Category Archives: Touring

Parked Up at Glorious Glenmore in the Snowy Cairngorms

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We’re parked up at glorious Glenmore campsite in the Cairngorms for a few days. This is our first visit to this site, situated around Loch Morlich. It’s a straightforward drive north on the A9 and then about 10-15 minutes on the B5912 from Aviemore, passed Coylum Bridge. The campsite staff were friendly and helpful at check in.

We arrived in the sun with a light covering of snow. A storm was forecast and the weather did get blustery and cold with more snowfall. The setting of the campsite is really nice with many forest walks, bike tracks and walks around Loch Morlich itself. The Cairngorms are a short drive from the campsite and at this time of year it is very popular with skiers and serious hikers.

The Pine Marten Bar is adjacent to the campsite for drinks and food. The staff are friendly and seating is limited so turn up and wait for a table. The visitor centre and cafe are opposite the campsite across the road, with the reindeer centre a little further along the road.

There is also watersports on Loch Morlich (closed when we were here) and a sandy beach around the loch. It is easy to spend time walking/cycling through the forest and around the loch. There are many tracks and paths.

I also came across activity of beavers whilst walking along the river bank!

There is no public Wi-Fi on the site and we both had a very limited cell service, if any at all. So for us, Starlink was essential and this worked well.

Our pitch was right on the edge of the forest with the loch only a few minutes walk from our van.

I am looking forward to returning to Glenmore. I think it will be equally nice in the summer.

Parked Up At Druridge Bay Festival

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We attended the Druridge Bay Festival for the first time. This is located in Drudridge Bay Country Park in Northumberland. It’s a really nice location with good park ups, a lake and a nearby beach.

We arrived later in the evening and missed the first day’s events, so we caught up with some friend and enjoyed the events.

The event was well organised and well run and we plan on returning next year.

Vanlove Fest 2025

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We left Calais, France in the morning and drove to Elvington airfield in York to attend Vanlove fest 2025. This is our third consecutive year at Vanlove and the scale of it keeps increasing with more than 1,200 vans on the runway. Queuing to get access to the pan was awful and the four queues were not taken in order. Vanlove can definitely do better than this! Parking on the runway was a similar experience with vans not taking in order of arrival. Thereafter we had a nice time. It was good to see Bobby, Marie and their dogs from One Life Truck It at Vanlovefest and hear Mark (Bobby’s dad) talk about their plans for the MAN 8X8 truck and how it will be used in the future. Sadly, Guy and Jo advised this is the last time Vanlove will be at Elvington airfield so we’ll wait to hear where the new location is and if this works with our commute from Europe enroute home at the end of our summer tour.

Exploring Roses, Spain

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We’ve headed sixty miles north up the coast to Camping Rodas in Roses, near Girona. This is another lovely beach resort with the campsite about a 15 minutes walk from the town sea front. Camping Rodas is a large well organised campsite. There’s both a Carrefour market and a Lidl within walking distance of the site too. The beach area nearest the campsite has a few bars and restaurants with mostly large hotels. The other end of the beach has more restaurants, bars and beach bars around the marina. The beach looked lovely although dogs aren’t allowed on it at this time of year so we didn’t use it. There are cycle lanes along the boardwalk although there are some warning signs prohibiting cycling in certain locations and apparently the police do fine cyclists for breaking the rules. We hired a boat here and enjoyed sailing around. The people at Boats Mediterrani were extremely helpful, and were happy to speak English. This is our last stop in Spain before heading north through France.

Investigating Lloret De Mar, Spain

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Lloret De Mar is the most southerly point of our trip. We are staying on a campsite at Camping Blau/Lloret Blau. This is a 10-15 minute walk from the beach. It’s a nice campsite with most pitches surrounded by trees. Our Starlink was partly obstructed as a result, but we still got good reception. There is a lovely well kept beach here, with many beach bars and restaurants to choose from. The larger hotels are typically at the southern end of the beach up the hill. There’s a castle at the northern end with lovely views over the cliff onto the crystal clear waters.

Outstanding Medieval Carcassonne, France

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We spent two days at Carcassonne in France, exploring the medieval village and the new town area. The medieval village is spectacular. There’s lots to see and do inside the walled village. We couldn’t book the aire so booked the adjacent campsite. This is ideally located, just a short cycle from Carcassonne itself.

Europe 2025 Tour. Glasgow, Scotland to Lloret de Mar, Spain.

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Well, it’s been a while since we posted touring videos as we have been focusing on converting campervans and haven’t toured much in 2025. We are now starting our summer European tour driving from the Glasgow area in Scotland to Lloret de Mar in Spain. This video captures our travels to the tunnel in Folkestone and into France, parking up at the Merlimont plage aire. Wendy has used TravelBoast to illustrate our whole route south, through France and into Spain.

Tread The Globe Event, Southport and the Sir Anthony Gormley Statues

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We’ve been following Marianne and Chris from Tread The Globe on YouTube for a long time and we attended the Dekafok charity event in Telford. This was a great event and we met lots of like minded lovely people. We then headed North, parking up at Southport CAMC and visited the Sir Anthony Gormley statues on Formby beach.

Visiting Garlieston in Dumfries and Galloway

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Garlieston CAMC in Dumfries and Galloway campsite is a lovely site right next to the sea on Garlieston bay, with the harbour a few minutes walk from the site. There is one pub/restaurant (The Harbour Inn) and one cafe (The Hive) on the main street. There is one small shop in the local petrol station, ten minutes away from the main street, so if you plan to cook your dinners then stock up before your arrive. It’s a nice place for a relaxing break.

Vanlovefest 2024

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We are heading back early from our three week European tour to attend Vanlovefest 2024 at Elvington Airfiled in York. We started off this morning from the aire in Calais, France and arrived at Elvington in the glorious sunshine. This is our second trip to Vanlovefest and we have e a couple of friends attending this year too. We bought our MiRiders here last year so I’m looking forward to cycling past all of the vans on the runway – and we have Lola our Miniature Pinscher pup with us this year (on the back of Wendy’s MiRider).