Dundee and around

It was a long drive to Dundee, through the Cairngorms with a little stop at the memorial to the Green Berets war, and a dinner stop at Pitlochry which is a small ski and tourist resort (it was buzzing). During the trip we came across a convoy of buses who succeeded in their mission to stop cars from passing them over a rather long stretch of road. We thought at dinner we would have lost them but as we walked out of the restaurant  the four buses turned the corner and drove past us back onto the road in the same direction as us!! How could they have dinner in the same place as us we wondered as we spent a few more miles with a view of their tail lights. In Dundee we visited the research ship Discovery which was really worth a visit (far preferable to the laundrette we spent another hour at feeding coins to hungry machines while our clothes tumbled around).  The museum was all about the ships trip to Antarctic - the research - the dilemma of being caught in the ice for three years (30 or so miles from the sea)...
"At the beginning of the 20th Century Antarctica was still an uncharted wilderness. Exploration was a daunting task, involving a long voyage through remote and tempestuous seas just to reach the continent. The 1901 British National Antarctic Expedition was the vision of Sir Clements Markham... Naturally cautious, Markham saw the aims of the expedition as purely scientific. Being the first to reach the South Pole was never one of the objectives. By 1900 Markham had raised the necessary funds, now all he needed was a ship, and a man to lead the expedition".
Building a research ship was not much of a challenge for the men at Dundee's ship yards - they had after all built many a whaling ship - and those too were able to travel through thick ice. Captain Robert Falcon Scott was chosen as leader “a naval officer in the regular line... young and a good sailor with experience of ships under sail. He must have imagination and enthusiasm... be calm, yet quick and decisive in action.” In August a year later Discovery left Dundee and after making a few stops ended up in Lyttelton ("The vessel was lashed by gales and high seas, throwing her like a toy boat."). Some kiwis gave the sailors a warm welcome, a few live sheep and a couple of dogs and some more food and off they sailed to the great white continent. Five months later they arrived and then spent the next three years completing their scientific experiments to do with weather, sea, land, birds and animals. After a couple of months of staying put
Scott, Wilson and Shackleton set off to explore. It wasn't a very successful expedition and they were lucky to return alive with a bit only a bit of scurvy. By December 1903 there was 20 miles of ice between Discovery and the open sea and there they stayed. A year later they were still there, but along came a couple of relief ships to try and blow them out of the ice. With a bit of help from the weather the Discovery finally left its icy home and sailed back to England.

There's also another boat on the Dundee waterside - moored on the River Tay. The Unicorn was built in 1824 and was a wooden warship - she survived the wars because she was never used and is now one of the six oldest ships left in the world.

To finish the day what better way to spend the evening than wandering along a beach.  We were looking forward to the next day, catching up with Michelle and driving to Hadrians Wall.