonder it was so cool that night.
The drive along the loch was stunning. I really can't get enough of the rolling green hills, woodland and lakes.
I drove to Killin where I checked out the small cascading waterfalls of the Falls of Dochart and scenery of the hills surrounding the village. Then I made my way to Strathyre to go on my last hike.

Strathyre was a small village, so finding the starting point for the Beinn an t-Sidhein trail was easy. It turned out to be the steepest hike I'd done too. May not have been the tallest or longest, but once out of the forest and heading up, it was extremely steep. Ha, probably didn't help that I lost the trail. There was a fork in the trail, one with a coloured marker (other than the trail I was following) and one with no marker. So, I assumed the uncoloured marker was the one I was currently on... it was just missing. Ended up walking a sheep trail through mud and bog. Thank goodness my boots are gortex and still waterproof.
The path sort of just went up... and disappeared and reappeared here and there. So I headed up, scrambling up the slippery side of the hill, even up a creek. Once at the summit, I found the trail I should have been on... much more laid out and less slippery. Ha ha, well it was a challenge at least.

With the wind blowing the rainy clouds in and the sun working it's hardest to shine, another rainbow decorated the landscape. Almost seems like a daily occurrence in Scotland. Just beautiful.
Time to start the drive to Fife. I took the main road to Perth, headed over the Bridge of Earn and took a small side road following along the Firth of Tay inlet to Tayport. I checked out the wooded area there for possible camping, but payment was required to park at the forest. And with lots of private farmland around, there wasn't really anywhere to wildcamp. Wouldn't be easy from here to find any more wildcamping now that I was in more populated areas.
I drove through St. Andrews, which was very busy, and Kingsbarns until Crail. It was already dark and hard to find somewhere to crash for the night. I found a sign for a campsite, but it was closed. A nice lady saw me standing at the gate (debating whether I should just go in anyway and check in at the office in the morning) and offered a cup of tea with her and her husband in their RV. Figured I could ask them for any other camping suggestions.  Turns out the couple were volunteering in the celebrity golf tournament in Kingsbarns. That explained why the area was so busy. They were really funny and I ended up staying 1.5 hours with them. They did suggest  a place I could probably camp near the beach and the Fife coastal path (which stretched the coastline from north to south 117 miles). After a heart felt goodnight, I took off and found a gravel parking area amongst trees and dunes for the beach access in Fife Ness, completely deserted and just slept in the car since I was tired enough to just pass out.

The next morning I had a little looky-loo of the fishing village and then drove to Elie. Another little fishing village. I walked to the Lady Tower. More of a rocky beach and some interesting sandstones constructing the tower itself. Then strolled along the beach in the harbour to the fisherman's wharf and a bit of the town. The tide was out revealing lots of golden sand in the sunshine. It really was a beautiful day. 

I then made my way to Kinghorn and checked into Pettycur Bay Holiday Park campsite. It was pricey, but there weren't really any other camping options. After pitching my tent, I walked on the mixture of black and golden sand on the beach nearby and watched the sunset.

In the morning I drove back to Edinburgh to drop off the car. As soon as I got over the Forth Road Bridge and passed the exit for Queensferry, there was construction on the motorway causing huge traffic delays and traffic jams as people had to go the same route for diversions. I ended up being late. But luckily, I called them and one of the staff members said he'd wait for me. Once I returned the car, he even offered to give me a ride to the city centre so I could check into my hostel. What a nice guy. Great service! Good on ya Enterprise!
I checked into the Caledonia hostel again and spent the rest of the day roaming a bit.
And finally, to conclude my time in Scotland, I was able to meet up for a drink with my camping and drinking pal, John. I was able to keep in touch with both John and Sinclair, whom I met near the beginning of my trip in Glen Etive and it was a perfect way to end my month time up here. Shame Sinclair couldn't make it, but I was sure we'd meet up again. I enjoyed it so much in Scotland that I knew I'd come up again before I left the UK.
And now, I'm heading off to York!