Saturday 4th September
Destination: Arrochar
Day 2 of the camper_versions tour sees us waking up to the day around 8am and after a shower and breakfast, we decide to go for a walk around the Loch. Most of it is surrounded by the local golf course, but there is a public footpath that takes you around to the halfway point.
Golfers are already in play and we notice a big red warning sign: ‘Please be aware of errant golf balls’. Keeping our eyes out for any rogue golf balls flying past our heads, we continue along the path which eventually took us onto a country road. As we headed back to the small village of Lochmaben, we began to notice a variety of interesting buildings with lots of peculiarities.
We saw many buildings with Scottish gable ends with a stepped structure to them. We also saw a preserved Georgian town house with the original front door and sash windows. Another Georgian building appears but this one has a curved corner and is home to a local hair salon.
Across the road is a tall, thin sandstone structure with a plaque which has ‘Mercat Cross – Late 15th century’ engraved on it. At the top, there’s a square section where we noticed there was an ancient sundial on two of the sides. On another house, we noticed an unusual drainpipe. Instead of it flowing underground, this drainpipe flowed into a raised, metal square. From here, the water is carried in a metal channel across the footpath and into the road gutter.
This walk certainly proved to be the ideal route for local sightseeing!
When we arrived back at the campsite, we started chatting to a fellow VW camper. She told us she had been campervanning for several years and shared with us her top tips for anyone venturing into the word of campervanning:
- Choose the right bedding – bedding can take up a lot of room, so be sure to choose duvets that are warm, light and compact. Our fellow camper recommended a Night Owl 10.5 tog duvet and if you’re sleeping on a ¾ Rock & Roller bed, you’ll only need a single.
- Shop around for your cab covers – silver thermal screens can consume valuable storage space, so shop around for more compact cab covers. Our fellow camper bought a UK Custom Cover SW190 Luxury Front Windscreen Wrap from Amazon.
After lunch, we leave Kirk Loch Caravan Park and rejoin the motorway, heading towards Glasgow. We’re now in the Scottish Lowlands with majestic rolling hills slowly passing by. The weather is being kind to us today with temperatures around 16 degrees, no wind and more importantly, no rain!
After passing through a slow section on the outskirts of Glasgow, we eventually crossed over the River Clyde via the Erskine Bridge. We soon reach the banks of Loch Lomond and the scenery steadily becomes more mountainous. As we’re driving along, we spot some high crags in the distance which is too much of a good photo opportunity to miss! So we pull over in the next lay-by. We take our photo and we notice an outdoor postbox on the front gate of a house. This wasn’t any ordinary postbox as it was a genuine, vintage Scottish postbox with a Scottish stag on the top. It was unique and unusual to see.
A quick pitstop later, we head for Arrochar where we find our next campsite nestled in a wooded area where we arrive at our spot and get ourselves set up. When we’re settled, we dig-in to our evening meal of stewed steak, boiled potatoes and green beans, all cooked on our 2-burner gas cooker. It was certainly much more comforting than our previous meal of supermarket sandwiches!
After dinner, we go for an evening stroll towards Loch Long. We saw a funny restaurant name; ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ which made us chuckle. Whilst on our walk, we see in the distance the high hills are snow capped with low clouds, giving a tranquil end to the day.
