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.