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Cruising time for the young bright lights (of Broadgait!?). A great night out last night at Fringe By The Sea to see the Boomtown Rats and wow! - what a performer and showman Bob Geldof still is, 50 years on from when they started playing this stuff. They opened and closed with my first single as a twelve year old - Rat Trap - and the standard never dropped. It was fun also to meet Andrew and Rosie, by chance, again, as per last year at The Stranglers.
We took our first foreign jaunt in the campervan looking for great walking in the Alps together with a good, old-fashioned road-trip. The journey delivered both, taking in France, Switzerland and Italy. Despite our adage of "always follow the weather", we inadvertently ran into an extreme hot weather system building in central Europe. Our van is well equipped for dealing with cold weather but, like most campervans, is not well suited to excessive night time heat. This meant that rather than focusing on off-grid overnights as we'd intended to do, we were inclined to seek out campsites with swimming pools whenever possible in order to cool down. Heat aside, the weather was wonderful from start to finish and the campsites we did use were all fantastic and very reasonably priced and we loved the late afternoon and early morning swims.
We’d always wanted to visit the Outer Hebrides and a campervan is the best way to do it. With a few days booked off coinciding with an exceptional weather forecast, in a place not known for long spells of fine weather, it felt like the chance of a lifetime. And so it proved. We sailed from Oban to Barra and toured Vatersay, Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist, wandering to the highest points on most. We’d hoped to return home via North Uist and Skye but Calmac ferry problems meant our only possible route home was back again via Barra to Oban. There are worse places to retrace your steps though. We were lucky enough to enjoy unbroken sunny days throughout in the lands of big beaches and even bigger sunsets. We camped, off-grid, in different locations each night, each one seemingly more spectacular than the last.
A somewhat melancholy club flyout to Gigha and for some, Mull, taking advantage of the exceptional weather conditions. We were travelling very light this time so no camera (regretfully) but here are a handful of mobile phone snaps.
A final two night tester trip before we attempt a proper holiday in the van.
I think this was a day trip to Gigha though half it passed me by in a bit of a blur due to a minor family drama (eventually averted).
Coldingham to Eyemouth to Coldingham to St Abbs to Coldingham.
Trying out a new (to us) destination and well worth it for the fine farm shop/cafe.
A colourful golden hour wander.
Took the maw to see The Kelpies.
Another one night trip away in the van because the weather is still so spectacular.
Our first two nighter testing the van, wandering around the Killiecrankie and Pitlochry area in warm early spring sunshine. The leisure battery didn't drop below 85% which was impressive.
A second test night away in the van. Everything coming together well and we now have a fridge, a stove and a toilet - useful upgrades from last week and all worked beautifully.
A reasonably local one-nighter to do snagging on the van build. All proved superb with only a few very minor tweaks to do on returning. A terrific opener.
Starting with a VW van and hoping to turn it into a campervan.
Annual skiing trip with James, to Les Menuires again this time.
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