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<p class="has-drop-cap">After 9 months of lockdowns and restrictions I found myself heading north in the Porsche. I know the road well having driven it many times over the last five years.</p>
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<p>After an hour of driving a dashboard warning came up saying "PSM Failure". I pulled over, rang the garage who serviced it and was told it means "Porsche Stability Management". In their opinion it was safe to continue my journey and book it in when I returned. This advice proved correct because I travelled over 1,500 miles in 6 days some of which was hard &amp; fast driving.</p>
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<p class="has-drop-cap">After nine hours I rolled up on T&amp;J's driveway. The house and garden were as tranquil as I remembered from last September.</p>
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<p>Temperatures in Scotland were lower and the wind didn't stop blowing the whole time I was there.</p>
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<p class="has-drop-cap">Tony and I went for a six mile walk around the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.altyre-estate.co.uk/" target="_blank">Altyre Estate</a>  where there are some wonderful Italianate buildings as seen on the right and Estate cottages which indicate the level of wealth the estate must have held in its heyday. Now the buildings are in desperate need of maintenance. Glasgow School of Art now occupy the Italian buildings but I've never seen anyone there during my last visits.</p>
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<p class="has-drop-cap">To get the most out of the Porsche we drove across to Inverness and then north on the route which forms part of the North Coast 500. We stopped in <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tain" target="_blank">Tain</a> for a wander around and try to get a feel of what it might be like to live in such a remote place.</p>
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<p>After some great driving along sweeping roads our next stop was <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornoch" target="_blank">Dornoch</a>. The building here is the old jail which is now a retail outlet. We had lunch in the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.coachhousedornoch.co.uk/" target="_blank">Coach House pub</a> which was surprisingly good.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cromarty-bridgejune21-1024x550.jpg" alt="" data-id="6841" data-full-url="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cromarty-bridgejune21.jpg" data-link="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/cromarty-bridgejune21" class="wp-image-6841"/></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/dornoch-firth-bridgejune21-1024x682.jpg" alt="" data-id="6840" data-full-url="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/dornoch-firth-bridgejune21.jpg" data-link="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/dornoch-firth-bridgejune21" class="wp-image-6840"/></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/bonar-bridgejune21.jpg" alt="" data-id="6839" data-full-url="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/bonar-bridgejune21.jpg" data-link="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/bonar-bridgejune21" class="wp-image-6839"/></figure></li></ul><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption">Bridges we crossed on our route north.</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-drop-cap">Our final stop on our way round and back to Inverness was The Falls of Shin. We were lucky enough to see leaping salmon up the falls but I didn't take this photo.</p>
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<p>The sun was shining all day which meant we could have the roof down for the whole trip.</p>
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<p>And eventually it was time to return home. I left T&amp;J at around 08:30 and after refuelling in Forres I headed south, this time with the roof up because the temperature was only 12 degrees. My usual stop after nearly 5 hours is Tesco at Carlisle which is only a mile from the M6. A fishfinger wrap, coffee, another refuel and back on the road. I rolled up on my drive just after 17:00. Am I getting too old for these marathon journeys? Next time I hopefully won't be alone and there will be many stopovers.</p>
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<p>To be totally safe I did a Lateral Flow Test the following morning and it was negative. You cannot be too careful during this pandemic.</p>
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