180.
Despite the weather being reasonably mild and dry for the time of year, and despite not having been to Scalpsie Bay to see the seals this time, Liam and I decided that we ought to head back to Dundee sooner rather than later. We said our farewells to my sister, her children and my brother, then we nipped over to Zak's house to let him know we were off. Then we caught the ferry back to the neighbouring island of Great Britain. Once on dry land again, we raced off towards Port Glasgow, trying desperately to overtake the four pensioners in a Nissan Micra for no other reason than not wanting to be stuck behind them. My goal was simple... I haven't managed to capture many castles recently, and I knew that there was one at Port Glasgow that would give my castle hunting one last boost before winter. Liam decided to take the shortcut from the carpark - so he ran across the muddy grass. His shoes remained firmly stuck after about three steps, and he continued in his stocking soles for another two before realising what had happened. Luckily for us we had dry socks and clean footwear in the car. We headed on up through Glasgow towards Stirling, Dunblane, Perth and, finally, Dundee. It was not that straightforward, however. We had stopped off for something to eat at the Little Chef 4 miles out of Dunblane. I noticed that Liam's mobile phone's battery was almost flat, so I asked him to switch it off and save what little charge remained for the road. Replenished, we continued our journey and were making excellent time. At Errol, about 15 miles out of Dundee, Liam decided to tell me that he had left his mobile in the Little Chef. We couldn't phone the mobile because it was switched off, and only we know the security code. We eventually got home safely over 2 hours later than anticipated, after having made an 80 mile round trip to get the phone back, and not before Linda had phoned the police to find out if there had been an accident involving a Renault Clio somewhere on the road between Dunblane and Dundee. Just think, we came back via Greenock and Glasgow because it is faster!!!