Skip to main content

A wee trip to Scotland


We were watching the forecast closely. Not the one on the telly from the Met Office, the one on Netweather, where there is always much discussion around the 10 day numerical weather models’ outputs. They all gave a good indication of fine weather this week and Scotland was to get it first, so we made a plan.

Charlie had recommended Argyll and Bute (AnB) and we looked at the map, noticed the fantastic coastline, miles and miles of it and decided on a trip in hopefully dry but probably cool weather.

By way of preparation, whilst Dawn read the books and researched via Google hits, I took the easy option of social meeja and joined a local group in AnB. I posted a polite request on the Tighnabruaich village group asking for recommendations for places to stay with a ‘campervan’, where a shower and toilet waste point would be nice but not essential.


The response was overwhelming particularly as I said that the camper is a Land Rover Defender. We had a recommendation from a Defender owing couple of a wild camp in the southern uplands, an invitation to tea in Gourock (near the ferry to Dunoon) and the offer of a stay on a smallholding near Dunoon from a couple who used to run a Land Rover parts supply company.

So don’t let anyone tell you that Facebook is a horrible place only frequented by ‘look at me’ types and trolls. There are plenty of those but also, in useful corners and rooms are normal people like you and me.

The biggest problem was actually getting to the M6. The Snake Pass was closed for land slip repairs, all the traffic appeared to have stopped in High Lane and we turned around on the A6 in Disley (and that’s no mean feat in a 110) and we tried to go over to Kettleshume. There were two road closed signs there. We obeyed one and went to Whaley Bridge but ignored the second and managed to get down to the town and onto the alternative route. That was a ten mile detour and we’d only travelled twenty five!
In the rain the M6 was horrible but finally in Scotland, the sun came out and we turned up a narrow mountain pass in the Lowther Hills and camped here.



All the blog posts from 2013 to this one are available here at Peeliesblogs just filter on the trips or select from the dates.

Comments

Rachel said…
And that Tim, is as good as it gets! Amazing place to camp - so jealous of your early morning view tomorrow - enjoy!

Popular posts from this blog

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...

"I'm the dog"

El Berro and  Camping Sierra Espuña  are nicely positioned for walking in these 'low' Sierras and of course the obligatory GR XYZ  long distance path crosses the village. The campsite people gave us a couple of short walk suggestions, written on A4 and translated by some English guy, Michael Ball. We waited until the end of the afternoon, so that the temperature was somewhat manageable and then picked one of the ~1 hour walks that start at the campsite. The walk is so simple that there's no description, just a small diagram that's well annotated with the type of path (wide main track / footpath), other markers (gate, incorrect route, fence). You can't go wrong, can you? Well the first part was easy. Follow the path out of the village, up a valley, through woodland, up and up. Then reach the ridge and the marked ring of stones. Don't turn right, carry on straight across. Then wander through a few trees and down to a dry riverbed, at which point you walk the (ve...

Our Landy

Here is our new Landy. It's a 1996 Defender 110 County Station Wagon. The engine is the 300Tdi which is a straightforward diesel that doesn't have an ecu so we won't need access to computer diagnostics in order to fault find. It was bought at the end of 2014 in 'restored' condition, but we soon discovered that the restoration was wallpaper and in fact it required some serious work on the drivetrain, hubs and brakes. The jobs done: Rear half-shafts and drive flanges Front n/s CV joint and drive flange Front ventilated brake discs One old and one new front disc New brake callipers fitted to each corner Rear lower link arm bushes Front radius arm bushes New shockers all round Front turrets replaced with galvanised versions New transmission brake shoes ( after replacing the failed rear transfer box oil seal). Replaced the rear body cappings with galvanised - hence the silver coloured band around the body. Galvanised capping, supports the r...