Peelies travels

As Covid19 continues to hold a grip on foreign travel, campsite space is limited and we turned to the Caravan Club, now re-branded as the Caravan and Motorhome Club. They have a range of Certified Locations which are non-tent, five pitch sites for Caravans or Motorhomes. We paid our annual fee (joining fee waived apparently) and then had access to their online site search etc. and found a CL at Coldingham. Bee Edge CL is a mile inland (uphill) from Coldingham Beach and is ideally placed near a pub serving food. We drove there from Killin, skirting Edinburgh, making full use of the Roamerdrive (overdrive), which reduces the engine revs and consequent noise in the Land Rover, to the level where you know the other person is saying something. This is more new ground for us and we have no knowledge of the Scottish Borders and the next few days would be a pleasant surprise. The Bee Edge CL is quite new and although it is just the requisite five pitches, the owner has spent time and money cre...

Making our escape from damp Mull, we drove east along Ardnamurchan and the northern side of Loch Sunart, for about 50 miles. There were some fabulous views such as this bay, far below the road. It's actually quite a difficult drive as the narrow road twists and turns, rising and falling through woodland and you are constantly looking ahead to the next passing place. In fact the driving style in all these parts, requires you to be ready to stop fairly promptly at that next passing place, as a vehicle might be just out of sight. It was surprisingly 'busy', although we had forgotten what busy is! At the Corran Ferry you can take a sneaky trip across Loch Linnie and before we knew it, we were amongst the towering mountains, driving south through Glencoe.  Unfortunately the rain there was even wetter than on Mull and that epic drive was not quite as spectacular as we had hoped. Still, we did stop halfway up, to reminisce about a family walk up to Bidean nam Bian. I don't rea...

Before we left home on this trip, I bought a Powerbank for our phones. It isn't something that I've ever used but the OS maps app tends to sap phone power, as does the NHS Test and Trace app, which needs bluetooth to properly work. So I bought one of these... I chose this one as it has a USB Type-C connection which is bi-directional and can handle higher charging current. This means that the Powerbank can be re-charged more quickly and itself can charge an attached phone more quickly too, using a USB Type-C to Lightning cable (not shown). It can also charge my MacBook Air using a Type-C to Type C cable.The unexpected benefit of one of these isn't the ability to put it in your rucsac for when you are walking but that it allows 'cordless' charging at base too, so the phone never needs to be out of your hand.  😆  Covid-19 security seems to be all over the place as we move around and visit establishments such as cafes and campsites. Some sites have their facilities clo...

That was the end of our slightly curtailed trip to Mull, with a few things missed off the list. There has been virtually no sitting out in warm sunshine, fewer views of mountains than hoped for and no boat trip to Staffa to see Fingal’s cave and puffins because of wind. The trips were still running but we didn’t fancy a few hours on a choppy sea. To cap it all, my boots leak. They are the Keen brand and I only bought them last year. They have been looked after, treated with the correct waterproofer but now I’m getting wet feet whenever I get into squelchy ground. I wish I’d brought my big Meindl Borneo ones but they can often be an overkill. At least they don’t leak. The plan was always to go to Ardnamurchan and from Mull it’s easy as the ferry leaves from there. Tobermory to Kilchoan only takes 45’ and on Sunday at 11:00 there were just three vehicles. The view was just as limited as on the Oban ferry but at least we were first off The Ardnamurchan peninsular is a long way west of any...

The word ‘community’ crops-up a lot in these parts and there’s something nice about it. Community gardens are common, even produce sold at a side of the road stall can be labelled “community produce”. These new, timber clad houses we being built “for local occupation”, on a hillside on the west coast. I wanted to get out and walk around but it felt intrusive and I was content with a photograph. A lady was tending the community garden just above too . The pub in the village of Dervaig looked inviting. There was a certain bustle around at the end of the afternoon and we tried to manoeuvre into the small car park. We were hoping that we could align in a private sort of way to enable us to stay for the night. We didn’t know if the pub allowed this but anyway there was no ‘private alignment’ as we found that we were overlooking houses and the back entrance to the pub. So sadly, we turned on the windscreen wipers again and drove up the hill and back into the swirling mists and very very wet ...

  That evening was another 'inside' one, as the rain came in squalls and the wind didn't relent. It's our fault for camping at such a superb spot. If it were warmer, the wind wouldn't matter. If it wasn't so windy the cool wouldn't matter. At least there are no midges at Fidden. However we decided that all good campsites need to come to an end when you are on a road trip with no advance plans and it was time to drive north. This being the Ross of Mull, you first have to drive a long way east, on the road that serves as an artery here. The mist was low as the northern shore of Loch Scridain got nearer and then we turned left around the head of the loch and took notice of the sign warning us of otters crossing for six miles. This road is narrow, uneven and skirts the southern flanks of Ben More, the highest mountain on the island (966m). Unfortunately the skies were grey and so views upwards were limited. It's certainly dramatic and the crags tower over th...

  It was no surprise but nevertheless, mid summer in these parts means very little dark. The sun set at exactly 10pm when we were at Craignure on the northeast coast. I know this as I watched it dip below the north west horizon. At Fidden you can see a jetty and just up from there, a row of cottages, each with a brightly painted door. They are a lovely sight, better for us campers than the inhabitants. They look across to a field of camper vans and motorhomes, which is a bit sad. The cottages are on Erraid, a small island cut off at high tide and only accessible on foot across the sand. There is no marked path over that sand and also, to get to the crossing point, you have to walk two miles along the road from Fidden. When I say walk, we are the only people to do that. The very few other people had clearly driven round. "Oh you've walked quickly" they said when we caught up with a couple who had presumably passed us on the road. " Yes", I said, "we walk qui...

If you read these posts in a feed from gmail, please occasionally return to the website, as I often add photos and correct entries after the initial upload. The blog is at www.peeliesgoto.blogspot.com The last sight of the sun for several days would be at Fidden which is about as far south and west as you can be on Mull without getting wet feet. It’s only just a handful of miles along the coast from the Ardlanish Weavers beach. The site is a wide, close cropped grassy area, without pitch markings. You just find a spot and spend the rest of the time looking at the sea and holding onto anything that would blow away. It is very exposed. Looking west there’s the coast of Iona close by and to the south, the bay is full of islets which are partially submerged at high tide. The campsite seemed to be full of  elderly dog walkers who didn’t seem to do any dog walking and elderly kayakers who did lots of low risk kayaking at high tide. What it doesn’t have is a mobile phone signal that EE cu...