Sid was up early and took a photo of the sunrise.

After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes a few of us headed out to Nashville Farmer’s Market. The market dates back to the 1800s and covers 16 acres. It is a mixture of food and artisan stalls as well as a garden centre.

I bought a chocolate chess pie for us all to try. This is a southern traditional pie made with butter, sugar, and eggs; a dash of cornmeal for texture, and a splash of vinegar. It tasted really nice but it would have been difficult to eat a whole one.

As we walked into the food hall we spotted a squirrel.

We walked around a few of the stalls and I ended up buying some handmade soap.

We also saw a stall where a guy made guitars out of almost anything, and could play them too.

After all that walking around we felt we needed to treat ourselves so decided to do some wine tasting.

We all felt a little bit hungry so we had some Chinese noodles before taking a rest break and then walking into town.

The walk was around 25 minutes, mainly through areas that were under construction, but we did pass some interesting buildings including the university.

Our meeting point for our city tour was the union station hotel.

The building is made from limestone and marble and was originally built as the Union Station travel center in 1894 and it was renovated in 1986 to become a hotel.

The interior is very luxurious and decorative. The stained glass is a certain type of stained glass called prismatic glass as it bends the light in a certain way.

The angels at the top of the arches are called the Angels of Commerce and represent agriculture, literature and alcohol!

This was the first stop of our food and drink tour and we started it off in style with a glass of champagne.

We then walked through the area known as the Gulch – so named because this was where the train tracks used to go and its a mixture of gulley and ditch.

Our next stop was Biscuit Love which was founded by a husband and wife team who originally just provided food from a food truck in 2012. Here we ate the house speciality -a bonut. This was really tasty.

From here we made our way to Peg Leg Porker. The guy who owned this place had cancer and lost his leg and then decided to do what he loved – which was barbecuing. We had a pulled pork slider with mac and cheese and a local beer.

On the way to our next stop we passed Carter guitars. June Carter married Johnny Cash.

We walked on to our next stop which was Party Fowl where we were the night before and where they serve hot chicken. The story behind the hot chicken is that a man called Prince cheated on his wife and to get revenge she made him some chicken and made it really spicy. Unfortunately Prince really loved it and spent four years working out what his wife had used as she had left him by this time. He then opened up a restaurant serving hot chicken. Mark and Steve just about managed. The frozen margarita helped wash the heat away.

On the way to our final stop we went past one of the murals where a lot of the bachlorette parties have their photo taken.

We also walked past a really nice car.

Our final stop was a bar / restaurant called Sambuca. Here we tasted a fruit cobbler and a champagne cocktail.

As we were sipping out cocktails our guide told us about Fisk University which was set up in Nashville for black people in 1866 once slavery was abolished. In order to finance thr University the founder established the Fisk Jubilee Choir which toured around the world. They ate believed to have bought the song ‘Swing low sweet charriot’ to England. They met Queen Victoria who was heard to say “they must be from the music city”, hence Nasville is known as the City of Music.

As we were already in town we decided to walk down to Broadway to try out some of the bars. On the way down we passed the ‘Batman’ building as well as the First Baptist Church.

Broadway is full of lights and is party central.

We decided to go to Tootsies Orchid Lounge which is the oldest and most famous honky tonk bar in Nashville. It was owned by Hattie Louise ‘Tootsie’ Bess from 1960 to 1978, hence its name.

From the rooftop bar at Tootsies you had some great views over Broadway- we watched the sunset and the moon come out.

As the night progressed it became busier and the streets were full of party buses.

After a while we left Tootsies to meet Mark and Steve at another bar- Jason Ardens. We watched a couple of bands through the open windows as we walked along – everywhere had live music.

There was a band playing at Jason Ardens so Ali. Sherrien and I decided to stay and dance. At this point a lot of the group went home.

Jim had met up with a couple of his friends and was in another bar – Whisky Bent Saloon, so we walked over there to meet up with him.

We had a beer and a dance and then Jim’s friend told us that the Coyote Ugly Bar was close by. On our way over there we passed the horse and carriage which looked really pretty.

The bar was really busy but had a great atmosphere. You could get up and dance on the bar- Ali and I did. There is a video of this but probably not for public consumption.

And after all that it was time to go home. On leaving the bar much of Broadway had been closed off to traffic so it took us ages to get an Uber.

We were all awake and up fairly early. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Mandy and Maria as they were heading home.

Once we had all had breakfast we packed up the bus and started the journey to Nashville.

As we were actually pretty prompt in leaving we decided to make a stop in Knoxville which was the first capital city in Tennesse.

We had a little wander around looking at some of the buildings. One of the buildings we saw was Blount Mansion which was one of the first wooden frame houses built in the area in 1792.

The view out over the Tennessee River was nice too.

On the way back to the bus we stopped at the rowing man sculpture to take a photo.

I noticed a pharmacy opposite so decided to have a look. It was really cool with a cafe and a real pharmacy.

On the way out of Knoxville we saw the famous sunsphere. This was built for the 1982 World’s Fair. Over 11 million people visited the fair between May and October of that year.

It was around a 3 hour drive from Knoxville to Nashville so we had time to chat, sleep and drink.

On arrival we were a little bit too early to get into the accommodation so we just waited outside on the street. We made friends with a stray dog.

Once inside we had a look around and watched the sunset from the rooftop area.

It was then time to head out for some food. We are a little bit out of town so ordered a couple of Ubers to take us to Party Fowl.

I ordered the fried hot chicken at a mild level and that was just about at the limit of spice I could handle! It came with collared greens which tasted a bit like sauerkraut.

After dinner we walked to Station Inn which was also in the Gulch area. The Station Inn is a music listening room and has live music almost every night.

As we arrived the band had just started to play. They were amazing and were playing pure bluegrass music.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to get up and dance as the venue was too small for that, so we sat and drank our beers.

After a little while we headed home and had a nightcap in the kitchen.

It was a lovely sunny start to the day.

After a delicious breakfast of fruit and yoghurt we chatted for a while and decided to do a hike to one of the tallest points in the Smoky Mountains.

Bob drove us up to Clingmans Dome which is 6,643ft high and is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The views on the way up were amazing. It was a little bit chilly when we arrived and it was also a little bit hazy.

We headed off down Andrews Bald trail through the pine forest. It smelt so lovely, just like Christmas.

After a couple of miles of up and down hiking we made it to Andrews Bald. From here you had a 360 degree view across the mountains. The photos really don’t do it justice as the views were stupendous.

We stopped at the top for our lunch in the beautiful sunshine.

The way back seemed longer for some reason but was still a lovely hike.

Once we were back at the top the mist had cleared a bit so I took some more photos of the views.

On the way back down we pulled into a lay-by for a beer stop.

I tried to take some photos out of the window on the way down but they didn’t come our that well.

After arriving back at the lodge, Ali, Sherrien, Sarah and myself decided to get an Uber into town so we could have a look around. The town is all decorated for Halloween.

We stopped off at the Ole Smoky Moonshine bar to do some moonshine tasting. We were given 9 different moonshine to taste and I liked them all apart from the nutty ones.

We ended up buying 6 bottles between us! Moonshine is a high proof alcohol that used to be produced illegally, and in some places it still is. It used to be distilled at night to avoid detection which is how it got its name of moonshine.

America’s first legal moonshine distillery was launched in 2005. The origins of moonshine can be traced back across the Atlantic to Scotland and Ireland where making and drinking whiskey were time-honored traditions. When Scottish and Irish immigrants made their way to Appalachia, they used local corn to distill whiskey for their community to enjoy. Around 2009, changes in Tennessee state law paved the way for the creation of legal moonshine.

We felt we needed a beer to wash down the moonshine so we headed to the Ole Red bar.

We had a bit of an issue getting back to the lodge as there were no Ubers available and some of the taxi firms were going to take over an hour to pick us up. Eventually we found a taxi that could come and pick us up within 10 minutes but it was expensive.

Jim cooked us all a curry which was delicious and we headed to bed shortly afterwards.

I actually had a lie in this morning as I didn’t wake up until 7am. Unfortunately the sun rises behind the trees so we don’t get such a good view at this place, although it’s still a lovely outlook.

After we figured out how to work the coffee machine – it took about 5 attempts for me – we had a light breakfast of bagels and jam.

Bob had to work today.  The ladies decided to do a walk. We dropped Mark, Jim and Steve off in Gatlinburg town – which is quite large and always busy – and Marie drove us in the bus to the start of the Rainbow Falls Trail.

Almost as soon as we started walking we saw some chipmunks. They are very fast and really hard to photograph but Ali managed to get a picture of one of them.

The hike up to the waterfalls was through the forests and a gradual incline.

We passed a small waterfall on the way and stopped for a photo.

There were obviously other people walking the trail and we got chatting to a couple of American women, so we asked them to take a group photo.

We had to cross a couple of rivers too but luckily they had stepping stones to get across.

Just before we got to Rainbow Falls there was a smaller waterfall.

After just a few more minutes we came to Rainbow Falls. The waterfall is 80ft high and on sunny afternoon you can sometimes see a rainbow produced by the mist from the falls.

Sid and I decided to climb up to close to the top of the waterfall.

We stopped here for a few snacks and shared a bottle of wine.

As we were eating a couple of red squirrels made an appearance.

It was then back down the same way we came up.

As we got back to the bus we were all a little disappointed that we hadn’t seen any bears but decided it wasn’t meant to be. The traffic going out of the car park down to the main road was really slow – and then all of a sudden we saw a black bear by the side of the road.

We were all so excited and amazed we had actually seen a bear. And then, a couple of hundred metres down the road we saw another one.

And after a few seconds she went up on her hind legs and 3 little bear cubs ran across the road to join her before they all disappeared back into the forest.

The rest of the drive home, via the supermarket, was not so eventful.

Once we got home, unpacked and started cooking, we were sitting in the lounge when Mandy suddenly spotted a bear on the driveway. We all rushed outside to see it walk away up the drive.

This was the biggest of the bears we had seen and was probably around 280lbs. Black bears are the smallest of the bear species in North America and can live to 20 years in the wild. The black bears don’t actually hibernate in the same way as other bears. Their heart rate does drop but they remain slightly alert and active.

So after all that excitement we continued to make dinner.

The menfolk arrived home – a little bit merry – and after dinner the party continued.

It was the early hours of the morning before the party stopped but I was still awake early and up to see the sunrise.

It had rained in the night so it was a bit of a misty morning.

We made a lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon with eggs and maple syrup. And then we packed everything up and loaded up the bus.

We headed off and went onto the Cherohala Skyway. This is a 43 mile scenic highway that was built in 1996. Its name is a mix of Cherokee and Nantahala, the two national forests through which it passes. It was a beautiful, and sometimes, windy road.

After a while we made a stop to do a short hike to Huckleberry Knob.

Huckleberry Knob is the highest peak of the Unicoi Mountains at an elevation of 5,580 ft (1,700m). It’s a beautiful walk through shrub and meadow land and also a bit of a forest.

On the way up we passed the grave for Andy Sherman. Back in 1899, Andy and his friend Paul O’Neil, left Tellico Creek to get to Robbinsville for Christmas. They never made it. Their bodies were discovered in September 1990, along with some whisky jugs. It appears they froze to death as they were lost and drunk. Paul’s bodies was donated as a medical exhibit but Andy’s body had been badly mangled by wild animals so was buried on the trail.

At the top you had a 360 degree view, which was amazing. We stopped in the sunshine to have a picnic and take in the views.

We sunbathed for a little while before heading back down to the bus.

It was then quite a bit of a drive to our new lodge, Otter Ridge, in Gatlinburg. This lodge is gorgeous and sleeps all 13 of us.

We had a quite night in with takeaway pizza and I think most of us were in bed by 10pm.

Another early morning awakening and another beautiful sunrise.

After a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and muffins,  with lots of coffee we drove a short distance to the Ocoee River to go white water rafting.

On arrival we all had to don wetsuits which were not the most flattering!

Ryan, one of the guides, then gave us a safety briefing which was pretty humorous but also quite scary.

After putting on splash jackets and helmets and picking up our paddles we drove down to the start of the 6 mile white water rafting course.

The Ocoee River is 37 miles long and the word ocoee means apricot on Cherokee as there are lots of wild apricot vines in the area. There are 3 hydroelectric dams that control the river and the white water rafting course starts at dam 2.

The Upper Ocoee River is made up of part natural stream bed and part man made whitewater course.  The man made section of river bed is one of a kind and was built for the canoe and kayak events in the 1996 Olympics. It is the only white water course built into a natural stream.

Part of the time the white water rafting section is drained and the water diverted via the powerhouse to produce electricity before being released back into the river.

In our raft we had Mark, Jim, Ali, Sherrien, myself and our guide was Acacia.

As soon as we entered the water we had a grade 3 section. The course is made up.of several grade 2 and 3 sections and also three grade 4 parts.

At one point you could jump into the river and just float which was amazing. We practised our rescue techniques getting back into the raft.

Around 90 minutes later we came to the end of the course. It was brilliant and luckily nobody went overboard.

We got the bus back to the wildwater rafting centre where we all had a nice hot shower and put on some dry clothes.

We then hopped back in our bus and drove a short distance to the Cherokee National Forest. We hiked a short distance to the Benton Falls.

By this time it was around 130pm so we stopped for some lunch.

The waterfall was beautiful and Sid, Steve and Nod went for a dip.

After lunch we scrambled up the mountain a bit further to another waterfall which was also stunning.

After our hike we headed home via the supermarket. Mandy and I were in charge of dinner and we made 3 chillies – veggie, mild and hot.

It all tasted really delicious and following dinner we had a bit of a party including a dip in the hot tub.

It was the early hours of the morning before we went to bed.

I woke up early again, around 530am, so decided to write my blog. But the advantage to waking up so early was that we could watch the sunrise, which was amazing.

Unfortunately we found a little bird dead on the decking – I think it had flown into the massive windows. It looks like a hummingbird as it was tiny but I wasn’t sure.

After a quick shower we popped outside again and we saw some birds of prey, most likely hawks, flying over the mountains.

I am still so amazed at how beautiful our lodge is.

Everyone came to ours for breakfast. We made pancakes with eggs and flat sausage and lots of coffee.

We then drove the bus a little further out into the mountains to Chattahoochee National Forest where we parked up to do a small hike to Long Creek Falls.

The hike was around a mile and was not too strenuous.

Long Creek Falls tumble over 50 feet and have an upper and lower waterfall. We did consider a quick dip but the weather was decidedly cooler than yesterday so we decided not to.

We did walk up to the top of the waterfall.

We walked the same way back to the bus and then drove a short distance up the road to a car park. Here we picked up the Benton MacKaye Trail. Benton MacKaye inspired the Appalachian Trail as he wrote about the trail in an article in 1921.

A little way along the trail we came to a point where there was a really lovely view so we stopped here for some lunch.

Outdoor lunch with wine is always so tasty!

We continued on the trail which was a gradual uphill climb for around 2 miles. We came to a point where we then merged on to the start of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,194 miles long. It starts in Georgia and goes to Maine and passes through 14 different states. It claims to be the longest hiking only trail in the world.

We made it to the top of Springer Mountain.

We took a different route back which was a slightly steeper descent but a bit shorter.

We then drove into Blue Ridge for some refreshments.

The houses were all just as I imagined American houses to be with the front porch and the white picket fence.

Our destination was The Boro Inn, an Irish Pub run by a Scotsman. The Deco was weird but interesting.

I had a pint of Wexford Creme Ale which was really smooth and delicious.

As we were sitting at our table one of the locals, Eddie, treated us all to a shot of caramel moonshine which he made himself – it was actually really smooth and nice.

Around 7pm we headed to the restaurant where Sid, Steve, Nod and Sarah joined us. Catherine, Bob and Cindy’s daughter, and her boyfriend Cain also joined us.

We shared some starters, including some fried green tomatoes and I had shrimps and grits as my main.

After dinner we headed back home and straight to bed as we were all really tired. I’m still waking up around 5am each morning, my body clock hadn’t adjusted yet.

We hadn’t planned to be up too early but I was wide awake around 4am so I wrote my blog.

One of the cats, Evie came into the room for some cuddles, she is gorgeous and really friendly.

Josie, the other cat is a little more timid around people.

After a little while we started to get up and wander downstairs to see who else had surfaced.

Bob and Cindy’s house is amazing, there’s a lot of levels and the rooms are massive. The garden is beautiful too.

After a delicious breakfast of lots of strong coffee, scrambled eggs and muffins we started to pack everything into the mini bus.

And we were on our way. It took Jim and Mark a while to figure out the stereo but we soon had the music on and we’re singing along.

After around 30 minutes of driving we made a stop at a retail outlet park . I think a few of us bought a couple of bits. I could’ve spent loads there if I’d had the money and the space to bring everything back. We also bought some bits for a picnic lunch.

Our next stop was Recee’s Cider company.

This was the first cidery to be located in Ellijay. It is owned by Tanner Reece and his wife. Tanner grew up in the area with Reece Orchards being in the family for a number of generations.

Most of us decided to go for the tasting options, either set 1 or set 2. This means you get to taste 4 different ciders, and 8 if you buy two sets between you.

Some of them were definitely better than others – the one that was slightly smokey with a bit of a bourbon taste was my favourite (number 6) and number 8 which had a strawberry and chilli flavour was pretty good too.

A few of the glasses didn’t make it back to the bar!

From Reece’s we drove a little bit further before stopping for our picnic lunch.

It was then time for a short hike through the woods.

We walked down to the river and took a break to have some wine. Another couple were having a peaceful rest on a rock until we came and disturbed them but they took a good picture of all of us.

The scenery was stunning so we posed for a few more photos.

After a bit of debating Ali, Sherrien and I decided to go for a swim.

And then Mandy and Mark joined us too.

The water was quite cold but you got used to it pretty quickly. We also rescued a little gecko that was drowning and put him safely back on dry land.

Following the swim we dried off with a lovely glass of wine before continuing our circular walk back to the car.

It was then just another short drive up into the blue ridge mountains to our beautiful home for the next 3 days.

The views from our lodge, Tranquility Base, are amazing, the photos just don’t quite capture it.

My room is slowly quite special. Everything is made out of wood, and it smells really nice too.

After a quick shower and change we watched the sunset with a glass of wine and keeping nice and warm in our blankets.

Around 7ish we headed down to the other lodge, Whispering Water, to have dinner – which was a beautifully cooked steak with baked potato and salads.

The evening was finished off with everyone coming back to ours for a nightcap.

It was an early start this morning, we were up and out and on our way to Gatwick by 6am.

I had booked meet and greet at the airport, having done that on a previous trip. Unfortunately I didn’t realise I had booked in with a different company to the one previously so we went into the car park and unpacked the car only to be told we were in the wrong place! Luckily where we had to be was only down the road.

And then when we checked in we were told that we hadn’t payed for a bag to be checked in. Luckily I had the paperwork that showed we had – but because it was through a third party and not directly with the airline the airline hadn’t received the money so we had to pay again. I’m currently working on a refund claim.

Eventually we made it to the airport lounge and could relax.

The flight was around 8 hours and the Canadian law is that you have to wear a mask which felt a bit strange after hardly wearing them at all now.

We watched some films, chatted, ate and tried to sleep a bit.

I had a window seat so took some photos as we came in to Toronto.

We had around a 4 hour layover in Toronto but we had to collect our bags and check them in again. We also had to go through a pre-usa check which took quite a while.

Once we were through security we found a bar and had some wine.

It was then just a 2 hour flight from Toronto to Atlanta. As we left Toronto the sun was setting.

And I took a couple more photos coming into Atlanta.

Our bags were one of the first ones to come through and Bob arrived just as were picking them up. It was so nice to see him.

It was just a short drive from the airport to the restaurant where everyone else was already – there already had some Halloween decorations up!

After some delicious tacos we headed to Bob and Cindy’s for a glass of wine in front of the open fire. It was just so nice to see everyone again and catch up!

And then it was time for bed.

We got up early, had a quick porridge pot in our room, before getting a taxi to the start of the Ben Nevis mountain route.

Even at a lower level the views were impressive. The initial part of the climb was pretty tough on the legs as it was walking up natural steps.

We crossed over a bridge and saw the odd couple of sheep on the mountain side.

As we continued climbing the path got a little easier, with a gentler gradient, and the views over the Loch and mountain range were beautiful.

We crossed the Red Burn stream, which is around the halfway point, and not long after that it became really cloudy and windy. The path also became more difficult as you had to climb over boulders and scree.

As we got closer to the summit we followed the cairns which appeared out of the fog and guided our way.

It became really windy, at times if felt we were going to be blown away. It was raining too. At one point you had to wall through some snow.

And the North face of the mountain also still had snow on it.

After 3.5 hours of climbing we eventually we made it to the summit.

At the summit there are the remains of the old observatory.

Basically there were unfortunately no good views from the top, so after a couple of minutes wandering around at the top we headed back down.

The way down was also quite difficult as you had to be careful not to lose your footing. Saying that, we did see people running both up and down the mountain! As we passed the halfway point the cloud began to clear and we got some more fantastic views.

There were a couple more sheep on the way down.

At the bottom we had a well deseved quick half pint at the Ben Nevis Inn.

It took us 6 hours to get up and down the mountain, with the summit at 1,345m and around 16km in distance.

After getting back to town we showered and then headed out fir dinner. We stopped at the Black Isle pub to try some of the beers. We sat outside in the sunshine and had a lovely view over Loch Linnhe, one of Scotland’s largest sea lochs.

We had booked a table at Crannog as we had heard the food was really good.

The food was really delicious and really well presented.

The restaurant itself had some interesting artwork, one was a set of paintings depicting the various stages of depression.

We finished off with a ‘Scottish’ coffee.

And then headed out for a little wander along the Loch.

After a stop at another couple of pubs, this time to sample some Scottish gin, we headed back to our bed for the night.