West Coast
Richard & I had a long weekend on the west coast with fantastic weather, which was an added bonus! We climbed Ben Lomond on Friday - masses of snow still on the tops, so decided to just go up & down the main route...
Took a cross-country route to try and find a good camping spot but ended up checking into a campsite at Arrochar as it was getting late and we needed some gas for cooking (I managed to remember the stove but no gas...oops). We were asked if we could put up our tent really quickly as it was against the rules to put the tents up after it was dark - I actually thought they were kidding, has health & safety gone MAD?! Perhaps they think people might trip over their own guy-ropes, dive 10 metres, fall down the hill, break their leg & then sue for bad site planning. What a joke. We successfully pitched our tent and settled into a five-star dinner of noodles, accompanied by a shandy - perfect.
On Saturday we had a really nice bike ride near Inverary - circular route ending up back at the castle. It was raining when we set off but cleared up and turned into another great day. Continuing north-west past Lochawe, we stayed in Oban on Saturday and had a fantastic meal at a wee restaurant in town (almost as good as the noodles the night before). On Sunday we took a huge ferry (see boat picture above) over to Luing, pronounced 'Ling', and biked round the island. Somehow managed to get four people & 4 bikes onto the boat on the way there which was a logistical challenge but saved the 10 minutes it would have taken for the ferry to go across and back again :) It was beautiful cycling round the coastal route, with great views over to Mull as it was such a clear day. Slate-quarrying seems to have been the main lifestyle over there 50-100 years ago but most of them are disused now... Afterwards we drove to Easdale, which was surprisingly busy, and had a shop full totally random & quite weird items. Easdale Island is apparently famous for hosting stone-skimming championships - that's my random fact of the day.
Took a cross-country route to try and find a good camping spot but ended up checking into a campsite at Arrochar as it was getting late and we needed some gas for cooking (I managed to remember the stove but no gas...oops). We were asked if we could put up our tent really quickly as it was against the rules to put the tents up after it was dark - I actually thought they were kidding, has health & safety gone MAD?! Perhaps they think people might trip over their own guy-ropes, dive 10 metres, fall down the hill, break their leg & then sue for bad site planning. What a joke. We successfully pitched our tent and settled into a five-star dinner of noodles, accompanied by a shandy - perfect.
On Saturday we had a really nice bike ride near Inverary - circular route ending up back at the castle. It was raining when we set off but cleared up and turned into another great day. Continuing north-west past Lochawe, we stayed in Oban on Saturday and had a fantastic meal at a wee restaurant in town (almost as good as the noodles the night before). On Sunday we took a huge ferry (see boat picture above) over to Luing, pronounced 'Ling', and biked round the island. Somehow managed to get four people & 4 bikes onto the boat on the way there which was a logistical challenge but saved the 10 minutes it would have taken for the ferry to go across and back again :) It was beautiful cycling round the coastal route, with great views over to Mull as it was such a clear day. Slate-quarrying seems to have been the main lifestyle over there 50-100 years ago but most of them are disused now... Afterwards we drove to Easdale, which was surprisingly busy, and had a shop full totally random & quite weird items. Easdale Island is apparently famous for hosting stone-skimming championships - that's my random fact of the day.
posted by Mhairi
2 Comments:
Hurrah to see the blog updated ;) Beautiful pictures.
So... the question is - what *is* the stone skimming record? And why is it such a perfect place for it?
Rib trip oban can be real fun. Looking forward to visit different places.
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