The most photogenic villages in the Cotswolds

The Roman city of Bath, England

We have done some canoeing around these wonderful islands, the highlight was when the seals were “playing” around our canoe – chasing us and swimming under the canoe, one even tried to have a nibble at the paddle!

A proper blog to follow later, so watch this space…

The largest city in Somerset, England is named after its Roman Baths. Although it’s a city, it is easily walkable and doesn’t take long to walk between all the main sights. The city is a World Heritage Site, where the popular sites to visit include Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths, Pulteney Bridge, the Thermae Spa (which unfortunately we missed, so now we have a reason to visit again sometime), Royal Crescent and The Circus.

We just googled Bath’s top sights on a variety of websites and then narrowed it down to the ones we were interested in.

The city had lots of really nice bars and restaurants, with enticing smells emanating from them.

Our hotel, Bathen House, was lovely and took around 30 minutes to walk to the city centre, with the option to walk along the river (River Avon) or through the park (Royal Victoria Park). There was also plenty free parking, which is a big bonus in Bath.

We only stayed for two nights, but it was plenty of time to enjoy the city, see lots and get a really good feel for it. The only attraction we wouldn’t have bothered with, in hindsight, is the Roman Baths. Although lovely to see, we found the self guided tour to be very overpriced at £23 per person (£21 weekdays) and would be inclined to recommend it mainly for people who are interested in history. I believe the tours are normally done with a tour guide, but due to Covid they are currently self guided.

So all in all, Bath is a great city to explore, with lots of history, stunning architecture and a great atmosphere. Below are a selection of photos we took…

If you’re coming from the north it’s worth coming off the motorway and driving through the Cotswolds en-route. This is pretty Painswick where we stopped for a wee walk round…

I have temporarily reduced the price of my kindle “10 Great Days Out from Glasgow” to £1.49. It’s a great wee guide for anyone visiting or new to the area. If you’re interested click on the link here, and please feel free to share!

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So this weekend we decided on Loch Doon as our camping trip. As it was somewhere we hadn’t been before, we had some trepidation about wild camping there, especially having heard it was very busy on weekends.

As luck would have it, Graham, from the campsite at Craigmalloch offered to fit us in even though they were fully booked. Driving there and seeing just how many people were already set up “wild” camping, we were glad to be going to a campsite knowing we would have a spot.

The campsite is just a few hundred metres from the castle ruins and situated at the north of Galloway Forest Park. It’s a new set up which is still being developed, and currently the facilities they have are a couple of showers and toilets (we never had to queue) and free use of fishing equipment and canoes, although we had brought our own inflatable canoe. For just £5 they will give you a big pile of logs and a firepit with BBQ rack, so that was great and saves bringing them with you. The people running it were very friendly and helpful.

Graham helped us carry our camping gear down to the spot we’d chosen on the beach, right by the water’s edge. It was a stunning spot, but given how much we had brought it was a bit of a slog (more so when packing up) as it’s accessed down a steep-ish slope and was the furthest spot from the parking. Nevertheless, we were glad we’d chosen it over the other spots, as it felt nice and remote at night and therefore had the feel of a “wilder” camp.

Once we were set up, we had some lunch and then ventured out on our canoe for a paddle. The loch is big, so you are spoilt for choice. We headed over first to the ruins of the old castle, which are on a very small island, and then to a quiet sandy beach on the other side of the loch for a paddle and to fly the drone.

Saturday was a really hot day and we couldn’t have asked for better. Some people were swimming in the loch, although we decided knee deep was enough for us! The beach was fairly busy in the afternoon, but by evening it was just us there. We had brought a cold meal with us for dinner on Saturday and a BBQ for Sunday. Our evenings were spent chilling out on the beach with the campfire, dinner and a few drinks.

Sunday was cooler and more overcast, but still nice. We had intended to have a drive around the forest park to explore other areas, but the forest road connecting Loch Doon to Loch Braden was closed (apparently due to too many “dirty campers”), which meant having to go back out and then find another route into the park, so we decided to save doing that for another trip.

While we were relaxing on the beach, we noticed a man having a bit of trouble in his inflatable canoe. He lost the end of his paddle and was unable to retrieve it. Luckily it floated, so we got in our canoe and paddled out to get it for him. The poor guy was struggling and the seat in his canoe wasn’t giving him any support, so he was almost lying down in it. We tried to help fix the seat so it gave better support, but it was still pretty bad and we could see he was still struggling when he set off, so we gave him a wee tow back to the beach he had come from.

Later we took a short stroll to the castle ruins for a look and some photographs. Some people there said they had seen an adder by the roadside, which was a bit worrying! They are poisonous and I have heard now of a few people seeing them in this area.

Once back at camp, we took the canoe out again for another paddle, and twice managed to drag it over unseen rocks (the water was very dark), which worried me quite a bit! Anyway, all was well and the canoe stayed inflated – phew! I was worried we might have punctured it…

Come Monday morning the weather had turned for the worse. The forecast when we left on Saturday was for rain, but not until the afternoon, however it came early and much heavier! It was impossible to get stuff out of the tent to make the several trips needed to pack up the car without getting the inside of the tent soaked. It’s up in our back garden just now waiting for a long enough dry spell to dry it out. I went in this morning to check the inside (it has a sewn-in groundsheet) and it was full of puddles, which used about five towels to dry up! We love our big tent, but this is the scenario where the small tent is better, as it’s much easier to get dried.

Now it’s just over two weeks until we go on holiday (all being well with local lockdowns and such), so probably no more camping until the holiday, but hopefully we might get the canoe out if the next couple of weekends are ok, so watch this space…

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So we finally got to make use of our new dinghy for camping by taking it over from Millarochy Bay to Inchconnachan, otherwise known as “Wallaby Island”, on Loch Lomond.

It would have been much quicker and more sheltered to have gone from Aldochay, but the lay-by parking there only holds a few cars, so chances were that we wouldn’t have got a space at this time of year.

As part of our weekend trip, we also hoped to visit Paul’s cousin Sarah and her family, who we haven’t seen for over 15 years, and who are holidaying in Ardentinny this week. However, it was looking pretty unlikely as there had been a massive landslide on the A83 (Rest and be Thankful) earlier in the week and it was closed when we last checked on Friday. On Saturday we heard that instead of the massive 60-mile detour that had been in place, the Old Military Road had now been opened. This more or less runs parallel but is single track, so temporary lights had been set up.  So our plan was now made – head off to Millarochy Bay to park up and launch our dinghy loaded up with our camping gear, cross over to Inchconnachan (just over 2 miles) for Saturday night and hope to see some wallabies, then back to Millarochy and over to Ardentinny to meet Sarah and her family and camp overnight next to the beach.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day on Saturday. The weather was great with blue skies, 20+ degrees and a calm loch for our crossing. It took a while to get set up and Paul did all the hard & heavy work as usual – pumping up the dinghy, carrying the battery (which weighs about 18 kilos!) and electric outboard (which also weighs a fair bit). I dealt with bringing the lighter stuff down to the beach – tent, sleeping bags, cool bag, airbed etc. We didn’t use the dinghy seats during the crossing; instead, we sat on boxes – Paul on the battery box and me on our camping box with the pots etc in it. We used the blow-up dinghy seats once we were on the island, which along with our picnic rug made for comfy seating.

The crossing went well and smoothly, we saw a fairly long and sheltered stretch of beach at the end of the island where some other campers had already set up. There were also some boats moored at the beach and some who had dropped anchor. There was enough space for us to pitch up without being too close to anyone, and as the beach was a mix of sand and shingle, it was pretty good to set up on. We had also considered camping on the long sandy beach on Inchmoan, but it looked very busy and we figured it might be quite a noisy night (however as things turned out we might have been better off there!)

Our tent was set up next to a couple of families with young kids and a baby. A little further along was a huge tarpaulin cover that several of the people on boats were sharing to socialise and shelter.

In the afternoon, once we had settled, we took the dinghy out for a row, leaving the battery to recharge a little with the solar charger Paul had bought. It’s very pretty around Inchconnachan as there are quite a few islands close together in that area and a nice bit called “The Narrows”, a stretch where there is just a short distance between Inchconnachan and Inchtavannach.

We had brought a cold dinner and some paper plates with us to make things easy, and the sun was already getting quite low by the time we ate. Although we couldn’t see the sun setting as it set behind the island, it did leave a pretty glow.

By 10 pm we had headed off to bed, only to end up with almost no sleep when a group on jet-skies, who had come in late, set up drinking not far along the beach. We could hear them tearing branches off the trees for their fire and they spent the whole night until they left at 7 am, shouting, cursing and swearing. We kept thinking they’d drink themselves to sleep eventually but they didn’t. The other group from the boats were up late as well, until maybe 4-ish, but we could have slept through the noise from them, and we knew they were ok people as we had a wee laugh with some of them earlier when they teased Paul about his “life vest sunburn”. The jet skiers sounded aggressive and very drunk, their language was foul and we were scared to go out of the tent, much less ask them to be quiet, for fear of repercussions. We felt so sorry for the family with the young kids, who had told us that it was their first time camping.

In the morning, we saw the mess they had left in and by their fire – broken off tree branches, the remains of a tent ( which they appear to have tried to burn), bottles and plastic. It was pretty bad. I can’t understand people who have no respect for nature and seem so happy to spoil it…

In the morning, we chatted to another small group who were camped behind us. One of the guys was telling us how he had been camping out on the islands for years. He said he thinks there probably aren’t any wallabies left any more, but years ago, he said they would come right up to people with no fear. He told us how he’d feed them cabbage from his hand. It must have been amazing!

After breakfast, we packed up and loaded the dinghy and said goodbye to the people we had chatted to. The battery for the outboard had charged back up a bit with the solar charger, and as we turned the corner out of our sheltered spot, we were glad as the wind was pretty gusty and the water got quite choppy (for a small dinghy). It was quite a rough ride back, unlike the day before, and a little bit scary. We headed to the nearest land on the east and continued down fairly close to the shore, just in case! By the time we came into Millarochy Bay, it was pretty calm again. I’d say we learned a lesson, that calm on the shore doesn’t necessarily mean calm out on the loch!

We were glad to find our car was still in the car park when we checked, and once we got it loaded back up, we set off for Ardentinny. The weather was gorgeous again, and from Arrochar we got a superb view of Ben Arthur (otherwise known as The Cobbler).

The Old Military Road was indeed open, so we got to Ardentinny with just a short delay while we waited on the temporary lights to change in our favour. Looking up the hill we could see where the landslide took place and it looked really bad. It had also passed over the road we were on, but as it’s lower down it wasn’t hit as badly, so they were able to clear it.

Sarah had invited us over to their holiday cottage for lunch and it was lovely to catch up after such a long time and to meet her family. Afterwards, we all went to the beach where we planned to camp up for the night. It’s a nice place to camp, there are toilets and picnic tables and a great view over Loch Long.

The wind picked up a bit later on and Paul set up our tarp as a wind block. It worked pretty well! As lunch was late, we also had dinner late and finished it off with some hot chocolate and rum. There had been no midgies on Inchconnachan, but there were quite a few at Loch Long, so we eventually headed into the tent which has a fairly decent sized porch we can sit in.

Although there were several other campers, this time we got lucky and had a quiet night and a much-needed sleep.

On Monday we decided to take the ferry back from Dunoon to Gourock, which cuts about an hour off the journey home. We planned to have a walk at Puck’s Glen, which is a few miles from Dunoon, but the car park was closed off and there was no alternative, so we just headed into Dunoon for a wee walk around before getting the ferry.

The ferry journey is pretty short, about 25 minutes, but it was quite a novelty and we enjoyed the views as we sailed.

From our experience, our advice for anyone “wild camping” by car or boat would be to avoid Saturday nights in summer if at all possible, as this seems to be the most likely time you will have your tranquillity spoiled. Failing that, try to find a place where there are no other campers, and if you’re island camping, avoid areas where there are lots of jet skiers or boats rafted together as the likelihood is they are there to party.

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Any questions, please feel free to comment and we shall reply. If you enjoyed reading this blog please click on the link below to share it. Happy camping!

So we finally got our new Intex dinghy out for a “test run” on Loch Lomond on Sunday. We had decided to go from the beach next to the Duck Bay over to the island of Inchmurrin, where there is a bar and restaurant. The distance from the Duck Bay beach is around 1.9 miles and the weather forecast was for sunny spells.

Once we arrived, and started to get it set up, we realised that although we had brought the outboard and the battery, we had forgotten the mount! It was too far to go home to get it, and we didn’t want the day ruined, so Paul decided to row over!

He actually did really well, and the dinghy handled well. It took around 50 minutes each way. Better exercise for Paul than the gym, which still hasn’t reopened!

We sat outside initially, but it was quite cool and breezy, and the sun had gone behind clouds, so we ended up venturing indoors. They said they couldn’t accommodate any lunches that weren’t already reserved, so we settled for a drink in the bar. It was the first time we have been in a pub since March, and we have been avoiding them since they re-opened, however, it was preferable to sitting outside with a jacket on.

On our trip back we got caught in a downpour and soaked! It came out of nowhere, soaked us within 10 minutes, then we were back to our sunny spells. Bad timing on our part I guess!

Anyway, we now know the dinghy rows well, should we even run out of power on the battery when using the outboard. Mind you, getting positioned to row it, if it’s full of our camping gear, won’t be easy, so fingers crossed we never have to.

Paul has a long weekend coming up, so we are hoping we might be able to get away camping, however most campsites are either full or haven’t opened up for tents, so it might have to be a wild camp. Watch this space…

We wanted to find somewhere to camp where we could try out our new dinghy, so we decided on Firkin Point on Loch Lomond. The bookings are very busy just now, so we were lucky to get a spot, it was one of the last areas with availability.

We stopped off at the office in Balloch on the way and were told we can just email in the request to transfer the registration from our old dinghy to the new one, so that’s no hassle. The number plates are on boards that we attach at the time we go out, so it’s easy to transfer them over, we didn’t need new ones (though in time we might ask for another set so we can try sticking them onto the dinghy, which would be easier).

So the car was pretty rammed between the dinghy, outboard and camping gear. The weather on Sunday was pretty gusty, so although we had pretty good beach access, we decided not to take the dinghy out. We were very unlucky because the next morning, although calm, was absolutely pouring down! So the dinghy remains in the bag and yet to have it’s maiden voyage!

Firkin Point has good and bad points in regards to camping…

THE GOOD POINTS – The setting looking down the loch is lovely, and there was a beach right across from area B, where we were pitched. There were picnic tables, which meant we didn’t need to use our own camping table and chairs. Paul had bought a tarp and poles and we set it up over the picnic table next to our tent (area B allows 2 tents to pitch up and has 2 picnic tables, so that worked out well). Someone previous had set up a firepit, so we used that later for a campfire. Another plus is that there are toilets at the car park, however, they are still closed due to Covid-19.

Our set up with the new tarp & poles

The beach across from our camp

Our camp looking towards the beach

Sunset

THE BAD POINTS – As the camping area is just off the busy A82 there is a lot of traffic noise. This continued all through the night, so it lacked that idyllic peacefulness. The midges (or sandflies, I’m not sure which they are) were bad, but that can be said for most camping spots including our spot at Loch Drunkie last week, it’s not specifically to this area. Finally, the ground was very wet and squelchy, perhaps partly because Area B doesn’t get much sun, so it probably takes longer to dry out (if it ever does). On the Monday morning it rained and my feet got soaked (Paul has his hiking shoes on so he was ok, I was just wearing skechers).

All in all, we had a nice time on Sunday, not so great when it came to packing away on Monday (the rain was forecast to be on for the day, so there was no point in delaying leaving).

Despite the lovely views and use of picnic tables etc, we preferred our spots on the shores of Loch Drunkie (both last weeks’ spot and the previous one we have had).

I hope that I will soon be able to write about our new dinghy’s maiden voyage. Paul also has a couple of Mondays off in August, so we are hoping that we can get away for long weekends (we will try to have a few options so we can chase the good weather!)

Some people have been asking about the tarp we bought. It was from Amazon and cost £17.99, click here to look. The poles were from Go Outdoors and cost £13 each, again click here to look. Note: The prices, especially on Amazon, can vary rather a lot, if the tarp we bought has gone up in price, you can find similar ones for around £20 or less.

Watch this space for (hopefully) more “adventures” soon…

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We have done a couple of camps in this area now, but this time I think we have found a new favourite spot! You need a permit to camp in this area from March to September, so log on here to book one. The drive usually closes to cars around the end of October, so there’s only a small window of opportunity to camp without a permit.

In previous trips, we camped on the peninsula within permit area “I” on Loch Drunkie, which is stunning, but quite a long downhill walk from the car park (perhaps 350-400 metres) – you can read about these trips here.

This time area “I” wasn’t available, so we booked permit area “G”, also on Loch Drunkie, and also with a stunning view up the loch. There is also a small beach when the water level is low, and unlike our spot in area “I” it is very easy to access from the layby parking (so much easier if, like us, you are bringing quite a lot of gear – logs, a picnic table, chairs, etc).

The main car park within the drive and the toilets are about 15 minutes walk away, so unless you need urgently this is quite convenient. You can also park and camp by the main car park (permit area “O”), so what you choose depends on your priorities (the convenience of having toilets close by or having a view).

There are some permit areas that we wouldn’t book as they have either become overgrown (such as “H”) or they only have space for very small tents or hammock camping, so make sure you read the description for each permit area if you plan to go. You don’t book a pitch as such, just an area, so it’s luck of the draw if you get a perfect spot on the beach as we did.

We would strongly advise not to just turn up as the rangers do come round to check vehicle registrations and tent descriptions, and you may be asked to move on if you haven’t booked a permit. On the second night, we had a family set up camp on the grassy area behind the beach and they hadn’t booked a permit. When the rangers came round they were speaking to them for a long time and they also asked us and the other guy who had a permit if we minded letting the family stay (which we were fine with). The night before a group of 6 men were also camped nearby without a permit, and at one point it looked as if they were going to be moved on, although, in the end, they let them stay (they didn’t ask on that occasion if ourselves and the other camper were ok with it, I’m not sure why, perhaps as they were a bit further away). That group played loud music until after midnight, but fortunately it was good music, so although it wasn’t the peaceful camping experience we had expected, we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

It was a really good weekend, we chatted to the other people camping nearby, and shared a campfire and a lot of laughs with Grieg (our “neighbour”) on the first night.

During the day, there are walking trails that you can use (none are very long) and the loch is great for canoeing, so we did some short walks and went out a few times in our inflatable canoe. The loch is big enough to have a really good paddle, and there are other small beaches (when the water level is low) that you can stop on. It’s a brilliant place for a night or two away!

We’ve had quite a few people asking about our canoe, so here is a link, we bought it from Amazon. The price varies A LOT, but if it’s high and you’re not in a hurry just wait a while (and/or search for other Amazon sellers) and you should be able to get it for under £100. We would also recommend buying some Stormsure as it’s excellent for any repairs.

Finally, there were no midges, but there were lots of sandflies that appeared for a while in the evening and seemed to be immune to our “Jungle Formula” mossie repellent, so it’s worth having a face covering or netted hat.

We hope this blog has been helpful, please feel free to share using the icons below, and enjoy your trip if you book!

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