Friday February 8th 2013 - Thinking ahead and making plans

As far as camping trips go I tend not to plan too far ahead in case the good old British weather decides to put the kibosh on things before I even get to packing up the van, but although it's still only early February I've been thinking about where to go for the first part of my main holiday, which will be in late May/early June - and I've decided on something which will be my most ambitious solo trip so far.

Back in August 2007, long before I became a solo camper, I went to a little place on the coast in the Scottish Highlands for the bank holiday weekend. The camp site was next to a small river estuary, the end of it was right on the beach and the views were to die for. Unfortunately the weather was a bit hit and miss and with only four days on site there wasn't enough time or opportunity to explore the area as I really wanted to do; also both the outward and return journeys were very long and tiring, and with the driver not being keen on repeating the experience I never got the chance to go back. I've never forgotten how lovely the place is though, and a few days ago a germ of an idea planted itself in my mind - I would make that return visit as a solo camper and turn it into The Great Scottish Adventure.

Now although I'm confident behind the wheel and I enjoy driving long distances I think 350 miles over a period of eight hours - allowing for rest stops - is a bit too much to tackle all at once, so I've decided to break both the outward and return journeys with an overnight stop somewhere en route. So with this in mind I've been asking questions and doing some research and things are falling nicely into place. On the outward journey I can get the bulk of the mileage done on the first day and make a stop north of Glasgow in the Loch Lomond area - a couple of sites have been recommended to me which would be perfect for an overnight stay - then on the homeward journey again do the most mileage on the first day and make an overnight stop, this time south of Glasgow, at another recommended site. Both stops, and indeed a big part of my planned route, should give me some good opportunities for plenty of photos, and if I have time on the second leg of my outward journey I might even manage to squeeze in a boat trip on Loch Lomond.

So on a ten or eleven day holiday I'll have four days travelling and sightseeing and six or seven days in which to explore the area where I'm staying. I've never done any overnight stops before as up to now I've never been far enough to need to, so this will be a whole new adventure for me and the dogs. I've got two or three short camping trips lined up before then, but the more I think about going to the Highlands the more I really want to do this trip, so all I can say is roll on May!