Falkirk and the Trossachs

Leaving Edinburgh

Fri.13^th Sept :  After taking till midnight to write up the blog, I couldn’t then get to sleep for the best part of some time, going over and over the walk from the castle to Boot’s, trying to figure out how and when my cash was stolen.  It did me no good, I’ll never know…I did eventually fall asleep but slept for only a few hours and while Mike was doing the blog photos after breakfast and showers, I walked in the misty rain to the village post office and to the ATM to extract more cash as I was now broke.  It was midday before we ‘broke’ camp and headed west from Edinburgh towards The Trossachs.  On the way there we paid a visit to and experienced the wonder of the Falkirk Wheel, the World’s first and only rotating boat lift, an awe inspiring 35 metre high structure…see www.falkirkwheel.co.uk for more info.

After spending a couple of hours at the Wheel, we continued on to Aberfoyle, the Gateway to The Trossachs.  Our camp was about 3 miles down the road and after the long day we had yesterday, we both enjoyed a lazy late afternoon and evening.

Sat.14^th Sept :  It was cold this morning, 6 degrees at 6.30am but the sun shone for an hour or two.  We went into Aberfoyle, a lovely little town which was rather busy, mostly at the Woollen Mill Shop by the green where a farmer was putting his border collie through his paces, rounding up a gaggle of geese and then a few random sheep, which was very entertaining.

 The sun was still shining as we drove around the lakes, Achray, Katrine, Venachar and Lubnaig, enjoying the gorgeous scenery and then just after driving through Strathyre, we noticed in the oncoming traffic a car towing a caravan which was encroaching on to our side of the road, didn’t move over and although we were on our side of the road he clipped Boris’s side mirror which shattered when it knocked against the passenger side window.  So now we have a side mirror held in place by duct tape until we can find a replacement and being a weekend, that is not likely to be easy.

We continued on past Loch Earn to the scenic village of Killin and the Falls of Dochart,

where we also chanced upon a wedding

before carrying on towards the west coast, passing Loch Lubhair and Loch Awe on our way to Oban, a very popular and busy town through which we drove to the camp site at Gallanach, a few miles down a narrow road.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is not good, with rain and extremely strong winds predicted (60mph) so we plan to leave early to have a wander around Oban before heading south to see what we can see before we have to find a safe haven.