Woke up this morning and watched the mists clearing over Loch Carron. Very beautiful there 🙂
The plan was to head towards Inverness and stop at the first campsite we found with hook up, showers, internet signal and laundrette. We found one at Ardleve which was run on a curious basis where you find a pitch and settle in and they come round each evening to collect payment. Showers are 50p coin operated, electric hook up also on coin meter, loos and wash up free. It was right on the shores of the loch and very pretty. I had loads of signal but the price for the night was not to be found anywhere and we only had limited cash. Ady talked to a woman in a caravan there who said she *thought* it was £10 a night but wasn’t sure. After some debate we decided to carry on and find somewhere with a laundrette.
That turned out to be the wrong decision really as nothing turned up for the next 10 miles or so and Ady and I got more cross with each other as he thought I should have researched a campsite while I was online last night and I was trying to explain researching the sort of little campsites we want is tricky and time consuming and I had limited online time so didn’t want to waste it doing that. We decided to turn round and go back and then realised we’d missed a campsite while arguing so pulled in there to check it out. Signal was good, showers free, hook up on tap and CDP / drinking water all easy. Price was £16 so we went for it.
There is no laundrette, although for £5 a load they will take washing away between 10am and 1pm and wash and dry it for you in their own machine. We have about 3 loads though and I feel slightly odd about handing over all my dirty washing to a stranger to be dealt with so we’ll hang on and find a laundrette in the next couple of days.
The man running the site (and the petrol station and shop and previously presumably the restaurant which is currently closed) is really friendly and the site is very laid back with no rules about time to be off in the morning etc. He took time with us to show a few nice walks on a map nearby.
Once plugged in, set up and fed we went for a walk up one of the footpaths the man had pointed out – lovely views, naturally 🙂
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We spent ages talking about what we want to do next – we’ve been compiling a list of what our priorities are in finding somewhere to live. Everyone gets to add their personal ones and then we use them to help decide. So far we have view, woodland, water (beach, loch, river), land to grow. The kids were talking about animals – we have said we will get a dog when we have a home and will definitely get cats again aswell as chickens and ducks. Davies has been talking about falconry for a while which is something Ady is also quite interested in so we were discussing that too. We were talking about what we’ve all learnt this year and what we’ll miss about this existance when we eventually settle and what we’re looking forward to about having a home again. We all agree we are loving this part of the adventure and there is a definite temptation to do more travelling like this I think. I’ve been having email chats with Vikki, who has been WWOOFing with her family for 6 months but goes back to work tomorrow and it’s great having someone to talk to who has had such a similar experience to ours.
Back at the campsite the kids sat in the van playing and watching some Rolf Harris stuff on Youtube. They are currently in the throes of a Rolf obsession so we’ve been listening to lots of his songs and Ady had been telling them about Cartoon Time so found them some old shows to watch. They adored that – Tom & Jerry, Rolf Harris *and* drawing lessons! 🙂 Ady and I sat in the sunshine and drank cider and caught up online. I now have all the photos flickr’d, secret santas allocated, all blogs up to date and stuff to visit for the coming week researched.
It got cold when the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west – about 5pm, so we came in and got dinner sorted, cheesy bacon pasta bake. The kids watched Swiss Family Robinson which we’d read the abridged version of earlier this week and they really enjoyed and then Ady and Davies watched PotC4 together while Scarlett DSd. Davies has been desperate to watch it with Ady since he got it at Rosemarkie. It did make for a very late bedtime all round but I’m sure we’ll catch up tomorrow when we’re back on headtorches and limited power again.