Bristol - Day 5

We were going home today. After a lazy breakfast, Barry gave us a lift out to Keith and Janet's house in Chew Stoke where we had a coffee. Keith was recovering from a leg operation.

Then Barry took us to the airport, where we caught the 14.35 flight and had an uneventful journey home.

Bristol - Day 4

Still no sign of Sailor the cat this morning.

Today we went with the Shakey Strollers walking group to Cirencester Park. We got a lift in Kate F's car, and we all met up at the Tunnel Inn near Coates.

We set off on our walk on the Macmillan Way. The colours of the trees were lovely. It was sunny but quite cold.

As we walked through the park we saw many of the follies owned by Earl Bathurst.

We had lunch in one of them.

Later it started raining, so we were glad when we got to the pub.

It had a strange upside down table on the ceiling.

That evening most people came round to Pete and Jenny's for a meal.

Surprise surprise, during the evening the missing Sailor turned up. A happy ending!

Bristol - Day 3

On Saturday morning we got up to discover that one of Pete and Jenny's cats, Sailor, had gone missing. We helped them have a look for him, but no joy. Adverts were put on Facebook etc.

We went to the Banco Lounge on Wells Road for breakfast and to meet Hilary. Shirley had a full breakfast and Scott had Chorizo Hash.

In the afternoon we went to Bath with Barry and Phil on the train. It was fairly cold so we didn't walk the streets much.

We went for coffee and a cake at Cafe Au Lait on Pulteney Bridge, then for a pint at the Green Tree.

After that we had pie and a pint at the Raven.

We caught the train back to Bristol, and that night we went to a party at Mandy's house in Windmill Hill.

Bristol - Day 2

We decided to visit The National Trust's Tyntesfield estate today. It was raining in the morning so we waited till about 11 before going out. Barry gave us a lift there.

First we walked round the house. It was quite dark and gloomy inside, but lots of interesting stuff there.

After that we joined a garden tour with one other couple. The autumn colours were lovely.

In the Orangery was a display of pumpkins.

We had some lunch in the cafe in the barn, baked potato and cheese toastie.

We caught the bus back to Bristol. We first walked up to the top road, where we discovered there wasn't a bus for 45 minutes. There was one in 15 minutes from the bottom road on the other side of the estate, so this entailed a fast walk/jog, we only just made it.

That evening we went to a party at Beth's house in Knowle, it was very enjoyable. We had fireworks and sparklers out in the garden.

Bristol - Day 1

We got a taxi to the airport for 7.15am, and flew down on the 8.35am flight with Easyjet.

At the airport Gail picked us up, and firstly took us back to her house for coffee and a chat. At about 12 she gave us a lift to Totterdown and dropped us off at the Tesco car park.

We went to Pete and Jenny's house, where Pete was in and we unpacked our stuff in our room. We were a bit tired so had a lie down.

Later we wen to Tesco for a few provisions.

In the evening we went out for a meal with Gail, Barry and Chris to the Raj Mahal City Indian restaurant. The food was very good, Scott had Duck Pathia and Shirley had Lamb Rojan Josh.

On the way home we went to the Star and Dove pub, where we were joined by Pete and Jenny.

Glen Finglas - Day 2

We got up early and were out walking at 8.20am. It was cold but still and clear.

We walked up through trees at first, and as we got higher the colours and views got better. We could see Ben Venue.

Soon the Glen Finglas reservoir came into view.

The walk is called the Mell Circuit, and goes anticlockwise round Meall Cala. We headed east away from the reservoir into Glen Meann.

At the furthest point we climbed up to 600m height.

Then down into Glen Finglas itself.

We saw a flock of geese at the end of the reservoir.

As we headed back down we got views of Loch Venachar.

We hadn't really needed to set off so early, we were back at the campervan by just after 3pm. We headed down the road, stopping for fish and chips in Falkirk on the way.

Glen Finglas - Day 1

We decided to drive up to Glen Finglas late on Monday to stay overnight so we could get an early start for our walk.

We parked in the Woodland Trust car park.

We made some chilli for tea, and had an early night. It rained overnight.

Southern Uplands - Day 2

There were lots of toadstools outside the van in the morning.

We moved on to Moffat and parked in the car park opposite station park. We were doing a walk up the Annandale Way round the Devil's Beef Tub and back.

We started by walking beside the river Annan, then up a country lane and across fields. Saw a bunch of sheep sheltering under trees.

Further up we crossed the road and went up to the north side of the Devil's Beef Tub and to the top of Annandale Hill where we had our lunch.

There was a crashed van at the bottom. Apparently the driver survived!

We then started walking along the ridge at the top of the walk, with more good view.

Then came the walk back down towards Moffat. Once we had descended through the new forestry that had been planted, most of the route was on a lane, with nice views back up the valley.

We passed an interesting tree covered in fungus.

By just after 4pm we had arrived back at the campervan. We had coffee and a sandwich before leaving to go home to Edinburgh.

Southern Uplands - Day 1

We left the house just before 9.30am, to drive south to St Mary's Loch. We parked just across the road from the cafe.

We set off on our circular walk round the loch, anticlockwise so up the east side first. It was mostly flat, some through trees (March Wood) and some on the lochside.

At the end of the loch is an optional 2km extension to Dryhope Tower, a ruined tower which used to belong to the Scott family, ancestors of Sir Walter Scott.

There is a modern metal staircase inside it, so we climbed to the top where there are good views of the loch. We had our lunch there.

We then descended the staircase and carried on our walk down the west side of the loch.

The next part of the path is quite new, until recently there hasn't been a path all the way around the loch. First we went back down to the lochside.

Then the path goes back nearer the road, and mostly follows it. We took another detour up to St Mary's Kirkyard, which doesn't have a church any more but is a nice graveyard.

We then carried on down the loch to the end, where there is a monument to the writer and shepherd James Hogg, who lived near here.

There was no wind and the reflections in the loch were nice.

Rather than spend the night here next to a busy road, we drove up a minor road to Megget reservior, which provides most of Edinburgh's water supply.

We parked in a picnic spot overlooking the water, which we had to ourselves all night.