Summer, June break.

Started off as a very warm and sunny summer, warm enough for us, we were able to stick to the UK. First stop was the Pembrokeshire coast, St Davids. The campsite was pretty good as a point for walking and cycling with a little geocaching off course.
This holliday turned out to be a bit of a twitching / boating break, with a visit to the Isle of Ramsay an RSPB reserve. On there we caught a fleeting glimpse of a Manx Shearwater and a pair of Choughs. We extended our visit with a boat trip around the Island which was quite exciting. We were quite taken aback by the attituded of the walkes we met whilst out and about, blanking you or not even relpying when greeted, guess they were just cold southerners.
Went fishing off a rocky point in Whitesands bay, no luck.

RSPB Ramsay

We left South Wales and headed for The Norfolk broads but not before calling of in that there London for a few nights, this was one of our better ideas and we will do it again when the opertunity arises. Visited the The Natural History Museum, mostly looking at the minerals collection, on to the Saatche Gallery and took an open top bus tour, again an aquatic flavour as we took a boat trip down the Thames to Grenwich where we has a pub lunch before heading back to the campsite. Managed a geocaching walk along the river taking in The Tower of London & Tower bridge.

Saatchi Gallery

Another day visit and we did the tourist thing, Trafalar Square, Buchingham Palace and the Houses of Parliment.After trying to muscle in on the TV interview with Michael Fallon outside the Houses of Parliment, I spotted John Prescott, I did ask him if it was ok for the photo but he got a little upset when I complemented his work on ‪#‎HIGNFY‬. After that I went around seeing how many tourist photos I could photobomb until Di told me off !

John at the Houses of Parliment.

Then off again and on to the Norfolk Broads, somewhere we had both always fancied visiting, a bit flat and boring for my tastes but we hired a boat for the day and had lots of fun with that.

Diane driving the boat.

 
It was all pretty enough, great for walking and the bikes but dont think I would go again. Had a day out at Great Yarmouth, fishing off the pier and caught 3 whiting, a first for me.

The Norfolk Broads

 
The long hot spell was broken by thunder and lightning storms but only at night, never spoiling our days. We returned home calling in to see the kids on the way, I went to the South Gare off Redcar and caught a couple of good sized Mackerel. Di was eager to get back and pick up Princess ?

Altandhu and Skye, again.

Cul Mor from Stac Polly

The first two weeks of my summer break was spent on the Coigach peninsula and Skye, The Inverpoly area is stunning an area that warrants more exploration. I was staying at the Port A Bhaigh Campsite, Altandhu, the people who run the site also have the pub across the road and serves some fantastic food, its well onto the peninsula but well worth the drive. The site its self over looks the Summer Isles and is fairly basic but new and clean.
One of the climbs I wanted to do was Stac Pollaidh or Stac Polly for short a small hill with an intimidating looking top, It commands great views of the Inverpoly National Nature reserve, when you can get them, to that end I climbed it twice as the first time it had too much cloud on top.
The whole area is designated a Geopark due to is geology, I had a visit to the Inchnadamph Bone Caves, where bones, teeth and antler from a wide array of animals were found, such as the Northern Lynx, bones of arctic lemming, arctic fox, wolf and brown bear and it is thought a polar bear, as well as human. Once at the caves I managed to see a herd of deer and a Peregrine that was nesting above the caves.
The drive back to the campsite via Lochinver was not uneventful, with a storm over the area with thunder and lightening, so much so that it plunged a wide area into an electrical blackout, this proved a problem as I was in real need of fuel, in the end I had to chance the drive back to camp with the fuel light on, the was fuel close to Altandhu.
Then I moved on for a couple of nights at Poolewe, the the main reason to photograph and geocache at the foot of An Teallach, a great little walk and practise for my next visit and hopefully to tackle the mountain itself.
Skye and back to the Camping and caravan club site a great little site, I was going to go to the one at Glen Brittle for a couple of night but in the end just decided to stay here.
Early on I visited Portree and The Braes, It didn't look that great for being high on the hills, low cloud, so this kept me in the sun, did a few caches.
Finally got to walk on the Quiraing did a great circuit up around the top and returning through it, there is now a burger bar here, the noise of the genny kept with me for a good while, but people have to make a living.

The Fairy Pools.

Looking at the weather I decided that this was an ideal day for the type of images I was hoping to make around the fairy pools, in Glen Brittle. Went along to what I always thought were "The Fairy Pools", I had been before, stopping at a system of small falls and pools then decided to explore further up, it was then I discovered they weren't the actual "Pools", finding the real ones, a much more comprehensive and exciting system. 
On my last day on Skye I decided to have a go at a mountain called Sgurr nan Gilliean, I got up a little too late to really take this on, I worked out I was only about 300 meters from the top, when I gave up, but that was all scrambling and I haven't had a great deal of scrambling experience.  So for future reference, 1, need to get some scrambling done and 2. get up earlier when you plan a walk. I was so knackered the following day I set off home as I couldn't have got very far walking. And try to write this blog up at the end of each day.

Easter Fortnight.

Valley of Rocks.

In an attempt to gain better weather for our Easter break we decided to go South, Devon or Cornwall was on the cards for a possible summer trip but we changed our plans pulling it forward, so off to North Devon. We even managed to squeeze an extra day into our plan and took the opportunity to drop in Morton Hall again on the way down, got in a few local geocaches before retiring to the Stable bar for one of there loverly meals. 

Maybe it will be the last visit here, on reading the booking confirmation email, a little later once booked in, I saw they had wanted to charge £3 for Felix the cat who travels with us, can not understand why as he takes no advantage of any of the facilities on the campsite and bring his own cat litter. 

After sleeping later than intended we set off for Hayfield,a long drive, a sneaky little multi-cache right outside the campsite satisfied us for that day and off to The Sportsman, an inn serving very good food, fine ales and our friend Tom works there. 
North Devon was our next stop for a whole week stopping at 

Umberliegh, weather wasn't the best but not the snow they had back in Scotland. Explored a little of Exmoor, Exeter, along with an interesting area called Valley of Rocks and a village called West Down where someone has laid 105 geocaches along the west down way. Needless to say we didn't attempt to go for them all, but did manage 21 a record for us for one day. 
Heading back up North we called in at Formby nr Liverpool, stopped on a friends drive and visited the beach, there we did an earthcache where we had to find some prehistoric mudflats at low tide, this ephemeral  fossil had the foot prints of ancient people and animals. Final stop off on the way home was Moffat, meeting up with the kids, who were once more staying at St Marys loch. We all went for a walk up the Grey Mares Tail falls to Loch Skeen, once there I decided to leave the group and go on to a high terrain geocache, avoiding yet more snow however the uplands of Scotland are arctic. We also found the cache that we had looked for exactly one year earlier and quite easily, as is often said by all in the geocaching game, sure I'd looked there before.
From now on I must try to write posts for the blog more timely.

New acquisition.

Suzuki, Vitara, Fatboy.

Bought this Jeep off Ebay, a little project to cleanup and do up, something that can be used generally to take me out and about, locally so as to not rely on the motorhome.