About Me

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Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Wednesday April 10th 2013 - I is for Indecision

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge.

I'm not normally an indecisive person; if I have a decision to make over anything, whether it's the socks I put on in a morning or where my next camping break will be I make it and most of the time I stick to it, though sometimes this has led me to doing things which I may not otherwise have done - like buying new tents which I don't really need just because I saw them on display, liked them, and decided it would be a good idea to have them. Recently though, when faced with a choice between two different camp sites for an overnight stay on my forthcoming long drive up to the Scottish Highlands I just couldn't decide between the two.

Both sites are in the right area, both have pitches with ehu, and neither is very far from a shop should I need any provisions. There are two major differences though - one is right on the shores of Loch Lomond and cost-wise is quite cheap but is adjacent to the very busy main road along the loch side; the other is in a much quieter location but cost-wise the nightly fee is three times the price of the first. As I don't 'do' noise when I'm camping my first thoughts were to book the quieter site but then I thought of the cost - going to the cheaper site would leave me more spending money for when I got to my final destination. So, cheap noise or expensive peace, which should I choose? I really couldn't decide - until, that is, I looked on Google Earth.

Although the expensive site looks nice I don't think it really justifies the cost, and it also seems to be about a ten minute walk from there to the loch and any nice views, whereas the cheaper site really is right at the side of the loch. Zooming in on 'street view' I found a small road leading through the village to a lochside pier and the views - WOW! And an internet search told me that boat trips across the loch leave from that pier several times a day - they accept dogs, for which there's no charge, so a trip across the loch is something I could build into my itinerary.

So, the indecision was no more - the cheaper site it was and to hell with any road noise, the views would more than make up for that. And as soon as I decided, I picked up the phone to book not one but two nights on that site - and I'm really looking forward to it, road noise or not!

10 comments:

  1. I am so indecisive and it makes me ANGRY! :)

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  2. Interesting how modern technology totally changes the decision process. Have a lovely time!
    coffintreehill.tumblr.com

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  3. What would we do without the internet?! I do intend to have a lovely time, I'm going to a place I first went to six years ago but so far have never had the chance to go back to. This will be my fist long drive since I passed my test three years ago and though I could do it in one day - it would take just over eight hours - I may as well take my time, break the journey and see a few sights as well.

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  4. Interesting. Enjoy your travels.

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  5. Loch Lomond is beautiful and the road isn't that noisy at night. I'm sure you'll have a great time. :-)

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  6. I'm usually not indecisive but I have friends who are-- and they drive me nuts ;). Love that you're doing travel stories for the challenge.

    Damyanti @Daily(w)rite
    Co-host, A to Z Challenge 2013

    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge
    AZ blogs on Social Media

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  7. Great minds think alike! My I blog was also Indecision. I'll be looking forward to learning more about your camping adventures, too.

    http://jobseekerjourney.wordpress.com/

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  8. Either spot sounds exotic as the Scottish Highlands is a million miles away and only something that I've read about. We have camped all over the United States and in some beautiful places like the Redwoods but it's still just in America and not some distant location that I will never get to. Like you, view or location trumps noise and people. In Yellowstone, we stayed in a very busy campground but early in the morning, while everyone was still sleeping, you could hear the wind as it moved through the lodge pole pines. Quite a treat.

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  9. My eventual destination is a little place called Arisaig on the west coast of the Highlands. The camp site is at the mouth of a small river and the end of the site goes right onto the beach; the sand is fabulous and the views are to die for.

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  10. I drive my partner nuts with indecision! I look at everything from all angles and even when I've made a decision, such as which campsite to go to, we usually end up somewhere entirely different. Would love to be more like you and be more decisive but then again........Enjoy the highlands!

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I really appreciate good comments - who doesn't? - but due to a recent tide of spam from anonymous readers all comments will now be moderated, and only those with a direct bearing on this blog will be published. I'm sure my regular blog readers/commenters will understand the need for this - and to anyone whose comment isn't published, you know why.