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Day 3 – To Tarbet, Loch Lomond

29th April

Sociable morning discussing books with my neighbour in her Transporter.

Just 3 miles down the single track road to Loch Trool and Bruce’s Stone car park, and headed up Merrick (though I think locals refer to it as The Merrick). Good day out, though once onto the ridge snow showers were frequent, and the 3 or 4 degrees feel more like several below with the northerly wind. Not a day for lengthy breaks..

Chatted with a couple of regular hill walkers from Ayr on the way down. Very few people around, on what I expect is a well-trodden path usually at this time of year.

There’s a bitty a couple of miles from the car park, and a group of lads from Bristol were staying there; crossed paths with them on the steep section just after the both, in their plimsolls and safari shirts. They are up, as a few are, because the Covid rules in Scotland are more lax than in England (all accommodation is open).

Back to van about 3.15 pm, and drove up further north, via the Ayr coast, where I needed to pick up a click and collect, passing Trump Turnbury, with its immaculate white frontage. A section of that very pleasant coast which just doesn’t fit the rest of it.

A bit slow through west of Glasgow at rush hour, but onto A82 soon enough, and Loch Lomond soon after. This is a place that I’ve always avoided, with its crowded beaches and roads, but it’s wonderfully quiet at the moment. I’m using the ‘searchforsites’ website which is proving to be very accurate and useful. I stopped at Tarbet pier which looks across the Loch and Ben Lomond, spectacular views in the late evening sun, and just a smattering of other campervans, all quietly sociable. I had a Welsh Munro collector a couple of places to the right in his small self-converted yellow van, and a boiler technician and his red fox lab (just about to come into season..) to the left, 10 metres or so apart, so plenty of room.