On the home leg, we crossed the Ballachulish bridge and stopped at Glencoe to fly our drone whilst trying to do justice to this stunning scenery. Then we continued to the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Bunree.
There’s some timelapse footage looking towards the west bank of Loch Linnhe and some footage of the Corran ferry from the air, and the campsite.
After our time at Sands, we travelled South to Morvich staying at the Camping and Caravanning Club site. The scenery here is beautiful and it’s a nice site with friendly welcoming wardens. We are spending time here as a base and will travel around a little.
The video below captures the Morvich campsite, Manuela’s bakery, Kyle of Lochalsh and Eilean Donan Caste. The weather has been beautiful, interspersed with six hours of torrential rain.
We returned to Eilean Donan to film with our drone one evening as drone flying isn not permitted between 09:00 am and 6:00 pm, nor when evening wedding receptions are happening – so we needed to plan this and were lucky with the weather.
We stayed at the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Kinlochewe and spent some time walking part of the path towards Ben Eighe and at the Loch Maree visitor centre.
The CMC campsite here is pleasant although it is hard standing everywhere, with large grey gravel. There is virtually no grass. Otherwise it is quite pleasant and tranquil.
The path towards Ben Eighe starts just outside the campsite, beyond the adjacent petrol station. It is an easy walk, at least as far as I walked, and the scenery is beautiful. I was luck with the brilliant weather.
The visitor centre at Loch Maree has plenty of information on the area. The loch is stunning with a pebble beach,
We spent two days at Kinlochewe and then travelled to Sands at Loch Gairloch.
We had a long weekend at the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Culzean Castle near Maybole, Scotland. We haven’t been here before yet it’s only about an hour’s drive from home. The CCC is a relatively small site with friendly wardens and beautiful views over the sea. We were lucky to get a pitch at the front, with views of Arran, the Holy Isle and the Ailsa Craig.
The campsite is adjacent to the Culzean Castle estate. You can walk there from the site in around 15 minutes.
If you watch the video to the end you can enjoy the stunning sunset.
Captured some sea views of the estuary at Ravenglass, with my Mavic Mini drone.
So, we are just back from our first Hymerchill. After arriving late I realised I couldn’t fill Hylda with water as I had forgotten the tap adapter. We soon experienced the friendliness everyone talks about once a fellow late arrival lent me the tap adapter, and then when I returned it I was given a spare! Thank you to “Ian from Liverpool”. A frustrating start ended very well – and I paid back the kind favour with a beer at the bar, in between the entertaining raffle and house band.
It was interesting to see others’ vans so I’ve included a photo of the lower field we were in…
and the main field…
We enjoyed this well organised and well run event. Well done to the organising team.
And I now have a classic hymers group sticker for Hylda.
This weekend we spent our first night away in Hylda.
Since collecting Hylda two weeks ago, she has spent her time in storage. We have spent that time emptying the hut and gathering together all our camping equipment that has lain dormant for the last eighteen months. We even managed to visit the Scottish Caravan Show and pick up a few bit and pieces that we had let go when we sold the caravan. Ian also purchased a reversing camera for the van. We visited the same stand and ended up buying the same one we installed in the Sprinter.
So this weekend, despite the best efforts of Storm Dennis, we brought Hylda home from storage, packer her up and headed off to Lomond Wood campsite in Balloch. The rain was relentless and the wind made for an interesting journey but we made it. The campsite is only 40 minutes from home and the last time we visited was 26 years ago when we went to try out our first caravan.
Whist filling up the water we decided that the gauge was not working. It rose to 1/4 full then stayed there for ages. As we were only there for a night we thought we’d have plenty of water. How wrong we were. Very early in the evening we ran out of water. As it was so wet and windy we decided not to drive back round to the motorhome point. We filled the kettle from the nearby tap and in the morning made use of the excellent on site facilities.
We were really pleased with the van. Everything we tried worked as it should. The only thing we didn’t get to try was the shower, see above for the reason. We had purchased a new trigger head for the shower but that will just need to wait til the next time.
In the evening we put up the silver screens and settled for the night. We had a stream right behind the van so we were able to relax to the sound of running water. The drop down bed was very comfortable and we all slept very well. This included the dogs who did not waken until 6.25. This is almost an hour later than they usually get up at home.
In the morning we showered on site. The facilities were very clean, warm with plenty of hot water. One of the many things on the list of forgotten items was the frying pan. Breakfast was made in a pot but was fine.
We knew the wind was due to pick up from lunchtime so we packed up early and left the site at 10a.m. You have to vacate your pitch by 12. There were plenty of gusts on the way but we made it back to the storage compound safe and sound. All in all it was a great first trip. We are much more familiar with the workings of Hylda and can’t wait until the next opportunity to get away.
McNaughts On Tour 