Gretna.

Friday November 16. After almost three hours of walking to and fro between house and motorhome we were finally loaded up and ready to go. At 10.45 am we set off for Scotland. The motorhome was low on petrol and we got to Costco which was more or less on our way with 15 miles range left. £80 lighter we were on our way again. Traffic on the motorway was predictably awful. Thanks to a broken down lorry in a 50mph limit with no hard shoulder there was a 25 minute delay between junctions 14/15 on the M6. There was a similar delay further on towards Manchester but with no obvious reason. English motorways, you gotta love em, me, I hate em!

Later Lynne was threatening to die from dehydration because in the rush to get ready we only had one drink before leaving. As I didn’t fancy the idea of travelling to Scotland with a smelly corpse for company (I know what you’re thinking, how would I know the difference?) we stopped for coffee and hot chocolate. It made all the difference and having avoided the grim reaper once more we carried on to Gretna. Lynne joked about going to Gretna to get married. Yeah right! It’s probably just as well you can’t do a u-turn on the motorway!

As we drove through the Yorkshire dales and onwards to Scotland the overcast grey sky slowly cleared and as we arrived in Gretna the sun was blazing away just above the horizon. It was about 3.45 pm when we pulled into the Braids Caravan Park. We checked in with a very friendly Scottish lady and soon got set up on our pitch. It was about then that Lynne worked out that there is a designer outlet just down the road. Needless to say we walked down there later for a look round. Having got there less than an hour before they closed we decided to come again the day after to have a proper look. On the way back we popped into the local Coop. I know we’re in Scotland but I didn’t expect to bump into Rab C Nesbit this early. While we were in the Coop a guy walked in wearing grey track suit bottoms that looked a couple of sizes too small cinched around his protruding belly. To finish off this exquisite ensemble he had on a grey vest with some sort of Thai design. The whole outfit looked grimy like he might have been wearing it for a month or more. The vest was all the more odd considering it was dark and cold outside and he’d decided it would be a good idea to take an evening walk dressed that way.  The real kicker though, was that we’d seen him a couple of hours previously looking like he was returning from work in the same outfit and I’m pretty sure he was staying in the caravan next to us!

Next morning we left the Braids Caravan Park at about 10.30 am and made our way to the designer outlet just down the road. We spent a very boring 90 minutes or so looking at make up and the like during which time I almost lost the will to live. However we did buy some nice new bedding for home which may seem odd in light of the fact that we don’t seem to spend that much time there any more. Having filled up with diesel again we then set off on the road to Glencoe with no clear idea of where we might stay. Along the way the thought occurred to me that we were intending to use the generator whilst wild camping but I had left the adaptor cable at home. Lynne quickly looked online for caravan dealerships and we had a slight diversion to a place called Duncans Caravans in Wishaw. The adaptor cost us £5.95 but somehow we spent £31 before carrying on with our journey. We were soon back on the M74 heading north. It didn’t take long before I was wishing I’d done my homework on the route because as we approached Glasgow the satnav stopped talking to me and I had to make a choice between staying right on the M74 or go left for the M73. I chose the M73 and instantly regretted it as the second it was too late to change my mind it became obvious that I’d made the wrong choice. We were now headed north which seemed an awful long way out of our way to me so at the first opportunity I stopped to look at google maps. We ended up as far north as Stirling before turning off to head west on the A811. I put Balloch in the satnav. Balloch is at the very south end of Loch Lomond and we finally got there at 3.30 pm and immediately found a campsite that I’d seen online. We hadn’t talked about staying on a campsite as the intention had been to wild camp that night but I’d had enough of driving by then so we checked in at the Lomond Woods Holiday Park. We had a quick walk into Balloch at the same time as it was getting dark and the overriding impression was that there was nothing much there except to say you’d be spoilt for choice for places to eat. There are so many restaurants I lost count! I did see a promising location for a photograph and as I’m writing this, the plan is to get out early in the morning and if it’s a success it should appear directly below! Fingers crossed.

Meh! Mediocre photos so nothing to show!