Friday 30th June 2023

It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to drive there, via the Asda in Bearsden to pick up some food.

Unfortunately, the beautiful weather we’d been having had decided to give up, so it was a return to traditional Scottish weather.

We arrived at the site, it’s almost at the end of the road on the east-shore of Loch Lomond, and the last bit is through some quite nice scenery.

For the first time in the year we’ve owned the van, we didn’t leave the van and go for a walk after we arrived, the rain was battering down, at least that was keeping the dark clouds of midges away.

It’s a nice site, right on the loch side, and we were pretty level (after we’d hopped up on to our levellers).

There’s a large tent section at the site, with good facilities for the hordes of West Highland Way walkers.

I cooked dinner in the van, and we watched some TV and went to bed fairly early.

Saturday morning, it was Scottish weather dialled to 11, every 10 minutes, it alternated between rain, wind, and sunshine.

We decided to walk into Balmaha, just as we were leaving, it started battering down with rain, we opted to brave it, and it didn’t last long, so we wandered down the West Highland Way into Balmaha.

The Tom Weir memorial rest is a nice wee spot, with a bit of history about the man himself, I remember “Weir’s Way” vaguely from when I was young, and I’ve seen a few episodes of it since then (they’re available on the STV player).

The ferry to Inchailloch was off, due to the wind and “low water levels” which was a shame.

Balmaha Visitor Centre was really interesting too, I liked their camping advice and history of the area, worth dropping into.

We had lunch in the Old Oak Inn, very, very nice, I had their “Jimmy Krankie” pizza which was amazing, along with a local Conic Hill beer from the local “Conic Brewing company”, and Gayle had mac and cheese, I think I won lunch this time.

We walked back, and as we got round to Milarrochy Bay, there was a boat stuck on the beach, it looked like it’d broken free of its anchor point in the wind, the wind and sun alternating continued on the journey back.

One nice thing, it was too windy for Midges, either that, or my Smidge did work, as I didn’t get a single bite.

We spent our evening resting, reading and listening to an audio book, and watching a bit of TV, nicely relaxing.

The Panda Topper is getting a bit better, we’re keeping it for now…

Up early on the Sunday morning, and we set off in the rain to drive home via Balloch, there was a food market on, we got lucky, the rain stayed mostly off, and Balloch was beautiful in the sun.

We had delicious sausages from a stall, and wandered around the bay, a nice way to finish off a relaxing weekend.