Camping It Up near Killin

It's been so long since I blogged on a regular basis, I think I've forgotten how. I've been feeling a bit guilty reading everyones lovely posts and writing nothing myself. So, I challenge myself to blog on a regular basis again - it may not be very interesting, but I will try to do it once a week at least. We'll see...

So, we went camping recently for a few days. Headed off to a campsite near Killin, which is by Loch Tay. We'd visited this site last year for a night to test out the tent and as we couldn't get into the site we were originally planning to visit, we headed back to this one. Miss Lucy and Mr Adam were so excited (I was slightly less so, I confess) and we managed to get there and erect the tent with no major incidents!

Lucy couldn't wait to get to bed that first evening!



Cooking facilities.



We visited a country park one day and Adam was not impressed at the size of field this coo was in - it wasn't big enough he said and 'what if the coo wanted to visit somewhere else in the park?'. Oh dear.



Ahem. Not my best side. We stopped by the side of a stream one day and cooked up our lunch on the wee stove. Dave and the kids thought it would be fun to take pics of me washing up without me noticing. Grrrrr.



The view from inside looking out. The first night was pretty noisy as a load of people were drinking and making a lot of noise and generally being a pain but by the next day (Sunday) they were all leaving and the rest of the week was lovely and peaceful.



I love this picture of Lucy at Loch Tay. It was a 5 minute walk through the forest to the shore and it was absolutely scorching on this morning. So much so, that the children ended up with their swimwear on, paddling about in the water - which was freezing!



Adam is very fond of Highland Coos and this one is rather famous in these parts - he is called Hamish and weighs in at 1 ton! It was absolutely pouring with rain when I took this photo - Hamish looked quite unperturbed.



The same day we visited Hamish we also stopped at the Queen's View near Pitlochry - gorgeous view.

Back at the campsite, Miss Lucy showed off her Girl Guide skills in Barbequeing (yes, there is a badge...) and wouldn't let anyone else help. It was delicious.

The weather alternated between really hot and both types of rain - horizontal and vertical. In the end, I really enjoyed it (even though I swear I was sleeping on concrete and the midgies liked me best) and I was the one who wanted to stay on longer! I just love waking up to peace and quiet and the sounds of nature - you just can't beat it.

Carry On Camping

Since I'm having problems with Virgin at the moment and can't send or receive any emails, and it's driving me MAD (grrrrr), I thought I'd post a few pics of a short camping trip we took recently (well, it keeps me amused :-) )

A couple of weeks ago we tried out our new tent and camped near Killin, at a nice little site five minutes walk from the shores of Loch Tay. After some initial discussion about which bits went where, we got the tent up with not too much trouble and went about the serious business of trying out the (new) stove and kettle and making a cup of tea. This proved successful much to my relief and I settled into our one deckchair while the others went exploring. It was pretty misty the whole day until a heavy bout of rain cleared things up nicely. Unfortunately, it also brought out the midges!

The following morning heralded a bright and warm new day.

Hamish was rather naughty on the whole trip and kept getting Mr Adam into trouble. He has been told he had better behave from now on (he is rather prone to mischeviousness).

Can you tell?

We walked in the woods...

Played...

Walked to the loch...

and visited some family of Hamish.

We weren't too far from our favourite place - the Scottish Crannog Centre. It is near Kenmore at the opposite end of the loch, so we took a trip along. It was still as good as ever.

Some fleece dyed with local plants.

Miss Lucy tried to make fire again - she does this every time we visit. It's really difficult to do, but she has managed to get some smoke going before!

Our trip was over all too soon, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even those of us who weren't that keen (having been camping all over Britain when small - no matter what the weather!) had a lovely time (that kettle was a lifesaver).