Killin time

We moved on again today, and on the way to our next site we drove through Inverary, it was so picturesque on the way through we decided to dump the ‘van in a lay by and go back for a look.. We had a wander through the busy centre with all its quaint shops, then had a walk along the front where the town meets Loch Fyne then we headed for the castle.  The famous castle is home to the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, was built in 1789 and has baroque, palladian and gothic styles.

 We had a walk down the drive until we saw a man in a booth waiting for money so we took some photos, turned and hot footed it away!  We had our picnic sat on a bench at the edge of the Loch before heading back to the van.  No surprise that 2 cars had parked in the layby and we only just had room to hitch up!  We carried on and we were enjoying the scenery on the drive until we got to Loch Lomond.  The turn at Tarbert that we needed was blocked due to an accident and we were forced to continue, we stopped in the next layby, but the detour was an extra 60 miles. Phil decided to get the bike and ride down to ask the police if it would be cleared any time soon, but by the time he got there (only a few minutes after we passed) there was no police there and no traffic queue…..we’re sure we hadn’t imagined it!  We decided to turn back and carry on, so drove to the next car park where we could turn round. Unfortunately there was no room here and we ended up having to unhitch and re-hitch quickly in order to turn.  Typical that the car we held up while doing this manoeuvre was a police car!  Finally, we were back on our way, arriving at Killin we set up the ‘van then sat in the sun and had tea and biscuits.  How civilised.

Visitors today! Mike and Dot (who we met on the trip while in Dornoch) arrived shortly after 11:00. We sat in the ‘van and had a couple of brews while blathering and catching up on what we’d been up to.  After a while we decided we should get out of the ‘van, so we had a quick play on the unicycle, attracting a few looks from fellow caravanners, then went for a walk into the village where they kindly treated us to lunch in a cafe.  Mike jokingly asked the waitress for a bottle of red, and she dutifully brought a small bottle and 2 glasses out, of course we had to partake!  We had a walk through the centre of the village and up to the Falls of Docherty where we went out onto the rocks and admired the view for a while.  On the way back we went along the old railway line, and once back at the site Mike went and got his new mountainbike out of the car ready to cycle home, he’d planned a 35 mile route all off road using national cycle trail.  Phil decided to join him for a while, so changed into his riding gear. Mike came in with a big bag of stuff and proceeded to put on layer after layer, and then move on to armouring himself up with gadgets and thingymejigs!  Phil felt quite under prepared, so went and put some gloves on to make himself feel better!  We rode for around 5 miles until we reached Glen Ogle where there is a memorial to 2 airmen that lost their lives in an RAF Tornado crash. Phil left Mike to his ride and turned back to Killin.  Back at the van Dot and Linda were still gassing, when it was time for her to go we waved her off for her drive home to Dunblane. Sad to see them go!

The next couple of days the weather took a turn for the worse and it rained pretty much the whole time!  We spent most of the time in the ‘van, we had no TV or radio on this site, but it was great to be able to relax with a book or newspaper and enjoy some music.  Late one evening a motorhome next door but four had it’s music on so loud we could hear it over the DVD we were watching! From Stereophonics to Underworld it was all random stuff and we stopped our DVD and played name that tune for a while!  We thought it was going to be some bored teenagers but it turned out to be a bunch of 4 old Irish blokes on a fishing trip!

We went to visit the Moirlanich Longhouse, which was just up the road, it is a rare example of a cruck frame Scottish black house occupied by the Robertson family and was only vacated in 1968.  It is now owned by the National Trust and we had an look around the interesting interior which has the original box beds and wooden chimney in the centre of the building.  That evening a robin came into the ‘van and Linda had to grab it and let it out, but not before it had flown around scared and pooped everywhere!

Next stop Balmaha by Loch Lomond.