First Camping Trip of the Year

Later in the year than usual, we had our first camping trip. Usually, we have been camping in the sub-zero temperatures of February or March where hypothermia is considered to be "just part of the fun".

Anyway, the weather had been fantastic of late so off went Jim, Thomas and I to Rowerdennan. It wasn't to be our usual destination, but a new one that Thomas had discovered last year whilst walking the West Highland Way with Kath and if he ever finishes writing that blog entry then perhaps we will discover how he actually found it :).

The plan was to meet in Glasgow, get the train to Balloch, indulge in some sociable binge drinking and then cycle to the camp site. I had stayed at Susan's the night before so I intended to join them at Dumbarton East. However, as so often is the case with me, things did not quite go to plan.

Since we were cycling about 25 miles to the campsite, I decided that a smaller, more lightweight sleeping bag would be easier to carry than the one that I have at present. Long story short, by the time I bumbled about with Susan at Loch Lomond Shores and picked a suitable compact sleeping bag which had an "L" on the label (more on that later!) the guys were past Dumbarton East and well on the way to Balloch. Susan offered to give me a lift straight to Balloch since my bike was in the back of her car anyway.

Fifteen minutes away from Balloch and Susan's Mum called to inform me that I had left my tent back in her house. To save me wasting valuable drinking time, Susan dropped me off at the Balloch House Hotel where Jim and Thomas were deep into their first beer of the day, and volunteered to go back to her house to get my tent for me. Don't know what I would do without her :).

We chatted away and caught up with all the gossip and 40 minutes later, Susan returned with my tent and joined us for a while before leaving us to get on with it.

It was a warm sunny day and the lure of cold beer ensured that it was a good couple of hours before we finally started cycling to our first port of call which was Drymen and it took us the best part of a couple of hours to make it there. Another beer inside us and it was time to think of what provisions we would need to see us through the night. An almost instant decision was made to forgo buying any food and just have dinner in the Rowerdennan Hotel. This left ample room to buy more beers, a wee mixture of cans of Bud and Stella and a bottle of Rose just for good measure.

We stuffed them into our bags and carried onto Balmaha, where the Oak Tree Inn would have the pleasure of our company, but only after we had to stop and repair Thomas' flat tyre. After one or two it was time for the big push onto Rowerdennan and an hour and a half of hard cycling later we made it to the campsite.

Jim and I put our tents up and Thomas tied his hammock to a couple of trees. I unpacked my new sleeping bag and discovered to my annoyance and to much hilarity from the other two that "L" does not stand for a "Large" sleeping bag but the "L" means that the bag has a zip on the left. So tonight I would be sleeping in a kid sized sleeping bag that zipped on the left!

After a couple of cans from our stockpile at the campsite, we set off for the hotel to get some food. We were tired and hungry and in need of some relaxation. As we got to the hotel we could see that a wedding was in full swing and I the guys commented that I could crash it later on if I was in the mood (regular blog readers will understand!).

We grabbed a seat in the bar and ordered food and drink. A musician was setting up for his one man show and things were looking up until the food arrived and he started his set. Thomas and I had ordered chili con carne and it was obviously just been pinged in the microwave rather than cooked from scratch. The musician started playing his guitar and his backing music and although he wasn't terrible we decided to make a retreat outside with our beers to escape his "100 great guitar classics" routine.

Despite it being pretty chilly outside we decided to stick it out, since as you can see from the picture below, it was a beautiful night. A short while later the wedding guests made there way round to near where we were sitting and a fireworks display began from the side of the Loch.

After moving inside to heat up for a while, it was time to call it a night and we cycled back to the campsite. Since I was the only one with a light on my bike I was supposed to lead the guys to safety. Unfortunately the two slow asses got left behind with the result that Jim hit a rock and fell off his bike landing on his wrist that he broke on a previous cycle trip a few years ago. Ooops!

After a wee nightcap in my tent we turned in for the night. Despite my sleeping bag barely covering my belly button I managed to fall asleep pretty quickly, probably due to a combination of too much cycling and too many beers!

I awoke at 4.00, absolutely baltic. It was freezing and my poor choice in sleeping bag and lack of warm clothing was totally pissing me off. I could here Jim snoring away in his tent and Thomas arguing with someone in his sleep.

We finally emerged from out tents, tired and sore around 8.00 and the site of the sun rising over the Loch and the thought of a hot breakfast were an incentive to get cracking.

On our return from a good Scottish fry-up breakfast at the hotel we packed up our stuff and cycled back to Balmaha. Arriving there at 11.30. Too early for the pub so a breakfast Bud for each of us was pulled from Thomas' bag and we sat drinking our cans like the scumbags we are, on the grass.

As we sat there, a car with a boat in tow passed by and I asked the guys if they had a boat what they would call it. My name was a no-brainer, "Enterprise", Thomas plumped for, "Pearl Necklace", and before Jim had a chance to choose his name we were throwing suggestions at him like, "HMS Cheesy Wotsits" and the "HMS Monster Munch". We eventually decided that his boat should be called the, "HMS Pringles" and in a quick trip into Bob's world, I amused myself by suggesting that he would have empty Pringle tubes stuck to the sides of his boat to use as torpedo launchers. I laughed hysterically at myself, while my friends just shook their heads in pity!

Another stop in Drymen and then we were on our way to Balloch. Full speed ahead.

The scenery is fab and we kept up a good pace through the countryside. Passing, what is my favourite bit of topiary (see below). You are just driving along the country roads, turn a corner and there it is. Very cool!

After a good long cycle up and down various hills, stopping at many pubs and having a laugh we were back where we started, at the Balloch House Hotel for a slap up meal before getting the train back home.

Another top weekend!

Dirty Weekend Up North!

Susan and I had taken a couple of days off to go down and see Brian and Fiona but unfortunately they had to cancel on us so we decided to spend a couple of days up North instead.

We left early on Friday and headed East, then up to Inverness. We had a short stop-over at my Aunt and Uncle's holiday home at Portmahomack. It has two cottages that sit at the bottom of a lighthouse and as you look out towards the peninsula the Dornoch Firth is to your left and the Moray Firth to your right. On a good day you can see dolphins leaping out of the sea and there are seals on the beach, but not today. We are going up to stay there for a weekend in August when my Aunt and Uncle come over from America.

 

A couple of hours later we were in Ullapool on the West coast and had booked into the Harbour Lights Hotel that looked onto Loch Broom. Very nice.

As we arrived at the hotel, we discovered that unfortunately some other guests were arriving to check in at the same time. We were lucky enough to be staying in the same hotel as a bunch of big hairy bikers who were away from their wives and girlfriends for the weekend. The looks on their faces as they saw Susan told me that there was going to be trouble ahead, and I wasn't wrong...

Anyway, we booked into our room, spent some time together then got showered and headed downstairs for some dinner. The meal was nice and after we had finished our three courses, we headed through to the lounge and had a seat beside the coal fire. It took me three cups of coffee to get myself "unrelaxed" enough that we could head into town for a drink.

Unfortunately, we ended up in the same place as the bikers. One of them came up to us and was chatting away, but as the night went on more of them joined in and were showing Susan a bit more attention than I was happy with. She tried to play it down with them, but by this time they all had their beer heads on and were not backing off.

Things came to a head when I went to the toilet and returned to find one of them trying to give Susan his phone number. Another arsehole was trying his luck too and I told them in no uncertain terms to "fuck off". I did think for a brief moment that they were all about to lay into me and I was up for that, but Susan saw sense and escorted me out of the pub and back to the hotel. I was seething.

We opened a bottle of red wine in the room and got back to our happy place before finally falling over around 2.00.

Breakfast the next morning was an experience as our new friends were sitting a couple of tables away. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife, but I don't suppose it helped that I was growling at them.

We decided that we needed to blow the cob-webs away and go for a cycle. We bought a book from the tourist information office and found a cycle route that was nearby.

We headed up a steep hill that ran past a quarry and were thinking of heading back when we turned a corner and saw Loch Achall in the distance. We carried on cycling round the to the side of the Loch and even though it was raining the scenery made it worthwhile.

 

We returned to the hotel and got showered and ready to go out. A night in town with our new friends did not sound very appealling so Susan suggested that we take a trip to Nairn. As I looked at the map I noticed how close it is to Burghead, where my mate, Mark lives. I suggested to Susan that we pop into see him as we have kind of lost touch recently.

As we drove down I phoned his mobile several times but could not get a hold of him. I sent a text to my friend Jim asking if I had the correct phone number but by the time Jim got back to me we had already been driving around Burghead for half an hour and were on the verge of leaving. As a last resort, we stopped the car and I rolled down the window and asked a man standing outside a pub, "do you know Mark Langlands?". "Yeah", he replied. "He's standing at the bar in there". He dissappeared for a minute and emerged with a bemused Mark who took a minute or two to get over the shock. His face was a picture!

We went into the pub and I had a couple of beers as we chatted and caught up with old times. Mark took us round the corner to show us his new house and suggested that we stay overnight as his girlfriend would not be in from work until about 10.00. It didn't seem fair on her to come in from work to find two strangers sitting in her living room, especially when she would be up for work at 05.30 the next morning, so we declined.

We headed back to Ullapool and had a chippie on the way. It was late when we returned so we crawled into bed and watched Wayne's World on TV, until we fell asleep.

The next morning we were up early for breakfast and our friends were there again, all looking a bit worse for wear. We checked out and started the long drive. We weren't in any hurry to get home so we decided to visit some of Susan's favourite places on the way.

We went to Pitlochry and Susan showed me the loch that has "steps" for the Salmon to make their way up so that they can avoid the dam. Very cool.

 

Then we went onto her favourite place, Kenmore where we stopped for lunch and shared it with the local duck family. It's absolutely beautiful and I can understand why it means so much to her.

 

On then to Gleneagles where Susan has a holiday home. She gave me a wee tour of the hotel. Very nice.

Back home then to reality. Im sorry that we never got to see Brian and Fiona but I am glad that we had a fab weekend, nevertheless.