Our plan was to journey to Largs at present, for the following stage of our Scottish Summer time journey: a crusing vacation, very similar to we did final 12 months. However earlier than we took the two-hour drive north, we went for one final mountain bike trip at Glentrool.
A number of the routes at Glentrool are brief sufficient for us to take George with us. He might come on the longer rides, too, however – being a Springer spaniel – he has no self-limitation on the subject of train and can simply hold going and going, to some extent that’s most likely greater than is nice for him!
So, as a substitute, we simply did a brief trip and let him cool off within the river afterwards.
The river right here is called the Water of Minnoch. It’s very picturesque at this level because it cascades via the rocks, earlier than meandering its approach southwards to hitch the River Cree. There are areas each above and under the falls which are widespread with wild swimmers, although we resisted temptation on this event.
George wasn’t going to have the ability to be part of us on the following stage of our journey (canines aren’t allowed on the boat), however we had deliberate forward utilizing the web site rover.com to determine a canine sitter near Largs who might take care of him for the 5 days that we’d be crusing. It’s like an airbnb for canines and our chosen host’s critiques have been all good, and communication had been glorious too, so we felt assured within the alternative we had made. The great thing about doing it this manner additionally was that George had been in a position to be part of for at the very least a few of the vacation, fairly than us placing him into kennels again house for what would have been the most effective a part of two weeks. He would additionally take pleasure in extra private care by being in somebody’s house fairly than a kennels.
Entry to our host’s home with the motorhome wasn’t really easy so we organized as a substitute to fulfill at a neighborhood nation park. They requested all the fitting questions once we met them and, quickly after resuming our journey, we have been already receiving updates and pictures through Whatsapp to place our minds comfortable. Actually, this labored so effectively that we wouldn’t hesitate to make use of the identical hosts once more.
We arrived in Largs with loads of time to spare so went for a run alongside the seafront while the children cycled some extra. Largs lies on the Firth of Clyde and enjoys westerly sea views out in direction of Nice Cumbrae and Bute.
Again on the marina, we showered and freshened up earlier than assembly our skipper for the week. Like final 12 months, we had elected to make use of Go West Crusing for this leg of our journey. At simply 19 years previous, Archie was our RYA Yachtmaster-qualified skipper (an unimaginable accomplishment for somebody so younger) and he confirmed us to the boat, Mistral – a Beneteau Oceanis 393 – that occurred to be the identical vessel as we have been on final 12 months.
We transferred our baggage, dined at Scott’s at Largs Marina and watched the solar set, earlier than climbing aboard and having a comparatively early evening, in order that we might be contemporary and able to set sail within the morning.
An lively household vacation in Scotland:
You possibly can learn the complete journey by clicking on any of the hyperlinks under:
Day 1: Mossyard
Day 2: Mossyard – Kirroughtree – Glentrool
Day 3: Glentrool
Day 4: Glentrool – Largs
Day 5: Largs – Scalpsie Bay – Tarbert
Day 6: Tarbert – Ardishaig – Otter Ferry
Day 7: Otter Ferry – Ardmarnoch Bay – Portavadie
Day 8: Otter Ferry – Ardmarnoch Bay – Portavadie
Day 9: Portavadie – Largs
Day 10: Largs – Glasgow
Diclosure: Our crusing vacation was sponsored by Go West Crusing.
