Queen Elizabeth Park and Edinburgh ...

After the night in the bus with the duct tape and bed sheets for privacy we decided we needed blinds. Alex spent a day whilst I was at work putting the blinds up and we were a bit more set up for our trips. As well as that Alex had been to his parents and picked up a few more things to help us out. Having looked on the map we decided we wanted to go more into the trossachs and found a nice spot on the map which we decided to give a go. We set off after I got back from work on the Friday night. It only took just over an hour to get to Loch Ard which is just west of Aberfoyle and we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to find such a great spot. We pulled up to a car park which was empty and jumped out to take a look around. 

The place we parked up to was the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park which seemed to have a lot of trails to explore. I was annoyed we hadn’t brought the bikes but we thought it would be nice to take a wander anyway. We set off and loved our little walk. We ended up taking the wrong road to begin with but we eventually found the little loch called Lochan Spling. It was amazing, there were little sculptures dotted around the walk and we thought it would be a perfect spot to take a dip in our first loch. We weren’t brave enough that night but decided we would go back in the morning and see what we were made of. We headed back and started our bbq for dinner. The only downside to the night were the midges. They were out on force. We finished the night with a game of backgammon and hot choc before getting the bed set out and getting some sleep.

The next day we braved it and headed to the loch. Alex was braver than I was and decided he didn’t need a wetsuit but I was worried I would freeze to death and got the wetsuit out, just as well I don’t care what I look like though haha. It was another first for me when we sat down for breakfast. Spam, never had it before but Alex thought it was a must for the bus and I was pleasantly surprised, especially with some baked beans on toast. 

We spent the day with my family and decided we would go out for dinner with my sisters in Edinburgh. It was a struggle finding a parking space but we eventually managed it and off to dinner we went. Alex and I went to the Jazz Bar after and that night decided to park up in the Pentlands Regional Park. We have been to the Pentlands a few times for walks and enjoy going to thought it would be a nice place to park up for the night. We were surprised that there were actually other people with campers there already.

Overall, we enjoyed our first weekend in our camper and can’t wait to add our little kitchen so we can start being more adventurous with our cooking.