Roady's Roamings

From New Lanark it was just a quick trip to Coulter to the Mill Inn for an overnight before heading to Carlisle. Good beer and a friendly welcome, with excellent food. most enjoyable. Followed by a peaceful night.

The weather has got worse today but not at Lanark. So its back to Lanark Loch for an overnight and break the journey south, as we have to be back in Carlisle for babysitting. Another visit to the Mountain Resort for toilet emptying, some water and showers on the way. We plan to visit the New Lanark museum, we have been there before and we still had a couple of months left on the annual ticket. It is well worth a second visit. We also walked up the falls of Clyde, where there is a Hydroelectric power station, for those people interested in such things.

There was still a few hours of daylight left after the puncture repair so we parked up at An Torr car park and headed up the valley for a leg stretch. We were hoping to get to the 3 waters view point we had seen from the main road but the footpath did not take us that far. The footpaths in Scotland are not marked on the OS maps, something in my advanced years had never realized. I usually  plan walks on my phone before setting off, but in this case I couldn't. good footpath and an excellent walk all the same.

Our stop for the night is just neat the Ardgour slipway of th Corran Ferry, The Inn at Ardgour. They allow campervans to spend the night in the car park with the usual provisors, you phone before arriving and you eat and/or drink in the establishment. Not a great selection of beers and no real ale, but what was on offer was good. The meals are good pub grub we both had burger and chips. A very quiet night after the ferry stopped at about 9.30 pm. A quick walk in the morning to the take a picture of the lighthouse. Back to the van to get in line for the ferry to be presented by a message on the dash saying "Left front tyre pressure 2.7 bar" It should be 4.1 bar. A quick look showed the tyre to be OK to drive so we decide to get on the ferry as there is more of a chance on the Corran side to get it repaired. I discovered the leak with a bit of soapy water, very small, so rather than go through the process of changing the tyre, wch is not simple on these vehicles, I decide...

The Corran ferry runs from Corran to Ardgour across Loch Linnhe. There is no advanced booking just turn up and pay once on board. It runs ever 20 minutes for most of the day, timetable on line.

After a bit of servicing at the Mountain Resort we had quick lunch in the Grog and Gruel in Fort William and a visit to the pharmacy for some ear drops. We then headed to the Corran Ferry to investigate the other side.

Back up the road to empty the toilet and have a shower. Fantastic place. There are 10 level pitches with Electric Hookup at £15 per night or the car park for £5 a night in the honesty box. CDP at the lower shower / toilet block ans water on the left of the main building.  Showers in a heated block for £1. There is also a shop and licensed restaurant on site.

Great stopover. A very quiet carpark, busy with walkers during the day and camper vans overnight. A quick walk to enjoy the friendly welcome at the Clachaig Inn. Good ale and food, with free WiFi.

On our way to Glencoe for Clachaig Inn's February Fest. We stopped at a free overnight at Lanark Loch carpark overlooking thr loch. Nice, quiet level site, good views, no facilities apart from Public waste bins but excellent for one night. The Inn on the lake restaurant was open, so a couple of beers were in order.

In between 2 bouts of babysitting (toddlersitting). We decided to do a recce over on the North East. Stopping at Stephenson's Arms Camping and Caravan Club Certified Site. We researched Wylam before we arrived and decided to walk to The Boathouse. An excellent choice, a great selection of real ales awaited us. We managed to try them all! To top it off we were offered a free steak pie. Definitely a pub to return to. As it was just an overnight stop we did not need any facilities. The following day we headed off to Swalwell visitors centre car park and set off for a great walk along the Derwent. We are looking at this area as a 1 to 2 night stopover for cycling and walking, as it is not to far to travel. We'll be back when the weather gets better and the days are longer.

Our first beer festival of the year, and a meet up with the relatives that live in Barrowford. We camped outside my aunties house in Barrowford for the Thursday and Friday of the beer festival which is held an the Municipal Hall in Colne (The Muni). A very good beer festival held by the local CAMRA my cousin being one of the bar managers. It was nice and quiet on the Thursday afternoon and a little busier on the Friday. Back home on the Saturday for some toddler sitting.