Me on my lonesome in the Lake District and yes it was beautiful

               I set off on the Monday for a couple of nights camping in the Lake District.
                My destination was near Ambleside, which was also near Windermere.
                      I am sure Windermere is lovely, but too many tourists for me!

                         So to http://baysbrownfarmcampsite.co.uk/ in Chapel Stile

             A good value campsite. £5 for adults, £3 for children and £2.50 for the car.
                 
                                                  So £15 for 2 nights camping!

Now the first rule about camping is having your own space.

Which I forgot when pitching next to this family..whoops!

I was not best pleased, when I discovered after my return from Scotland,

that I had gained five pounds in weight!

However a strict diet, with the exception of one meal out, 

saw me lose three of them.

I combined good food with a ten mile walk and job done, two more to lose.

I bought the Daily Express hoping for a less biased paper then the Mail,

I was wrong..won't be buying that again!

Ah, the view outside my tent

Great Langdale, me thinks.

Whilst using the loo I decided that a poor dragon fly was very stupid

It saw the glass window and thought it could fly through it

As we know insects can't fly through glass

so I decided to help it and pushed it gently through the opening

The moment it escaped to freedom, it was entwined in a spiders web

promptly injected by said spider and had for breakfast.

Sorry to the dragon fly, but I meant well.

So in the evening it was time..

Wainwright's Inn

A lovely glass of Lime and lemonade

Whilst out on my evening walk I came across

Bowling, how lovely

Interesting, Spongebob 

                                                              From the local quarry

I thought this was a good photo

                                             
                                                            Out for a lovely walk

I saw two fish!

Yes I gave...

Relaxing far from day to day life

The Village, lovely

Back to Wainwright's Inn

Just a few notes to end on

The picture I can't show you is of the sky, lit up at 1 am

full of stars, that I didn't even see in Scotland

That was a view to behold.

The yellow winged bird with a red beak, glorious to behold

And finally the woman hoovering the caravan awning, why?

A lovely place...the lake District...

Part 2 of our holiday in North West Scotland (based at Melvaig)

                     Now if I had to look for a place to "end it all" it would be here...

                                                                  Camas Mor

                                  The young lady and her mother having a picnic
                          might have not been best pleased, but it is a view to die for.

                  As some of you may know I live in Chester, a lovely old City.
           The village I happen to live in is next to a very busy A road known as the A55.
                                      Great for getting places quickly.
          But as any one will tell you that lives next to a busy trunk road, it can be noisy!
                                                Well in North West Scotland,
                                      there are places and Melvaig is one of them
                                    where you don't hear the rumble of the motorcar.
                                     I sat for ages with no sign nor sound of the car.

These are getting more rare in Scotland, but there are still plenty of them

and they slow traffic down...wonderful.

So on Monday we took a trip to Gairloch.

We had thought about and did book, and promptly cancel, a round of golf for 4, 

which came out at £90 with club hire and balls, too much for us.

Taking a boat ride to see Whales and Dolphins was £170 ouch!

So we opted for a glass bottom boat ride for around £68 in total.

http://www.glassbottomboat.info/

The boat ride beyond the harbour was good value. But don't expect to see too much.

The sea around here and Skye has been over fished and you can tell.

But the same applies for other boating trips we have been on.

Nether the less, it was still worth it for the boat ride and the guide.

My son's also got to navigate the boat!

                                                                          Adam

Ryan

A lovely view of the Torridon Mountains

                                                       
                                                                A small jelly fish

The glass bottom 

A map of our location in Melvaig.

Back tomorrow with part 3......

Attacked by the killer Swarm! Part 1 of our holiday in Melvaig, Scotland..more to follow

Well the journey started off well,

 plenty of time to make the small journey from Chester to Glasgow, or so we thought. 

I passed my driving test in 1981 and the roads then were so peaceful.

Now the M6, can at times be a rolling road for those happy to do 40 mph.

The lanes are crammed all the way to Carlisle.

Where has the thrill of the open road gone?

Add to that..well:

You guessed it the bloke and his over turned caravan.

What was supposed to be a lovely jaunt, on our first leg, turned into

Hell!

We arrived at a travel lodge at around 10:30 pm

A four hour journey turned into a marathon.

As for the Travel lodge, it was great...

excepting the face that the sat nav postcode took us to the other side of the road!

And that it was not signed well.

Still we had arrived in 

Scotland:

Anna Sinclair aka "the wife" took this photo and yes she is teetotal!

Well we set out Sat morning, making up way, finally on the A9.

Note the A9, which for a while had numerous speed cameras, now has none!

Sounds good for you speed merchants?

No not really, as they are currently being replaced by :

Average speed cameras

Which should be working any time soon!

Any way after a short stop to shop in Inverness

we took the A832 to Gairloch 

on the way we passed Loch Maree, with the Torridon Mountains 

in the background

Then we arrived at Melvaig

And our lovely cottage, 

well we thought so too and it was apart from the

Welcome!

We have been coming to Scotland since 1987

and I can honestly say I have never known any thing like it

Sat 19th July 2014 was the worse I have ever experienced!

Swarms of flying ants and midges attacking us as we tried to unpack the car.

The next day they were there, but not like our welcoming committee.

It was never as bad again, so don't let them put you off!

Some photos:

A short walk to the top of the hill and I find this hideaway

it seems that the owner can no longer use it as he did not

get planning permission, which is a shame as it looked great

Below a panoramic view, hope it comes out alright

On the second day, we went for a walk to 

Rua Reidh light house..

Sold off by the government and the owners really try and put you off!

Take no notice and keep walking..

The private light house, well the building is private!

Once you get to the light house turn right 

and the most fantastic view awaits you

provided you are willing to walk around 3km...more!

I will leave you to judge:

Camas Mor

Part 2 to follow:....