Summer Adventures 2019

July 04, 2019

Summer Adventures 2019

DubFest 14-19 June

The weather forecast was an amber warning of heavy rain, and we debated whether it was worth going. But in the event is was fairly sunny. Don't have any pictures though.

Jazz and Art in the Neuk of Fife - 28-29 June

We stayed at Silverdykes and used the new awning for the first time because the camp site does not allow freestanding tents. It was open studio weekend, so dozens of local artists were selling work from their home studios.

Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven - 10-12 July

Short mid-week trip. Arbroath has a working harbour and more fish and chip shops than anywhere else I know. It also has embroidered street lights and bicycle stands!

After staying in Arbroath I headed north to Montrose. The high street is a little sad today with mostly pound shops and charity stores, but there are some lovely buildings and the view coming in reminded me of the painting of Delft after the rain by Vermeer.

Outside Montrose is the excellent Montrose Air Station - http://rafmontrose.org.uk/. After a good look round I headed to Stonehaven for beer and ...art deco curry.

On the way home I had another tyre problem - one of the rear tyres failed and became mis-shapen. A garage in Forfar put the spare on for me and I replaced the two rear tyres on return. So Daisy now has four new tyres.

Annan - 24/25 July

I intended to go to Kirkcubright for a few days, but in the end just stayed one night in Arran.

Here is a photo of Arran town hall and the obvious link between local hero Rabbi Burns and Che Guevara.

Solway, Hadrian's Wall and the Seahouses Coast 18-24 Aug

The trip to Arran was really intended on being a trip to Kirkcudbright but it seemed too far for a few days. So this time I left a bit earlier and had a decent plan. The weather on the way down could not have been worse. Truly torrential rain for hours from just after leaving the motorway, all through Dumfries and for a miles out toward the coast. But in Kirkcudbright the weather was fine and I stayed at the Silver Craigs camp site overlooking the town.

The next day I drove around the coast. Every time I do this I stop at Castle Point and walk out to the grave of a seaman named Nelson whose body was washed up on the shore.

My destination was Silloch - I wanted it to be as lovely as Kirkcudbright but I was disappointed. But Silloch does have a model of a Lockheed Hudson.

The history of this plane is quite interesting. It is based on a passenger plane and commissioned by the RAF just before the war. Lockheed won the contract because they built a mock up of the nose section in 48 hours, and that was enough to convince the RAF to place the contract with a company with no track record of high volume or military production.

The next day I followed the coast road toward Barrow in Furness. Whitehaven was an interesting stop. It was the Roman harbour serving Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall, and for 30 years or so a line of mile forts followed the coast to prevent the Picts going around the wall by sea.

After Whitehaven I followed the coast for a bit then turned off towards Windermere. The Braithwaite Ford site is close to the town and the weather stayed good enough to take a beer outside.

The next day I drove to Haltwistle and in the morning walked a section of Hadrian's wall. It was wet, muddy and good fun.

After a second night in Haltwistle I went back to Carlisle for the excellent Solway Air Museum. I wonder if I could make Daisy's controls look more like these from a Canberra.