Kintyre & Cowal - Day 5

We were leaving the site today, so we packed up and went in to Campbeltown for a walk round. We went to the museum, the heritage centre and the Linda McCartney memorial garden.

We then walked down to the port and purely by coincidence were there when the Waverley paddle steamer came in, picked up some passengers and left again.

We then drove up the east coast of peninsula, with great views of Arran all the way, it was beautifully sunny. We stopped for lunch at lay by.

We went on to Carradale, where we chose a camping spot at a forestry car park a couple of miles north of the village. We went for a walk through the forest and down the coast to Carradale.

After walking through the village we went across the golf course to Port Righ bay and then the main Carradale bay, then back to the van.

Dinner was chick pea curry, which we ate at the picnic tables in the car park.

Kintyre & Cowal - Day 4

After breakfast we drove to Cambeltown, then along the road to the car park for Davaar Island. When the tide is out you can walk out to it over a causeway - we were first across at 9.30.

We took the path anti-clockwise towards the caves, passing some of the wild goat herd on the way.

Once on the beach we walked to the caves, one of which has a painting of Christ in it.

We continued to walk all the way round the island, the weather was great, hot and sunny. We passed sea birds and many rock pools.

Right at the other side of the island is a lighthouse, and a path that allowed us to get up off the beach.

We then walked up a steep, bracken-covered hill up to the highest point on the island. Good view down to the causeway where the tide was now much further out.

We then went back down and had our lunch on a jetty.

After walking back across the causeway, we drove south to Southend. This brought back memories for Scott as he went on a family holiday there back in the seventies. We walked to the famous St Columba's footprints, then along the beach by the camp site and back along the side of the golf course.

We then decided to drive to the most remote point, the Mull of Kintyre. This is at the far south west, miles along a single track road over the moors. At the end we walked down the steep path to the lighthouse.

Back at the camp site we had another barbecue, then walked to the Old Clubhouse pub in Machrihanish for a drink.

Kintyre & Cowal - Day 3

It was very sunny today. After breakfast we went for a walk into Machrihanish village. We saw lots of common seals at the shore.

Past the village is a peninsula with a trig point, and also a seabird observation hut, where we stopped and chatted to the bloke who mans it.

We then walked a bit up the famous 4-mile long sandy Machrihanish bay, where we stopped to rest and sunbathe for a while.

We walked back to the campervan over the golf course, seeing some wild orchids on the way.

We decided to have a barbecue since the weather was so nice, so we cycled into Cambeltown to buy food for it (burgers and sausages). It was quite a long ride, about 6 miles each way.

We had our barbecue, and sat out for a while before seeing another great sunset.

We had a great view of Islay and Jura.