Monday 1st May 2023

Even in Scotland, our home country, it’s unusual for us to go back to the same place twice. However, here we are on our third trip to Clachtoll Beach Campsite up on the North West coast of Scotland. This whole area is probably our favourite part of the country, with stunning views around every corner – single track winding roads lined with bright yellow gorse in Spring, beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise sea, inland and sea lochs, an array of huge rugged mountains and tiny little hamlets and communities hosting shops with hand crafted goods and delicious homemade fare.

We set off on Sunday from Glasgow, a 5.5 hour trip, with the car and roof cage loaded up with all our camping gear, the inflatable kayak, and plenty of logs for the stove as the forecast was mostly for temperatures under 10 degrees (celsius), which is cold for May…

It was rather dreicht on the journey up, but we were lucky enough to arrive at the campsite between showers, so putting the tent up wasn’t too bad. The pitches here are huge, loads of room for our 5 metre Bell tent and car, and plenty for an awning or tarp if we wanted one. We booked a pitch with electric hookup for our electric blanket, fridge box and small heater to use in the mornings if needed after the stove has burned out.

Monday was our first full day, but kayaking wasn’t a good idea today as it had been (and remained) quite windy. Instead, we decided on the 50(ish) mile drive up to Blairmore, where there is a car park (with toilets and an outside tap with fresh drinking water) for the walk in to Sandwood Bay. This is the nearest place to park, leaving you with just over 4 miles (apx 7 kilometres) to walk in, so an 8-9 mile return trip depending how much walking you do on the vast beach.

The car park is run by the John Muir Trust, who invite you to donate £5, however this is just a suggested amount. We didn’t see the donation box, so I think now it’s all done online via a QR code.

The Trust recently upgraded the path in, and it was easy to follow and mostly level. I wore my welly boots and Paul wore hiking boots. Both were fine (in fact trainers would probably have also been fine) and the path was great, no muddy or wet bits (and the few bits that had some water, had stepping stones). I’d personally recommend welly boots simply as the sand doesn’t get into them when you get to the beach and you can dip your feet in the sea without getting them wet!

I must admit, that despite the good path, I found it a hard slog on the way back. It’s over moorland, there are mountains in the (not too far) distance, but the scenery doesn’t change very much, it’s the same route in and out, and I was as feeling some aching in my joints and feet towards the end.

That said, it was really worth it. When we arrived (later in the day, around 3-ish), we were the only people there. We had this huge deserted beach all to ourselves for the hour that we spent there. We did see some other people walking back as we walked in, and walking in (with camping gear) as we walked out, but it was very quiet, much to our surprise. With it being not far off the NC500 route, we had expected many more people! Maybe we were just lucky with the timing.

Having previously driven the NC500 in November when the days were short, we missed Sandwood Bay as we just didn’t have the time for the walk in and out. Instead we stopped off at Oldshoremore Beach, a couple of miles from the Sandwood car park, which is equally beautiful (in my opinion), if less remote. This beach is only a couple of minutes walk from the car park, and it is a great option for anyone short on time, or just not up to the long walk to Sandwood Bay. See what you think from the photo below (bearing in mind this was now later in the day, so the camera didn’t pick up the turquoise of the sea), but trust me, the sea is the same beautiful turquoise at Oldshoremore and at Sandwood Bay!

For cyclists, the path was fine, and there was a stand to padlock up your bikes to around the halfway point. Not having bikes, we didn’t go and read the sign, but I get the impression they probably don’t want anyone to take their bike past that point.

Tune in tomorrow for our next “adventure”!

From Lake Windermere, where it is currently a bit dreicht, but the fireworks were beautiful last night and the sun is apparently coming out tomorrow before the rain returns.

It was a bit of a gamble coming camping for new year, especially after our tent almost being blown away last year, but this time we had visions of nice crisp winter weather, maybe a dusting of snow, but it wasn’t to be. Our winters seem to be getting wetter these days.

Anyway, we were nice and cosy in our tent with the wood burning stove on to keep us toasty. The campsite is very quiet, only one other tent, plus a few people in the camping pods.

Here’s wishing everyone a fantastic 2023 and may some of your dreams come true during the year!

Best wishes from Paul & Yvonne at Exploreourworld xxx

Please click on this link to view our new page on Aurland, Norway. A fabulous holiday taken in the autumn and based in Aurlandsvegen on the Sognefjord.

This has been our first time abroad since Covid, so it was quite a big deal for us. We’ve had some amazing times exploring Scotland, especially the islands, as we were waiting for travelling abroad to become easier again.

Norway did not disappoint.

We recently returned from a 12 night camping trip at Clachtoll Beach Campsite on the mountainous west coast of the Scottish Highlands near to Lochinver. We had been here last year, and it’s pretty rare for us to visit the same place twice, but we liked it so much that we decided to go again and spend a little longer this time.

Clachtoll is just off the famous NC500 (North Coast 500) route, on the Drumbeg Loop, about 6 miles from Lochinver via a somewhat challenging single track road, which becomes unsuitable for caravans and motorhomes a bit further on. However, to reach Clachtoll from the Lochinver side of the loop is doable in a caravan or motorhome (and there were plenty on the campsite), it just requires some care.

We took our Bell Tent, complete with wood burning stove to keep it toasty inside at night. Fortunately this time, we pegged it out well using springs and storm pegs, plus 3 windbreaks, so when the strong winds hit for a couple of days in the middle of the trip, it stayed standing.

During the first 4 days, though, we had amazing weather. Summer had come late! At times it was over 20 degrees, it was also very calm, and perfect for taking our inflatable kayak out to explore the small coves, beaches and bays, including the famous Achmelvich beach. We even had a small pod of porpoises come up close to our kayak on one day.

At Clachtoll itself, and around the area, are some stunning beaches that would rival any in the Caribbean, and as our weather tends to mostly be on the cold side (and the sea even colder), it never gets busy. During these first few days when the sun was warm and there was hardly any wind, we sunbathed and braved a dip in the sea, the water is hard to resist. It was very brisk, so we didn’t stay in long, though there were quite a few hardy people that we saw during our time there, who were in swimming for ages!

As well as beaches, you are spoiled for choice for things to do in the area. Being mountainous, there are plenty of hill walks to do, ranging from shorter ones (which are the ones we do – such as Stac Pollaidh and the Bone Caves) to much higher, longer and more challenging ones such as the dramatic Suilven. For a short walk with brilliant views, we think you can’t beat Stac Pollaidh. It took us about 1hr 20mins up to the saddle (which is as far as we went, as it’s a scramble to the top and we didn’t fancy trying it), and that was including photo stops and a few minutes watching 2 stags that were close to the path.

You can also do some waterfall walks, there are falls at Clashnessie (a few miles form Clachtoll) which are easily accessible, and the “Wailing Widow Falls” are pretty cool – you can walk to the top (15 mins max) from one of the bigger laybys at the top of the hill, where the falls cascade from Loch na Gainmhich and/or walk to the bottom (20 mins) from the smaller layby at the bottom of the hill. These falls are excellent to see a birds-eye view of if you have a drone.

Although on this trip we didn’t re-visit the following places, they are definitely worth going to if you haven’t been before – Oldshoremore beach (near Kinlochbervie), Sandwood Bay (not far from Oldshoremore, but you have to park up Blairmore car park and walk in – approx 5 miles each way), Balnakeil Bay near Durness, Smoo Cave (also near Durness), the list goes on… Basically if you’re willing to drive 1 – 1.5 hours each way, there are dozens of amazing beaches and walks to do, and even if you want to keep the driving down to 30 – 45 minutes each way, you still have plenty to do. Without needing to drive, from the campsite, we would recommend the Peat Track for a very pretty, but easy walk. And for a short walk, you can walk to Clachtoll Broch, which takes about 30 minutes each way.

If you fancy a boat trip, North Coast Sea Tours do 1.5 hour wildlife watching & sunset trips for £20pp (at the time of writing) from Lochinver and are very highly rated. Unfortunately we didn’t get round to doing this, so that’s on the list for next time.

On this trip, we were lucky enough to see the Northern Lights, we are usually fast asleep by the time they come out, but on our anniversary they came out early, about 10/11pm, so that was a great treat! There was quite a lot of aurora activity during our time there, but this was the only night that we were up when they came out. The photo has not been touched up, although the camera caught more colour than the naked eye (as it normally does), we did see just a glimmer of the green and purple, but the rays to the eye were just a bright white.

On a couple of evenings, rather than put the tent stove on, we took our firepit and some logs down to the beach at sunset. In the photo below we had to shelter between some rocks as the wind had picked up.

During our 12 nights camping, we mostly cooked (the Spar shop in Lochinver is a good place to stock up), but we also had some great fish & chips to take-away (the fish & chip van in the village usually opens 4 days a week, you can get details at the campsite) and had a couple of lunches and an anniversary dinner in the village of Lochinver. For a small village there is a good choice of places to eat. We had our anniversary meal in Peets (you have to pre-book online, and they also do take-away), a couple of lunches in Delilah’s (we didn’t pre-book and managed to get a table both times) and a couple of take-aways from the Lochinver Larder, famous for their pies (which are very good – we even brought some home with us!) Paul said his seafood chowder and steak in Peet’s was superb, amongst the best he’s ever had. The cullen skink soup in Delilah’s was also excellent, although the second time I had it, there wasn’t much fish in it, so maybe it’s a bit hit and miss (it still tasted good, though). All the pies we tried from the Larder were very good.

Speaking of food, the campsite have freshly home baked cakes on most days, and they are very good! They also sell some basics such as milk and eggs, and have fish delivered regularly too. There is also a small store a very short walk from the campsite called Flossies, although for a big shop it is worth going into Lochinver. Flossie’s do lunches (such as sandwiches) and coffee etc as well.

If you fancy a trip to Clachtoll and would like to stay in the campsite, it is worth booking several months in advance if you want an electric pitch, and particularly if you want a sea view. The non-electric pitches don’t book up as fast, but the campsite was fully booked on every night that we were there, and that was from the end of August till the 9th September.

Clachtoll is roughly a 2 hour drive from Inverness and 5.5 hours from Glasgow if taking the A9 (going via Fort William is more scenic, but takes longer, even though it’s a few less miles).

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Happy travels!

Currently on the Scottish Isle of Jura (famous for it’s whisky) and tomorrow heading over to Islay (even more famous for it’s whisky!)

Our campsite is on the field in front of the Jura Hotel. Only £10 (per tent) per night and with good toilet/shower/dishwashing facilities, plus of course the hotel itself where we ate last night before enjoying listening to a local band in the bar.

This morning we woke up to a herd of deer on the campground. Amazing!

So keep a look out for more soon! Next 5 nights are on Islay (if all goes to plan)!

Having gone camping with Haven last year in Yorkshire, we are now on their mailing list. A few months ago I clicked to have a look at the Haven in Berwick on Tweed, and found a basic 2 bed caravan for rent in June (our summer) at only £99 for 3 nights Friday to Monday.

We arranged a date to meet up with Paul’s sister and brother in law mid June. The caravan park is walking distance from the town and there’s plenty to do in the nearby area (which we knew as we had visited before, albeit not in a caravan).

The main things we didn’t do this time, having done them before (and with the tide times not working too well for us) was a visit over to Lindisfarne and a trip down to Bamburgh (both well worth it if you are visiting for the first time.

We had planned a bbq on the beach (there are 2 beaches at the campsite) but the weather (fresh winds) had other ideas. Instead we had to settle for a drink on the beach rather than risk sand in our food.

So, we ended up cooking our bbq in the caravan on the first night (can’t fault the kitchen facilities) and then take-away fish & chips on Saturday and take-away pizza on Sunday. We had planned to eat out in town on one night, but settled for a couple of drinks in a couple of the pubs instead.

On Saturday we headed south from Berwick to the long (seemingly endless) stretch of beach at Cheswick Sands, where we saw a dozen or so dead gannets (we found out later they were suspected to have succumbed to bird flu). The dead gannets didn’t, however, detract from the beauty of the area (many were already half buried in the sand), although it was sad to see.

After Cheswick, we headed to Ross Back Sands, another beautiful and seemingly endless stretch of beach which is always very quiet due to the (approximate) one mile hike in. We set up our windbreak and picnic rug to have our lunch in front of the dunes.

Finally, a walk around Berwick town walls, with a visit to a couple of the pubs, before heading back to the caravan with our take-away fish & chips.

After a good “fry-up” breakfast on Sunday, we decided this time to head north over the border and into Scotland. Our first stop was the pretty small town of Eyemouth where we had a stroll along the beach and then part of the coastal path, before heading to the harbour where we watched one of the local harbour seals being fed.

A few miles further north was a gem of a place called Coldingham bay (near Coldingham village) with it’s beautifully painted beach huts, turquoise sea and pale sand. It’s on the coastal path heading north from Eyemouth and goes on to St Abbs a mile further on, and beyond. We walked the short one mile stretch from Coldingham bay to St Abbs and back, an easy and popular stretch of the coastal path.

St Abbs is another pretty (fishing) village and the walk is well worth it. There are some great spots for photography as you approach the harbour.

Back at Coldingham bay we had some refreshments before taking another short walk in the opposite direction. If you were heading one-way, or had plenty of time and energy to retrace your steps, you could easily walk for miles along this coast. From Eyemouth to St Abbs and back is around 9 miles return.

On our last evening, instead of heading into town for dinner, we headed down to the beach with some wine, and then got pizza from the on-site Papa Johns. It was still pretty windy, but we had been lucky enough to have been indoors during the few short showers we had over the weekend.

After checkout, G&T headed south on their way home, while Paul & I decided to divert about 8 miles to stop for a look around North Berwick (south of Edinburgh and only a small detour on our way home).

North Berwick had been on my “list” of places to visit for some time, so it was great to be able to stop off for a while on our way home. It’s a lovely seaside town, with 2 long sandy beaches, a harbour, and loads of cafes and restaurants. One of the beaches has a stone wall built to hold the seawater as the tide goes out, and make a paddling/swimming pool. It put me in mind of Margate (at the time we visited, about 40 years ago), which had a similar set up. A really cool idea.

I liked the Milsey Bay beach best, as it was lined with wildflowers, had the “swimming pool” and looked out to Bass Rock, a steep sided volcanic rock which is home to a colony of gannets.

However, the West Bay Beach was also lovely, lined with houses, many of which had wooden steps leading down from their gardens on to the beach.

North Berwick is around 90 minutes from Glasgow, and Berwick on Tweed around 2 hours. Our home town of Glasgow is handy for so many places, we are very lucky.

Our next trip is to the islands of Islay & Jura, so watch out for our next blog, coming soon…

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Up until now we have only done a single night camp out on the islands, but as it was a holiday weekend, we decided to make the most of it and have a couple of nights on different islands.

As well as our inflatable canoe, we also have a 3-man inflatable dinghy that we use if we are camping, as this allows us to bring more gear (we would be pushed to even fit the basics into our canoe). The dinghy has an electric outboard powered by a battery, which we recently upgraded to a lithium one as it lasts longer and is a lighter weight.

Paul added some netting across the end of the dinghy, which allows us to pile our gear up quite high without risk of it falling overboard. We even managed to bring a big bag of logs for a campfire. The tent is a roomy 3-man with a decent sized porch, but it packs away relatively small.

For our first night, we had a late lunch / early dinner at the Oak Tree Inn, Balmaha, which saved us having to cook on the first night. We asked permission to use their pontoon / jetty to launch from, which is handy as we can drive up there to offload the dinghy and all our gear, then one of us starts loading up the dinghy while the other takes the car back to the car park. By then it was around 4.30pm, well timed as the car park was starting to empty a little bit (whereas earlier in the day you often have to wait around to get a space).

As far as parking goes, the car park in Balmaha is no longer free. However, a day ticket lasts for 24 hours and you can use the Ringo App to top up whilst on the islands. Another option would have been to use the car park at Millarochy Bay, which is still free and which we have used before for an overnight trip, but Paul wasn’t keen to leave the car there for 2 nights; instead he felt it would be safer in the paid car park.

Initially we were headed for Inchlonaig for our first night, however the beach that we had chosen was actually quite sloping and pebbly, so after a bit of deliberation, we decided to head over to the north end of Inchconnachan (about a mile away) and check out what looked to be a nice sandy beach over there.

The white sand beach was indeed stunning, but when we were looking for a good place to pitch, we realised (after Paul got bit by one) that the whole beach was covered with quite big ants! So we got back in the dinghy and hoped we’d get luckier with the next beach along, which we did. There were still some ants around, but not in the same abundance, and we found a good bit to pitch up between the beach and the foliage (which was stunning as it was dotted with several rhododendrons in full bloom).

We set up camp, put our camping chairs and small table out, took some beer and chilled wine from the coolbag and snacked on some leftover pizza I had from our earlier meal.

A little later, we set up a small campfire using a firepit that had been set up previously by another camper. We watched the sun set and had a wee nip of whisky before bed.

During the night, twice we heard what we assumed to be one (or more) of the resident wallabies bouncing past our tent. I popped out to see if I could spot any of them, but either they kept well hidden or I wasn’t quick enough. It would have been really great if we had seen them again, having only successfully spotted them on one previous occasion.

Breakfast the next day was a roll with sausage (veggie ones for me) and potato scone. We decided against going looking for the wallabies as the foliage was now much thicker than it was when we saw them earlier in the year, which would A) make them harder to spot, and B) make it much more likely for us to get tick bites. Instead we had a relaxing morning before packing up and moving on to Inchmoan in the hope that the long sandy beach on the south of the island would be quiet.

On arrival at the huge crescent shaped south beach, we saw that there were already three BIG tents pitched up, so we decided that if we wanted a quiet night it would probably be best to move on and find another spot. The next decent stretch of beach we tried was full of broken glass and poo (animal poo as far as we could tell, but poo all the same), so again we carried on.

From memory we knew there were some small beaches towards the east end of the island where it narrowed, and we found a perfect one, just big enough for us and with a nice flat bit to pitch up the tent. The sun was out, the water was warm for a paddle (funnily enough it was noticeably warmer on the south side of the wee beach that we were on than it was on the north side…) It was tempting to go for a swim, but we settled just for a paddle.

We had enough logs left for a small campfire, and again there was a firepit already there that we used. The clouds that had been there earlier cleared away and it was a beautiful afternoon & evening. We still had some chilled wine and beer, which we had with some cold food that we had brought for dinner, before moving on later to our boxed red wine and another wee nip of whisky (well Fireball for me) before bed.

We couldn’t believe how quiet it was for a holiday weekend, as past experience had us expecting a couple of quite noisy nights. It helped to choose spots that were away from the main beaches, but even so, there seemed to be very few people about. There was a group of youngsters camped not far from us on the second night, they seemed to be on an outdoor / canoeing skills course, but they were very quiet overnight, and we had some entertainment earlier on watching them doing rescue drills & capsizing their canoes!

On our last morning, we awoke to this view…

We cooked up more sausage butties, then went for a paddle and soaked up some sun before packing up and setting off back home in time for a BBQ at my brother’s.

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Happy camping!

So we found a campsite on the shores of the lake that wasn’t far from Ambleside. The campsite was Low Wray, run by the National Trust, and the location was perfect! We had a huge pitch very close to the beach, so handy for launching our inflatable canoe.

We were able to paddle across the lake, about one mile, to the Wateredge Inn in Ambleside for lunch/dinner. Much better than driving!

After our late lunch, and once the trees shaded the sun from our pitch, we took our chairs and wee folding table on to the beach to catch the sun and have a drink and some light snacks for dinner, shooing off the swan who rather fancied what we had to eat!

The castle was only a miles walk from the campsite, along a good and easy to follow path. We went later in the evening, just before sunset, and practically had the place to ourselves.

On the second day, the weather wasn’t as warm or sunny, and the wind had picked up a bit, but at least it stayed dry. We went out for a paddle south towards Bowness (but didn’t make it that far, as when the wind picked up, it got quite choppy). Then we were out again later for another paddle across to the pub for a refreshment.

In the evening, after the sun had set, we had just opened a second bottle of wine when we heard cries for help! There was someone in the lake, about 400 metres out, and his kayak had sunk! There was a family camped right on the beach who had kayaks, and the guy was right out there straight away. Paul then followed in our 2 man inflatable, which worked out well, as the first guy got the one who was in trouble to hold on to his kayak which he paddled to shallower water near a wee island, then they got him into the spare seat in Paul’s kayak. It all ended well, although the poor guy lost his phone to the lake. He didn’t have a life vest or wetsuit on, so it brought home to us just how important it is to (at the very least) wear a life vest / buoyancy aid.

On our final day, the rain came. We had to pack away a wet tent and do countless runs with our gear in a wheelbarrow to get it all to the car (the one downside of having the parking separate from the camping field).

Less than a week later, and just a few days after finally getting the tent dried out, we were off to Mull for another camping trip (blog to follow soon)! Lets hope we can bring home a dry tent this time…