As Paul was due some TOIL, we decided it might be nice to take Valentines Day off and have a long weekend away. Having stayed at the Corran Hotel before and really liked it, we chose to book for the Saturday and Sunday night. It’s on the banks of Loch Linnhe, so perfect for canoeing from.

The weather forecast wasn’t good, but we ended up being lucky. On the Saturday we got a text before midday to say that the room was ready to check in anytime. We arrived about 3pm and just settled in to relax. It was wet and windy, so we just hoped that Sunday would be better for getting out in the canoe and/or for a walk. The wet weather did however make the waterfalls look pretty awesome. The one in the photo below is at the side of the main road coming through Glencoe.

We’d brought some wine and nibbles and snuggled up on the sofa to watch Netflix on the TV.

Sunday turned out to be dry all day despite the forecast on all weather sites for rain. The loch was like a millpond earlier on when we set out for a paddle in our canoe.

During our paddle we saw a seal and an otter. Unfortunately they didn’t stay up long enough, or get close enough, for us to get any photos, but it was still cool to see them.

We paddled north for a bit, hugging close to the shore, then we headed out across to the other side of the loch, in the direction of Ardgour, where we came ashore to visit the Argour Brewery to buy some beers for Paul. We then loaded them into the canoe to bring back to the hotel, a selection of all 7 of their beers.

It was still early in the day when we finished our paddle, so we dropped off the beers to stay chilled on the patio, then headed out on a walk to Inchree waterfalls. From there we took the path up to the waterfall viewpoints and then continued on the 5 km loop back to the car park.

It’s a really good short walk to do if you’re staying nearby, and the photo below really doesn’t do the waterfalls any justice. They cascade down for quite a distance, the photo only shows one bit of them. The views over Loch Linnhe and the mountains was really good too.

After our paddle and walk, we enjoyed a romantic evening in with some food we’d brought from home, and of course some more wine and beer.

The hotel allowed us to check out a little late, at 10.45am, so there was no rush in the morning. We were able to have a lie in and then enjoy the complimentary breakfast of muffins, fruit corners and orange juice.

Coming home, this time we drove through Glencoe village, where we saw signs for the Glencoe Lochan. We’d not heard of this before, so we quickly looked it up on the internet and saw some great photos, and found out it’s only a mile to walk around the loch, so we decided to do just that. What a find! The lochan was like a mirror, very calm, and reflected the mountains of Glencoe in the water. Even with photo stops, it was only a 30 minute walk, all flat, so we would absolutely recommend it to anyone who has half an hour to spare. Or for a bigger and higher walk, you can head up to the Pap of Glencoe.

We finished the trip home with a drive along Glen Etive, stunning as always. You can read about this drive in our other blog by clicking here.

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A few weeks ago we saw a post from the Oak Tree Inn on Facebook offering free loyalty cards which could be used to get a 40% discount on accommodation, food and soft drinks during January & February. It was too good an offer to miss, so we got in touch and booked dinner and one of their deluxe rooms for the last Sunday in January.

Balmaha is on the banks of Loch Lomond, and the Oak Tree is a perfect place to go for a drink, lunch or dinner when we go out there for hiking or canoeing, which we do at least a few times a year.

We had hoped to combine our Sunday night stay at the Inn with the Saturday night camping on Inchcailloch, which is just a short hop over from Balmaha. However, we couldn’t have picked a worse weekend as we had Storm Malik from Friday to Saturday, followed almost straight after by Storm Corrie on Sunday afternoon! Fortunately Storm Corrie didn’t hit too badly or last too long, but Storm Malik was pretty wild, so there was still no way that we were going to risk heading over to Inchcailloch in our dinghy with our camping gear on the Saturday, as we’d have likely capsized!

On Sunday morning it was the “calm between the storms” so we headed to Balmaha early, arriving about 1pm. At this point the weather was overcast, but dry and relatively calm. We did a short walk along the shores of the Loch to Millarochy Bay, managing to avoid the rain until we were nearly back.

Check-in was at 3pm, and we were delighted to be given an upgrade to a premier deluxe room, which was very spacious with a superking bed, a bathroom with Arran Aromatics toiletries and a separate bath and shower (the bath even had a TV!) and a sofa & coffee table looking out the patio doors onto the deck, with the loch just a bit further away.

We had booked dinner for 6pm, but headed to the a little restaurant early as the weather was getting quite wild with gusty winds and heavy rain. Inside was cosy, though, and we enjoyed a lovely meal with good beer and wine (the Romanian pinot noir is fabulous!) Paul finished off with a whisky flight from the Glengoyne Distillery – 10,12 and 21 year old drams plus a free tour and tasting voucher for the actual distillery to be used on a later date.

There were umbrellas to borrow both in the cottage (where our room was located) and at the Inn itself, which was a nice touch, although we didn’t use them due to the high winds.

Once we were fed and watered, we borrowed a couple of wine glasses to take back to the room, as we had brought a bottle with us, and enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing.

Monday morning was relatively calm again, and Paul didn’t have to start work until 1pm, later for myself, so after check-out we headed up Conic Hill. It’s a good wee hill to go up, and the views over the loch are amazing. It starts from the main car park & visitor centre. We are probably about average as far as walking pace goes, and it’s a steep we climb with lots of steps, but we got all the way up and back in two hours, including photo stops. If you have less time, or just don’t fancy going all the way up, there is a great spot where it temporarily levels off about half way up which, in our opinion, is actually even better than the summit for photos. If you want to head there, then after all the steps, as you see your first glimpse of the loch below, the path splits with the main path heading right and a less defined (but defined enough) path heading left (pretty much straight ahead actually). Take this one for a shorter walk – you will still get awesome views!

We hope that you have enjoyed this short blog. If you did, please use the Like and Share buttons below. Our other blogs on and around Balmaha and Loch Lomond, canoeing and hiking, can be found by using the search facility, or click here to read about the trip that we didn’t manage this time – an overnight camp on Inchcailloch. You can also find or follow us on Facebook by clicking this link.

Just published at the end of the year, this is a part “diary style” account of my world travel adventures during 1989-90. Before the age of technology such as email or I-phones, travel perhaps wasn’t quite as easy as it is now (or was pre-pandemic) but it was a whole lot of fun, anticipation and adventure.

Here is a short extract from the beginning of the book –

“The year is 2021 and as I start writing this, we are still in lockdown here in the UK. As I don’t have work just now due to the lockdown closures, I decided to dig out my old diaries and write this book based on my travels throughout late 1989 and 1990, in the hope that anyone who reads this might also be inspired to travel.

I was travelling in total for almost 15 months, from 26^th September 1989 until 20^th December 1990 travelling from London to Kathmandu on an Exodus “overland” trip, and then independently within Nepal, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

My original intention was to travel “around the world”, however it didn’t work out like that and New Zealand was as far as I got. I was lucky to later marry a wonderful man who loves travelling as much as I do, and with him, I’m still “ticking off” the countries that I missed, although Covid has put a hold on that (hopefully just temporarily).

When I set off travelling in 1989, I was 22 years old, but very trusting and naive for my age and certainly not at all “worldly”. It didn’t strike me as being even slightly risky when I put an advert in a travel magazine to look for a travel companion, but I think it really worried my friends and my parents. Fortunately, it all worked out fine in the end.

Speaking of my advert, which I placed in a magazine called “The Adventurers”, it didn’t get very many responses. Only a few people contacted me, one of whom was a guy called Andy who came up to visit for the weekend so that we could see if we got on ok and if our travel plans and interests fitted. I was staying with my parents back then, and now looking back, I can’t imagine what they thought about it all. However, they obliged me, and my brother, Craig, got moved into my room for the weekend so that Andy could have his room. As it happened we got on extremely well, he was easygoing, and my parents and friends seemed to like him. We went out to a nightclub one evening, a party the next, and I showed him around Glasgow and took him on a drive out to the Campsie hills and Loch Lomond. We crammed a lot into that weekend and by the end of it, we had talked about him meeting up with me in Kathmandu (after my Exodus trip) to travel for a while.

It’s funny reading back on my diary, at the same time as Andy came up, I was writing about a relationship I was in that was starting to fall apart at that time, and I was pretty devastated about it. Now I’m not surprised it was falling apart. Goodness knows what he must have thought about me having a man I met through an advert come up to visit, not to mention that I was planning to go off travelling with him later in the year! But at the time, I didn’t see anything wrong with that, as I have always had friends who were male. It just wouldn’t have crossed my mind to think any more of it. Now that I’m much older, I can see how weird it must have seemed, and I’m not surprised that the relationship I was in didn’t work out.

Anyway, plans didn’t work out in the end with Andy, and he wasn’t able to travel when the time came. However, about three and a half months after first meeting Andy, I went down to London to meet another guy, Iain, who had replied to my advert. We only met for a couple of hours in Hyde Park, and we got on ok (though I didn’t have as much in common with him as I had with Andy). Anyway, our plans fitted as he was going to Africa at the time I was doing my London to Kathmandu overland trip, so a few weeks later we made some plans to meet up in Kathmandu at the end of my trip and travel on together afterwards through Asia and beyond.

 

2

Getting ready to go

I’ve always been one for “To Do” lists, and back then was no exception, so here is a list of the preparation that I did for my trip:-

Eight months before – I put an advert in the Adventurers magazine for a travel companion. I had about 12 replies, of which one fell through (Andy) and one worked out (Iain).

About four months before – I decided to start with the Exodus trip from London to Kathmandu and booked up. WEXAS (with whom I took my travel insurance) assisted with the purchase of visas that were required in advance of travel.

Two months before – told my work what I was planning and checked if I could get unpaid leave (I couldn’t).

Two months before – made an appointment with my GP to check what travel vaccines I needed and made appointments (the Yellow Fever vaccine was done outwith the GP’s at the Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre). The other required/advised vaccines were: Cholera, Typhoid, Polio, Tetanus booster and Hepatitis A.

Weeks in advance – requested my credit card limit be raised to £1000; had a dental check-up and fillings done; arranged for my mum to have access to my savings for paying off my credit card bills when they came in.

One week before – applied for an Australian working visa in case I got some work there while I was away; left my parents with details regarding using my savings to pay off my credit card bills, notes of my traveller cheque numbers and photocopies of my travel insurance and passport.

A couple of days before – packed up my rucksack and checked that it held everything I needed.

And here is my packing list (I’m amazed it all fitted inside my pack, although the airbed and sleeping bag were fastened onto the outside):-

RUCKSACK

Three-season sleeping bag and sheet sleeping bag/liner

Airbed

Mosquito net

Torch

Cup

Wash kit with soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, water purifying tablets etc

Four toilet rolls, three packs of tissues and plenty of sanitary products (I was expecting it to be difficult to buy these things!!)

First Aid kit with folding scissors (a fantastic item, which I still use now!), antiseptic cream, bandages and plasters, alcohol wipes, painkillers, sterile needles & syringes, etc

Travel books

Photocopies of my passport and other important documents

Notebook

Travel cutlery set

Suncream and mosquito repellent

Bivvy bag

Spare toiletries

Batteries for my walkman

Seven lots of camera film

Trainers

Water shoes (“jellies”)

Bumbag

Penknife

Bath towel

Waterproof jacket

Fleece jacket

Waterproof bags

Flat leather shoes

Spare hiking socks (plus the ones I was wearing with my boots)

Warm and cold weather gear

Swimwear and underwear

Hat and gloves

DAYSACK

My diary

Writing set and pens (for writing my diary and writing letters)

South-East Asia travel guide book

Padlock

Cash

Water bottle

Camera

Walkman, headphones and tapes

Sunglasses

Travel alarm clock

Purse with traveller cheques, $150 cash, credit card, spare passport photos (for visas)

Address book

Notebook

Malaria tablets and travel sickness pills

In addition, I wore a concealed money belt with more traveller cheques and a neck wallet with my passport, driving licence, international driving permit, YHA card and instructions for meeting up with Iain in Kathmandu.

Of course nowadays, since technology has greatly taken off (and taken over), and in particular with the invention of smartphones, which almost everyone seems to have, a lot of the above things are now redundant and no longer required.

We no longer write letters; instead, we send emails, texts or digital messages and post updates, photographs and “selfies” of where we are and what we’re doing on Apps such as Facebook. Everything is pretty much “real-time”. People in today’s age will never know the excitement of arriving at a foreign “poste restante” and showing your passport to collect your mail and read belated news from family and friends back home.

We don’t need cameras and rolls of film anymore as we can take photos on our phones and even upload them to “The Cloud” for safekeeping. Similarly, our phones can store our favourite music and we can download books to read on them.

Also on our phones, we can store our travel tickets and boarding cards, and documents like insurance and hotel bookings. We can do our banking and check our statements online, and with Apps like “Apple Pay” becoming more widely used, we can even pay for things using our phones, without the need to carry cash or a credit card (though even now I would never travel without my credit card and a little cash, but you can see where technology is quickly taking us…)

You no longer need books like Lonely Planet to find out the best hotels to stay in, now you can go on the internet and look at Tripadvisor. You can make bookings online rather than turn up and hope that your first or second choice of hotel has a room available.

There is so much more about travelling that is easier and/or more convenient now, but I don’t want to take up too many pages writing about it, so let’s just finish by saying that the world is most definitely more connected now and therefore seems a much smaller place. But the trade-off is that it’s no longer quite as adventurous. When we set off travelling nowadays, we no longer feel like we are heading off into the “unknown”. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful in many ways for the ease and convenience that technology has given us, particularly when it comes to both the actual travelling and in making all the relevant arrangements. I’m sure we would have struggled to do as much travelling as we’ve managed to since (squeezed into our holidays) without some of these conveniences, but I am grateful that I was able to go on my adventure at the time I did.”

If you like what you’ve read so far, this book is available to buy on Amazon on either Kindle or Paperback. I hope it will give our readers some inspiration!

Disclaimer: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Well, here’s wishing a fab 2022 for everyone. Last year wasn’t a bad one despite Covid and a somewhat shaky finish, but lets hope 2022 brings health, happiness and more adventures!

We started out our Hogmanay at Castlerigg Farm Campsite in Keswick, after a visit down to Cheshire to see Paul’s family.

Our plan was to stay three nights at the campsite, seeing in the new year on our first night. Everything started out well. We got pitched up, plenty of choice of pitches as it was very quiet for tents (but full on the campervan / motorhome field).

We took the Bell Tent so we could have the wood burning stove to keep us warm (plus we also had an electric hook up, not that we needed it as it was an extraordinarily mild few days).

We cooked up a lovely pizza in a pan on our wood burning stove (works a treat if you fold the pizza like a calzone) and had a few drinks.

By 9pm we decided that we might need a wee “forty winks” before the “bells” so we went off for a nap (in hindsight this was just as well!)

We got up again about 15 mins before midnight, poured a wee Glayva, and waited for the Bells. At midnight we could see the fireworks going off below us in the village and the two tents behind us also set off a few fireworks. Other than that, it was very, very quiet on the campsite.

Back to bed about 12.30 and slept well until the tent stared shaking about 5.30am as the wind picked up rather fiercely.

By 6am even one of the storm pegs had been pulled out by the wind and Paul went out to re-secure it. We went back to bed until it happened again, but this time other pegs came out too!

Once again Paul re-secured them and once again we went back to bed… until our picnic table was pushed over as that side of the tent started to collapse! More pegs had come out and the groundsheet was lifting off the grass!

Paul tried his best to re-secure us, but the loops the pegs go through had started to tear off. We had no choice but to pack away all our gear, in the dark, and get everything and then the tent bundled into the car!

So now we are back home two days before we were due. The tent needs repaired, but this should be doable. To say we were gutted is an understatement, but like many people this festive season, things just didn’t work out as planned.

We are just hoping that there will be more adventures (not that “adventurous” though) to come in 2022.

Happy new year everyone! We hope that yours was more successful than ours xxx

Here’s wishing all of you a lovely Christmas, I hope you are all keeping well and have enjoyed your day! For those who were visiting family, we hope it all worked out well.

Our day didn’t quite go to plan, my brother tested positive for Covid on Christmas morning, it had only been a last minute decision of his (on Wednesday) to invite us over for Christmas dinner, but we ended up back to Plan A – just Paul, me and my mum for a very low-key Christmas meal.

We had a nice enough day though and later caught up on the Facebook live chat with our friends Mike and Sam in Norway.

Hoping my brother recovers soon and the rest of his family don’t catch it. Hopefully we can have a belated family meal together after the New Year.

All the best to all of you. Take care, stay safe and have a great festive season!

Yvonne & Paul xxx

Check out our Books on Amazon for a great wee stocking filler. Chasing Dreams is our most recent book, it’s a diary-style account of a world backpacking trip that I did back in 1989/90 in the days before the current technology that we have come to rely on.

Click the link here for a list of our books and links to buy from Amazon.

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Sunday was a stunning crisp winter’s day. The sun was shining pretty much all day, so it didn’t feel too cold despite the low temperature.

Our friends Sean and Karen had just bought a new Decathlon kayak, so we all headed out to Balmaha for a paddle on the “big loch” (Loch Lomond).

We would have expected it to be very busy on the loch despite that fact it is winter, but we ended up having it pretty much to ourselves.

During the afternoon we saw one cruiser moored at Port Bawn on Inchcailloch, which left not long after we arrived, and a small group of kayakers paddling around, presumably also after having visited Port Bawn, as we approached. Other than that we had the loch to ourselves, at least that part of it.

Sean and Karen had paddle boarded before, but were new to kayaking. They did very well and we made it round to Port Bawn on Inchcailloch no problem. We took the anti-clockwise way round first, leaving the glassy calm side for our paddle back.

Here are a few photos…

As we knew it was to be cold, we had brought a few logs for the firepit (of which there are a few at Port Bawn), a flask of hot chocolate and some snacks to enjoy on the beach.

By the time we had our refreshments and a short walk, it was already almost sunset as we left. The water going back via the other side of the island was like glass. The sun was setting in a big orange ball, and it was just a perfect way to finish our paddle.

Sean & Karen enjoyed their first kayak trip, and will hopefully have plenty more to look forward to. We couldn’t believe how quiet the loch was on such a beautiful day, so winter kayaking is definitely worthwhile!

As for Paul and I, should the weather be favourable on Christmas Eve, we might take a wee overnight trip back to Inchcailloch in our dinghy with our camping gear. Failing that, then hopefully it will be good enough for a wee paddle somewhere on the loch for a couple of hours.

Watch this space….

On Saturday and Sunday night we booked ourselves a short break up near Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. We got a good deal staying at the Corran Hotel (right next to the Corran Ferry, which makes the short trip across Loch Linnhe to Ardgour on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula).

For £190 we got a suite for the 2 nights, with a decked area outside and a spacious living area with L-shaped sofa in the room. It was a “room only” price, however, in the fridge we found fresh milk, juice, yogurt and muffins for breakfast. There was nowhere that was walking distance open right now where we could go for dinner (unfortunately the pub across the loch in Ardgour was temporarily closed), but as we knew this in advance we had brought some tapas/nibbles and picnic plates/cutlery for the first night, and we got some good fish & chips from Quarrier’s Kitchen in Ballaculish to takeaway for the Sunday night.

We were lucky with the weather considering that it was the end of November, and both the Saturday and Sunday were lovely days (the rain only came on the Monday, so we didn’t hang around after checkout, instead we headed straight home).

The drive from our house in Glasgow to the hotel takes around two hours and fifteen minutes and the scenery gets better and better the further north you drive.

As the weather was so good, we extended this to include a side trip along Glen Etive to Loch Etive (about ten miles each way). The Glen Etive road is near Kingshouse, just past the Glencoe ski resort as you head north. This is a drive that I had wanted to do for some time, and it is probably fair to say that it’s the most beautiful glen in Scotland, so it made sense to go while the weather was good. The road along the glen is single track with passing places. You have a very good chance of seeing deer, so be careful driving! There were quite a few parts where some sort of construction work was being done, although we weren’t sure what. Hopefully they’re not going to be building houses, as the attraction of the glen, as well as the stunning scenery, is it’s remoteness.

As we had set off just after midday, by the time we were leaving the glen, the sun had already set and the afterglow was fading. We continued the drive through the dramatic mountains of Glencoe, and when we arrived at the hotel it was almost dark. We had been given a code for the key box (it’s self check-in) so we checked ourselves into our suite and spent the evening chilling out with some wine and the “dinner” we’d brought.

I awoke in the middle of the night to use the loo, and noticed that it was snowing! By morning the snow had stopped and we were just left with a light dusting. The morning started out quite cloudy, but the clouds lifted later and we had a nice sunny afternoon canoeing on the loch in our inflatable canoe. We launched where the ferry comes in, and reckon we must have paddled around eight miles return, getting to within perhaps a mile of the bridge that goes over the loch to Ballaculish. Loch Linnhie is a sea loch, and when we first set off it was very calm. By the time we returned we seemed to be paddling against both the tide and the wind, so it was a bit of a slog for the last half hour.

We saw a seal quite close by and paddled towards it, but it wasn’t interested in us (unlike the seals in the Scilly Isles), so we paddled on. The loch is huge, and runs into Loch Leven at the bridge, so there is plenty of canoeing opportunities. It is also surrounded by mountains that were dusted in snow, so it was very pretty. The temperature was about one degree, so we were well layered up with leggings, base layers, wetsuits, Gore-Tex jackets, fleeces and of course our life vests. I wore my welly boots and Paul wore his water booties, both with Gore-Tex socks to keep our feet dry.

After returning from our paddle, we headed over on the ferry (which is free to foot passengers) to Ardgour, a five or ten minute trip, to watch the sunset, photograph the lighthouse, and for Paul to buy some beers from the local brewery (about a half mile walk from the ferry). It was a shame that the pub was closed, as that would have been an ideal place to have had dinner.

The sun had already set as we returned, and the sky was glowing pink, orange and red. It was really pretty.

We then drove into Ballaculish (six miles roughly) to buy our “fish suppers” while Paul’s newly acquired beers were chilling on the decking outside our room. There was no-one else staying that second night, so it was very quiet. We enjoyed another nice relaxing evening and a good sleep. The weather forecast was unfortunately correct, and it was raining quite steadily in the morning, so rather than have another paddle in our canoe, we set off back home after breakfast.

We would really recommend both the hotel and the location for a weekend getaway, particularly if you enjoy canoeing. We’d love to come back again, especially when the pub across the water re-opens and we can visit there for dinner one night. And the side trip along Glen Etive is not to be missed in good weather too (you can also canoe on Loch Etive at the end of the road).

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