louisa_ :)May 17

Just back from our annual spring trip to #Scotland - 8 days on the west coast of in the van with @johnl and Rosey Bean. Had a fab time as always.

We started on the Cowal Peninsula, with the intention of getting the ferry from Portavadie to Campbeltown on Kintyre but ferry shenanigans meant we ended up driving around instead. We made a day of it, with a nice lunch & multiple dog walks in various patches of woodland, finishing with a beach walk at Machrihanish.

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The next day, after popping in Campbeltown for supplies, we took the ferry over to the isle of #Gigha - and gosh, it was lovely. One day, we explored the little bays of the north coast and swam on both sides of the Twin Beaches tombolo (one side was considerably warmer than the other); then explored the south end the next day (gorgeous). My one regret of the trip is not swimming more on Gigha - but Rosey made the most of the still, clear bays.

Definitely would like to go back.

Show threadlouisa_ :)May 17
After returning from Gigha, we spent the next two days slowly pottering up the peninsula. We didn't see the beavers at Knapdale but we saw their cartoonish handiwork. I bobbed into the woods at Achnabreac Forest to wee and found myself surrounded by magical lichen. We climbed around rocky bays and gazed out to sea.
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After that, we went over to the Slate Islands, just south of Oban, for a couple of nights. We stayed on Seil but walked from the ferry to Cullipool in Luing, then took the tiny passenger ferry over to Easdale to explore over there. A fascinating landscape, dotted with former, now flooded, slate quarries.

We also went out on a catamaran from Ellenabeich to loop around the isle of Scarba and pass through the Corryvreckan area. We didn't see any whirlpools but had a great (if cold!) time anyway.

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Then we headed away from the coast for a night on Loch Fyne, an afternoon on a boat on Loch Goil/Loch Long (where we were carefully watched by MOD patrol boats...), and a wander & night at Luss on Loch Lomond. Rosey was a little scared on the boat at first but eventually went to sleep. She definitely prefers being *in* the water than on it 🤣 We couldn't get her out of the river at Luss - as if she knew it would be her last water time of the holiday.
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Finally, we stopped into Glasgow for brunch on the way back. We had great food at Scran and Rosey sprinted at full speed around the Green - then we got chatting to some dog walkers who told us to get the hell out of town ASAP because Celtic were about to win the championship and ... yeah. On the way back to the van, we inadvertently ended up wandering through what would soon be the epicentre of the celebrations: the riot cordons/many lingering police were quite a change from our previous week 🤣
May 17 at 12:17pmTusky
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All in all, we had a fantastic holiday. We ended up with much better weather than had been forecast, though the constant cold wind put us off swimming as much as we would have liked.

We met lots of lovely people/dogs and there was even a cat holidaying on one of the campsites: a beautiful bengal being taken for walks on a lead.

The beauty of Gigha and the Slate Islands was a delight: the types of beaches and landscapes that we usually have to travel much further to see. Recommend!