Friday May 31st 2013 - Summer holiday part 1 - From home to Loch Lomond

A gloriously sunny morning saw me leaving home at 7am on the first leg of my marathon journey to Arisaig in the Highlands of Scotland. My first two nights were to be spent at Luss on the western shores of Loch Lomond, and though I'd originally planned on leaving at 5am a check on AA Routeplanner told me that it wouldn't take as long to get there as I first thought so a 7am start was more than fine.

My first en route stop was a brief one on the M6 two hours into the journey, with a second stop at Annandale Water on the A74M. Never having been there before I was expecting the place to be just the usual type of motorway service area so I was pleasantly surprised to find a very attractive looking lake with a pathway all round and a large grassy picnic area on one side. I'd begun to feel tired before I stopped so I intended having a quick five minute power nap but a walk round the lake with the dogs refreshed me enough to continue the journey with no more stops and I arrived at the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Luss exactly five hours after leaving home.

Now I've been a C & CC member for many years though I've very rarely used any of their big sites, and when I came to check in at this one I was reminded of one reason why I don't - wardens who put problems where there aren't any and who seem to want to over-complicate the very simplest of matters. So the conversation went like this -

"You've booked a pitch for a tent, is that a motorhome?"
"No, it's a people carrier" (Why are you asking me that?)
"It's got curtains, can you sleep in it?"
"Only if I turn the seats into a bed but I'm not doing that" (That's why I booked for a tent)
"Has it got cooking facilities and an on-board toilet?"
"No, it's a people carrier" (I've already told you that)
"Well if it's a motorhome we can't accept you as we'll be over our permitted number"
"Like I said, it's a people carrier and I have a tent" (How many more times do I have to tell you?!)

Eventually he seemed satisfied that the van isn't a motorhome, though by this time I was beginning to lose the will to live and if I hadn't already paid a hefty deposit I would have driven off and gone in search of somewhere else to stay, but resisting the urge to either slap the warden's face or throw something at his head I paid the balance of the site fee, got back in the van and followed him slowly to my allocated pitch. Once he'd told me where everything was and disappeared back to reception I took stock of my surroundings; I was at the far end of the site and apart from the grass being a bit bare in places it was a good pitch - just ten yards from the loch and separated from the water by a line of well-spaced trees and a small shingle beach. That would do nicely, at least the warden had got something right!

With the tent up and everything sorted out inside I made a brew and spent an hour or so chilling out before clipping the leads on the dogs and setting out to explore the site and the nearby village. The site itself was very attractive, backed by a tree-covered hill and with well spaced pitches, wooden steps set at intervals leading down to the shingle beaches and great views across to the far side of the loch. If it hadn't been for the constant traffic noise from the very busy main road running past the site it would have been in an absolutely perfect location.

The village itself was only a five minute walk from the site entrance and the first thing I came to was a large car park with a little shop and a burger bar on one corner; a path from the car park took me past a row of cottages with pretty gardens to the narrow street leading down to the lochside where there was a pier, a smaller jetty and a long sand-and-shingle beach at each side. With a handful of photos taken I made my way up by the nearby church, past another row of cottages with a tiny stream running down the side of the street, and came full circle back to the car park.

By this time the long day was beginning to take its toll so I made my way back to the camp site - any further photos could wait until the following day. With a brew and a sandwich made the rest of the day and evening were spent relaxing in the tent; with no signal on the tv I watched a dvd for a while then as the daylight eventually started to fade I took the dogs for a short walk round the site, settled them in their bed and finally got into my own. I did make a start on reading a new book but I didn't get even halfway through the first chapter before sleep overtook me for the rest of the night.