We have put a new menu on called “Photo Journeys” to cover a lot of awesome trips that we have done that were either packaged for us, or just too long ago for us to recall enough details to write a more informative webpage.

So our Photo Journeys include a little bit of information on the trips, but are predominantly photographs of the places we visited.

Have a wee look on this link here, and see if any are of interest to you!

So this morning I tried Zoom for the very first time. I have been in touch via Facebook and What’s App with some great people who I met on an Exodus overland trip over 30 years ago! Most of us are in our 50’s now, we were all just youngsters when we met. We have been managing to get in touch with some of the ones we had lost touch with over the years, and there are now, I think, 9 of us in the What’s App group.

One of the girls, Cathy, set up a Zoom meeting for all of us. The first one was last week, but being a bit of a technophobe, and just a bit nervous to be honest, in case I had nothing interesting to say or whatever, I didn’t join in. However, Cathy set up another for this week, so this time I joined in (that’s me with the camera in front of my face lol!) Guys, I hope you’re all still ok with me putting this pic on my blog!

Apart from seeing a thumbnail of myself on the video screen, it wasn’t as bad or as difficult as I had expected, and it was really lovely to see them all after so many years and to hear about what everyone’s been up to.  It’s a shame I didn’t join in last week as a couple of them couldn’t make it today, but we are going to have another one next month.

It was so weird to be catching up with people from what now seems almost like another life. But so nice…

Quite a few of my fellow fitness instructors have been using Zoom to teach online fitness classes, but it wasn’t for me (plus I haven’t got contact details for most of my participants as the closures were so sudden), so I am just hoping that soon our leisure centres will reopen and I can get back to work fairly soon.

Anyway, this was a really nice catch-up and goes to prove that technology can be quite good sometimes! I now look forward to the next one…

My new kindle, “10 Great Days Out from Glasgow” is now available on kindle, and very soon also in paperback.

With thunderstorms forecast for Glasgow today, we decided on a trip towards the west coast, and having looked at Kelburn Castle Estate on google we decided that would be today’s destination.

We took the coastal route towards Largs (where Kelburn Castle is) and drove through Port Glasgow and Greenock until we reached the smaller coastal towns and villages.

En-route we made a stop at Inverkip, parking at the stunning marina. There are some gorgeous flats and houses there overlooking the marina. I said to Paul it might be a nice place to retire in later years!

We followed the coastal path for a short while, it goes through the forest adjacent to the beach, but has beach access with lovely open views across the water every so often. It would have been nice to have walked for longer, but we knew that Kelburn closed at 4pm, so we didn’t spend as long as we would have liked.

On arrival at Kelburn (just past Largs, and more or less opposite the yacht haven) we parked up and paid our £5 fee (per car, not per person). We stopped to photograph the rather unusual “graffiti” castle.

From there we continued on a walk up the gorge using both the south and north glen paths, which went past various small but pretty waterfalls. We did a kind of figure of eight between the two paths.

There were quite a few carvings and other quirky things along the way. I don’t think I would like to camp out in these woods with these creepy carvings from the photo below!

If you like this blog and would like more information on Kelburn Castle and Estate, click here for a link to their website.

Loch Ardinning is a wildlife reserve not far out of Glasgow on the A81 road out towards Aberfoyle. It is just a short way past the main turnoff to Mugdock Country Park, and parking is in laybys on either side of the road.

Today was a lovely day, sunny and very warm. We took the circular walk that heads first through woodland, and then up away from the loch onto moorland with great views over towards the Campsies and Dumgoyne Hill, before heading back towards the loch, with more great views of the same hills.

As we got closer to the loch, we passed a small stream with a couple of small but pretty waterfalls.

There were plenty of wildflowers and lots of dragonflies around. It was very hard to capture a good photo of the dragonflies! This was our best effort….

So just a short trip out, it took around an hour for the circular walk. Because of it’s proximity to Mugdock, you could easily visit both and make a fuller day of it.

Today the forecast was warm with sunny spells. We decided to head to New Lanark, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the nearby Falls of Clyde. New Lanark is a cotton mill village that was purpose built in the 18th century and included housing for the workers. You can read more about it’s history here and here (opens in a new tab). It is approximately 30 miles from Glasgow.

The Falls of Clyde is a series of four waterfalls on the River Clyde, the highest being around 90 feet. An easy well marked path takes you past views of all four. Every so often there are some signs telling you about various wildlife that can sometimes be seen on the walk. A short section is on a boardwalk, but has an option through the forest if the boardwalk is flooded. The walk starts from New Lanark, making it a nice wee day/half day trip from our home town of Glasgow.

We have made a mental note to go back in the autumn to see the falls (presumably) after a period of more rain, and to see the trees in their fall foliage.

We recommend this trip to combine history and culture with nature and wildlife.

This morning started out wet again. We hung around the house till about 11.30am and then decided if we were going to head out then we had better get going. Since it was still drizzling, we decided to head over to Falkirk to check out the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies, neither of which we had ever visited before.

The Falkirk Wheel is a massive rotating boat lift connecting the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal. You can actually book a boat trip on the Wheel, and I believe bookings have opened up again, but it was almost deserted when we were there and the visitor centre was closed, so we settled for taking some photographs.

The Kelpies are just 4 miles from the Wheel and are located in Helix Park. These impressive horse head sculptures are 30 metres high and were completed towards the end of 2013. In addition to the Kelpies, in the park there is a wetland area, a lagoon with pedal boat hire (£5 for 15 minutes!), walking/cycling tracks and an adventure playground.

After we had visited these two attractions, it was still quite early in the afternoon, so we decided to head up to Dollar Glen. It’s situated at the foot of the Ochil Hills and consists of gorges, waterfalls and woodland walks. There is also a castle (Castle Campbell) but it was still closed due to Covid-19.

It’s a great place to visit, but the paths are currently not maintained and are a bit worn and slippery in places, especially after rain, so care is needed. Some of the paths are also getting quite overgrown now. However access is easier than Finnich Glen and although it’s not as dramatic, it’s kind of similar and a good option if the “Devil’s Staircase” at Finnich Glen is not for you!

The small town of Dollar, at the start of the walk, is a lovely little place. The shops on the main street all had beautiful hanging baskets outside and the pretty tree-lined kelly Burn runs through the town.

So we ended up having a great day. The rain held off, the sun came out once or twice, and we visited three places we had never been to before – result!

When I was a kid in the 1970’s I remember my Dad used to take my brother and I to a place we called “the bicycle park”. It was always an exciting day out back then and we often used to ask to be taken there. I recall stop signs, roundabouts, traffic lights…a proper mini road system set up for kids to cycle round. I think we just hired bikes when we got there, even though we both had our own. All I recalled was that it was through the Clyde Tunnel, but I had no idea which park it was.

So recently, out of curiosity, I decided to try one of the facebook groups that I’m in to see if anyone else remembered it. My cousin had thought it might be Barshaw Park in Renfrew, but the EGG group narrowed it down for me to Robertson Park, also in Renfrew (apparently Barshaw didn’t have their “mini road system” back in the 70’s).

Well, as today was dull and showery, we decided to ease my curiosity and allow me a bit of nostalgia, by heading over to Renfrew to visit Robertson Park.

It was a bittersweet experience. Although the “bicycle park” area is still there, the traffic lights were gone and the whole thing just looked unloved, unused and somewhat sad & neglected. Weeds were growing everywhere, the road markings were faded and many of the “road signs” were gone. Of course it’s possible that Covid-19 and the lockdown might have something to do with it looking neglected, but it looks like it’s been that was for more than a few months…

On the upside, for local kids, it’s probably a great park to visit, although not worth travelling far to. There is a pretty pond with ducks to feed, a kids adventure play area, a skate park and the “bicycle park” (mini road system).

The weather started to dry up when we had finished with my reminiscing in the park, so, since we were half way there anyway, we drove on to Gleniffer Braes Country Park. We hadn’t done proper research or brought a map, and trying to look at google maps on the phone wasn’t ideal, so I think we missed the best of it.

We started in a small car park on Sergeantlaw Road. The trails were all on grassy paths which were slightly muddy in places, and although the veiws were nice, I didn’t have appropriate footwear on.

So we drove on to the car park on Braehead Road, where we walked to the waterfall (which, despite today’s rain, didn’t have much water due to the long dry spell we have had recently). By then it was getting late and dinner was calling, so we headed home. It’s a shame we weren’t more prepared as i found this map on google later, with what looks like a nice walking route in the area we had latterly visited. Perhaps some time we shall return to do this walk…

Today we wanted to see more of the Seven Lochs Wetland Park, so we headed over to its furthest point, Drumpellier Country Park near Coatbridge.

It’s a beautiful park with quite a few trials as well as the main loch side trail. Today we walked a few of the trials as far as the short circular walk along the Monklands canal.

The rhododendrons were in bloom, the swans had cygnets and the geese had goslings. It was really lovely to see.

For families it is really good as there is a great play area for the kids.

We were lucky that the car park had just reopened today, so we had no problem parking. We got a spot overlooking the loch next to a picnic bench, which we later used to have lunch at. Unfortunately the visitor centre and cafe is still closed. It is in a great location right on the edge of the loch.

We walked a total of around six miles on the various trails. All easy walking and no mud! It’s a great park to spend an afternoon in and very family friendly.

Hopefully in the not to distant future we shall return with our bikes to cycle the full Seven Lochs Wetlands Trail from Hogganfield Loch to Drumpellier…