Smoke me a kipper i'll be back for breakfast -

After alot of trawling the internet we finally found a campsite that had room for us for a few days respite and welcome change of scenary - we really wanted to go up to Dumfries and Galloway but just couldnt find a site open or with room so we extended our search to Wales - no joy and then started on the peak district - nothing - east coast - rammed and finally we resigned ourselves to more garden time and a real staycation in our own house - we even measured for carpets thinking we might just crack on with redecorating the dining room..... and then a random campsite we had contacted on line answered our email and we booked four days at Balloch O Dee, a farm campsite near Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway - so a day wasted chasing the bloomin interweb but a result!!!!!

It was a very nice camping as well - Although it got busy and the pitches were as spacious as the Solway view so it was noisy but still not too big, nice facilities, a bit quirky - lots of hens and quite a large number of dogs - friendly owner and best of all a fire pit!!! It has currently become my new favourite camping - although I am fickle but anywhere that allows a fire is always high on my list. the weather was favourable - at least for the first two nights when we sat out enjoying glorious scottish evenings with a hearty fire slowly smoking ourselves to rival any smoke house product... amazing clear skies and wonderful milky way... extra bonus - NO MIDGES!!! We had very good days walking the coastal paths - sadly neglected and very over grown so quite intrepid in placed but still passable - although some of the gorse was well over our heads!!! Lots of beach trawling and toe dipping - the weather did eventually catch up with us but we enjoyed laying in the van listening to the storm raging and the rain on the roof - its been a while since we were able to do that for real - not just inthe back yard!

We managed to take advantage of the eat out to help our scheme - fish and chips in Portpatrick and very fab steak sandwiches in the Steam Packet in the Isle of Whithorn. I spent an afternoon sketching in Port Logan under wild skies and we had a pleasant morning mulling the never changing bookshops in Wigtown. For some unknown reason we had never wandered away from the village centre so this time we followed the signs for the old harbour and we delighted to find a lovely walk which included the martyrs grave and most sinisterly the Wigtown martyrs stake where the Solway martyrs Margaret Lachlan and Margaret Wilson who were Scottish Covenanters were executed by Scottish Episcopalians in 1685 by tying them to the stake on the towns mudflats and allowing the drown with the rising tide - interesting what you can discover in the backstreets of small scottish towns...

Another back 'lane' discovery - in the middle of nowhere down a lane (with grass in the middle) not nearly a high road or even a B road we found a beautiful sculptured bush perfectly cut to display a bird - attached was a wee plaque saying simply Sams Bird...

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

verdant lushness

Its a never ending island hop... today we hopped of the boat at Kingstown, on the island St. Vincents and Grenadine. Once through the usual port duty free - cheap booze and diamonds to go milarkey we were straight into the town... crazy noisy smelly chaos... refreshingly no tat shops for tourists, just local markets and street traders all vying for local sales. Music blasting from everywhere, cars (very battered and often very pimped) all over the roads - parked in the middle of the street, loading, unloading, chatting seemingly oblivious to the total traffic jam caused behind them... We walked through this mayhem - the temperatures were rising probably about 30 degrees - tourists evident by trying to walk on the shady side of the street - even when we turned off the main drag and there were less people it was still like carnival time with music blasting everywhere. Its very atmospheric and mostly promotes a good vibe although I have heard '3 little birds' everywhich way a...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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