Friday 4th April 2025

The weather had been good this week and, whilst it wasn’t expected to be as warm this weekend, we were really looking forward to our stay at Lomond Woods campsite in Balloch. We’ve been to Balloch a few times recently on day trips and have really enjoyed it each time.

We got away a bit later then expected due to work calls running on, but we were still on the road in plenty of time and were pitched up on pitch 74 and ready for a walk through town by 5.30pm.

It is so good having extra daylight in the evening. For me it makes pitching up easier but it also gives us more options to explore when we arrive on a site rather then simply turning on the TV and settling down for the night.

We wandered through Balloch and decided that we should find somewhere for dinner and keep our planned in-van meal for the Saturday night. We liked the look of the menu at the Tullie Inn but, unfortunately, they were fully booked so we had to move on see what other options there were. As we continued up the main street, we came to Mavi, a restaurant that specialised in Turkish cuisine.

I ordered a Thatchers Gold cider and Kevin went for a Bellhaven Best, whilst looking through the menu. For food, I enjoyed halloumi fries with a sweet chilli dip followed by a chicken shawarma calzone and Kevin opted for sucuk (Turkish garlic sausage) & halloumi to start and then an ottoman calzone, which was the same as mine with added kebab meat.

I enjoyed my starter but Kevin’s was definitely the winner - the sucuk was delicious. The calzones were good, a nice consistency of dough and plenty of filling … in fact so much filling that I couldn’t quite finish mine!

After dealing with our hunger we wandered on to the nearby co-op to pick up some milk for our morning cuppa and a few other bits & bobs, and then headed back to the van and spent some time reading before having an early night.

Saturday 5th April 2025

When we woke up on Saturday morning it was quite chilly so we put the heating on and started organising breakfast - cherry yoghurt with a delicious red fruits and chocolate granola (one of our favourite van breakfasts), orange juice and tea for me and coffee for Kevin.

We were expecting that the farmers market would be on at Lomond Shores on Sunday but we were pleasantly surprised that there was actually a Springfest Food & Drink Festival on all weekend so we were going to start our day with a walk to Lomond Shores to check that out and then continue on along the river walk for a bit.

It was a bitterly cold morning due to the biting wind but the sun was out and overall it was a pleasant walk. The festival set-up at Lomond Shores was very impressive with plenty of the usual farmers market type stalls but also lots of different food trucks covering a varied selection of different food options. There were also several small amusement rides to keep younger kids happy so it was going to be a good family friendly experience for visitors. We enjoyed a walk around to see what there was and agreed that we would be back later in the day to pick up some goodies and maybe also have some lunch depending on where we ended up on our walk.

We found our way down onto the river path that skirts along the River Leven and planned a walk that would bring us to the Lomond Brewery. Along the path there are bonded whisky sites either side of the river and the whisky fungus [Baudoinia Compniacensis] that is given off by the ‘angel’s share’ was evident on the warehouses and buildings but most evidently from the trees along the riverside that were completely black with furry growths on the bare branches - first time we’ve seen this and I was shocked at how completely the trees had been covered and the large distance that it covered.

We took a quick detour off the path to Alexandria to get some drinks and cough medicine for Kevin, which I duly dropped as he was trying to take it from me on the walk back to the path and as it was a glass bottle it completely shattered … oh well, £9.10 straight into the bin.

We continued along the path, enjoying the walk and then headed into Renton to find the bridge that would take us over the river and towards the brewery which is situated in the middle of a large industrial estate. We arrived at the brewery at 12pm with excited expectations of a cold drink and pub snack waiting for us and were surprised to find it shut. Huh … a quick check online confirmed that it didn’t open until 2pm on a Saturday, so we hadn’t planned that very well!

We considered our options and decided to head to the train station in Renton and get the next train to Balloch (a quick 6 minute journey) and go pick up some lunch at Lomond Shores. The train was busy with people heading to enjoy Loch Lomond for the day but we managed to get a seat and were back in Balloch in no time.

We took the woodland path round to Lomond Shores and after I made use of the facilities we wandered around checking out the different food options and settled on a food truck selling salt & pepper chicken & fries - we got a salt & pepper box (S&P chicken pieces and fries with onions & peppers, with garlic sauce) and a sweet chilli chicken wrap with garlic sauce and S&P chips and found a space for a seat in amongst the market stalls and enjoyed both split between us - very nice indeed!

We had a look around the stalls and picked up some scones (apple & cinnamon and cranberry & white chocolate) with tubs of cream & jams from the Zest Cafe stall, 3 slabs of fudge (creme egg, cherry bakewell & Dubai pistachio) from the Finest Fudge Company, some Ayrshire Cider from Ayrshire Riviera Cider and 4 cocktail cans from Angels Dare Cocktails - quite an impressive haul and I’m really looking forward to having the cocktails based on the small samples I tried.

Kevin had ordered a spring-loaded rail for us to use in the van to keep stuff in place when we are travelling and he had the notification that it had been delivered to the post office counter in the co-op so we headed there to pick it up along with some replacement cough syrup for Kevin.

Now that we were fully loaded, we headed back to the van and set up our table & chairs outside to have a drink and a bit of relaxing time. Kevin is reading A Handbook of Scotland’s Coasts which he’s recommended so I’m looking forward to having a read myself sometime. I’ve just finished reading the Salt Path (enjoyable but didn’t wow me) and I’m now starting Where The Crawdads Sing, which I’m really enjoying and know I will get through in no time.

Kevin was tired so headed in for an afternoon nap & I braved the cold (our pitch was in the shade & the wind was still very cold & strong) for a bit longer and then decided to go in and sit in a seat at the front and continue with my book in a more comfortable temperature.

When Kevin woke up we caught up with some videos from our You Tube favourites and eventually got on with dinner when we were hungry. We had brought a Tesco Chinese chicken stir-fry with us which Kevin cooked up outside on the ridgemonkey burner and then heated up a packet of egg-fried rice to accompany it - we don’t have a microwave in the new van to heat the rice but a quick bit of heat in a pan with a dash of water to keep it hydrated worked fine.

Dinner was very tasty and we put on an episode of the Expanse (first episode of season 2) but stopped it early as it was a double episode and it was getting late and our bed was calling!

Saturday 5th April 2025

On Sunday morning we were up fairly early and headed into Balloch for some breakfast.

Most places were closed and we were regretting not pre-booking the traditional Turkish breakfast for two at Mavi.

We wandered back to the pub-hotel across from the campsite, Queen of the Loch but, after being initially happy because there was plenty of free tables, we were informed that breakfast was not being served to non-residents, so we headed back into town again.

Fortunately, Cucina opened at 10am and we were straight in as soon as the sign was turned to open. We both opted for sourdough toast with black pudding and poached egg which was very tasty and Kevin was also impressed with his cup of coffee.

We really enjoyed our time in Balloch, and now set off on the short journey home leaving the best of the weather behind us.