Lochgoilhead - Day 3

We left Lochgoilhead in the morning, with a last view of the loch from our parking space.

The plan was to climb Ben Donich which towers above the village, but which had its top in the clouds this morning.

We drove up the single track road towards the Rest And Be Thankful pass, and parked in the small car park at the foot of the mountain.

We headed up the path, which was quite steep all the way but had a reasonable surface.

At one point on the way up there's a downwards scramble which needs some care, it's in a jumble of boulders with no alternative way round.

After about 90 minutes walking we made it to the top at 847 metres. There was still a lot of cloud around but we got the occasional view down.

After sitting to eat our lunch at the top we made our way back down. This time the scramble was upwards.

Before long the Rest And Be Thankful came back into view.

Once back at the van we drove home, arriving just after 4pm.

Lochgoilhead - Day 2

There's a shop and post office next to the car park, so we went before breakfast to see if we could get some rolls. Unfortunately not, the owner said he can't get a supplier to bring fresh stuff every day. So we bought some wrapped croissants for breakfast, which were ok.

We walked from the van again, this time heading west round the other side of the loch. There was a triathlon taking place around the village, we had seen a lot of the route signage yesterday, and today we saw some of the runners. They weren't going the same way as us though.

We first crossed the tiny village green.

Then we went round the side of the loch past the big Drimsynie holiday village and golf course. I think it holds more people than the population of Lochgoilhead.

We were following the Loch Lomond & Cowal Way again. As we left the village it took us onto a forestry track, eventually heading towards a waterfall.

The path then went quite steeply up the side of the waterfall and stream, until we reached Curra Lochain.

We walked to the far end then sat for our lunch, while we decided whether to carry on through the pass and get a bus back, or to retrace our steps.

It turned out there wasn't a suitable bus, so we turned back. We went a circular route, this time coming out at the top of the holiday village and walking through it. One of the chalets had quite a unique paint job.

On the way back we checked out the other pub in the village, Shore House. It looked ok and had some decent beer, so planned to come back later.

At the village green the prizegiving for the triathlon had just taken place.

Later we went back to the pub without Oscar and had a drink outside.

We had pizza for dinner back at the van.

Lochgoilhead - Day 1

We decided to go to Lochgoilhead for the weekend. We had an early start and left the house before 9am. The drive was about an hour and forty-five minutes.

The car park by the edge of the loch has 2 spaces specifically marked for campervans staying overnight. We luckily were able to drive straight into one. However it turned out that there were a few other vans staying overnight not in the marked spaces, and nobody seemed to mind.

It's a great pitch with views over the loch. There's a toilet nearby too.

After parking we went for a walk up the side of Donich Water. To start with we followed part of the Loch Lomond & Cowal Way long distance path.

We were in forest for a while then it opened up so we had good views of The Cobbler ahead.

We reached the limit of the forestry track, and decided not to go further as it was only a faint boggy path through the heather. We stopped for some lunch then headed back down.

We went by a slightly different route that had good views back down to the village.

Once we got level with the village we carried on down a high-level path that followed the side of Loch Goil. There were some nice waterfalls that came down the hillside.

After a couple of miles we descended to the lochside then headed back towards Lochgoilhead.

Later we went out for a drink at the Goil Inn which was only a few minutes walk away. When we came back the views across the loch were great.

We had chilli and rice for dinner that we'd brought with us.

Pickering - Day 5

We left the site and drove home, stopping at a service station on the M6 for lunch from Greggs.

There were no problems with the traffic and we got home reasonably early.

Pickering - Day 4

We took a day trip on the bus to Whitby today. We went to the nearby bus stop to catch the 840 Coastliner, which took about an hour and ten minutes to get there.

Whitby was very busy by the waterfront. We walked down the north side of the harbour, past the Dracula shop, and out to the end of the pier.

There was a rowing race going on, we found out later this was the regatta weekend. There were good views up to the Abbey.

We then walked north up the coast, behind the beach. It goes to the next village, Sandsend.

We went beyond the village onto the coastal path and found a nice quiet bench to have our lunch. We then walked back towards Whitby by a more inland path.

We got a Mr Whippy ice cream from a kiosk once we got back.

The swing bridge was just opening and there were crowds of people waiting to cross.

We caught the bus back to Pickering.

I think the driver was quite new, he missed our stop and dropped us off quite a way down the road. Fortunately we could cut across to the campsite, past some fields of roses.

Later we had pizza for dinner.