Camping at Loch Tay

Sooo, I know I said I'll try to post every Sunday, but I thought I'd throw in an extra post because today I also published a Facebook page and it's all new and exciting and we went camping last weekend.

Day 1

The plan was to get up early and leave early on Friday morning, but, because of my faffing about, it didn't happen. We planned to drive to Loch Tay and find a spot to wild camp there (because that is the best way to camp). It is a VERY long loch, with VERY few spots to wild camp, specifically two. After driving around the whole thing roughly 1.5 times we finally settled on a spot and it was actually really pretty.

But then a bunch of loud, and soon drunk, fishermen showed up and took the spot next to us. We like people, but not right next to us and not while we're camping. So we just sat there in the dark, because it was too damp to make a fire, mumbling and raging at the fishermen because they had no sense of personal space.

There was, however, a super exciting and friendly duck. He figured out that if he got close enough and hung around, I couldn't resist his charms and would feed him a constant stream of bread. I named him Albert. Or Alfred. I'm not really sure. Paul just went along with it.

Day 2

The next day we tried to get up and leave the tent reasonably early, but of course it didn't happen (again). Around midday we finally got to a town called Killin. We needed to buy bread because I'd fed everything we brought to the ducks (a bunch of them showed up and hung around with Albert / Alfred). There was a marathon / half marathon / 10k run happening (I'm not sure which). There were lots of happy people and lots of really great dogs. We then made our way to Ben Lawers. Fun fact, the main walk up the hill actually involved two munros - Beinn Ghlas (1103m) and Ben Lawers (1214m). I thought I was going to die, as per usual, but the views at the top weren't half bad.

I think my favourite bit was having a lie down on lovely soft moss on the way back. When we came back to the tent we were knackered, but managed to get a fire going. The fishermen were loud again.

Day 3

The weather was nice and we went to the Falls of Acharn. They were really pretty. We took a different path back and found a nice little playground in town. We tried all the swingy and climby things and I found out my bottom was too large for the kids' swing. Then Paul stepped into dog poo and I had to get it off his boot with a stick.

We got back to the tent and decided to walk 3 miles to Killin to go the pub. I suggested we should move there and changed my mind five minutes later because it was too full of tourists. The pub was called The Falls of Dochart. They had an ale named after the pub (or the actual falls, which were right across the street) and it was pretty good. The pub itself was really cool and there were two great dogs there. They were hidding under tables, though, and we didn't see them until we moved seats twice.

I may have been slightly tipsy after we left the pub and I got terrible hiccups. When I was little my mum told me that you could get rid of them standing in a swallow's pose, i.e. on one leg with your arms up in the air. So I was doing that on the side of the ride, while having a heart-to-heart with Paul and cars driving by. I'm sure they enjoyed the view. When we came back to the tent the fishermen were gone and instead of them there was a great couple with an even greater dog. The guy helped us start our fire. I think his name was Allan, but I could be wrong.

Day 4

I started off the next morning feeling a bit fragile. But it was sunny, the loch looked beautiful and the ducks were back. We slowly packed up and drove home. We made a coffee stop in Aberfeldy. I decided I want to move there.

Okay bye!