In early June 2019, Nadia and I hired a VW campervan from our friends at Freedom Campervans in Glasgow and headed to the north of our beautiful country (Scotland) to explore the ‘west coast’. We had hired ‘Mork’ (or it might have been ‘Mindy’!), and drove up part of the NC 500 route, all the way to Kinlochbervie in Sutherland. A journey of 3 days and some 300 miles, and we were so taken with the experience that we asked if we could extend our trip for the fourth day, which the company allowed us to do. 

Once back home in Glasgow, I began to reflect on our journey and found myself considering the possibility of doing this on a more permanent basis. Of course, that would mean buying our own van and possibly retiring, perhaps a bridge too far? After much thought and many conversations we took the plunge and did both and so we bought a VW California Ocean, which we christened ‘Iona’ after the small island off the west coast of Mull. The fact that there was a bit of wordplay also appealed to me, and so “Iona Cali” was born...

Our first adventure was back in early September 2019, and we have not looked back (apart from the recent Covid-19 hiatus), having both retired at the start of 2020. Sadly, our faithful travelling companion, wee Tashi (our13-year-old Tibetan Terrier), passed away on 22nd December 2020, and we miss him dearly.

We hope you enjoy seeing where we get to on our journey and feel free to check us out on Telegram via the link below. Slàinte mhath (pronounced slan-ge-var)