Category: walks

The delights and glories of Dumfries and Galloway

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I am currently sat at one of my most unusual park ups, watching the clouds around the lighthouse at the Mull of Galloway. This is the most southerly point of Scotland, and is our fifth park up.

My last day in the Lake District was a brilliant walk on St Bees Head, with views over to the Isle of Man and the Scottish coast. 

The following day I was there, meeting my sister for a 10 day adventure in this gorgeous area of Scotland. 

This is a little visited part of the country, people tend to head up to the better known parts of Loch Lomond and Skye, where we went a couple of years ago, and I will be returning to soon. However we had heard how lovely it was, and it is stunning. Forests and beaches and cute little towns, we love it.

Our first trip was to Rockcliffe, a small village with brilliant views of the peninsulas. Such gorgeous scenery and so many flowers.

We then went to the Galloway Forest, we have used two of the forest Park ups, under the Stay the Night scheme. This is where you can park in their car parks for £7 a night.

The first was at Dalbeattie, and the second at the end of Raider’s Road, a 9 mile drive through the forest with a stop off at the beautiful Otters Pools. Sadly no otters, but a gorgeous place.

We also had a little wander around Loch Ken.

Our other park ups have been a community one, and an animal sanctuary and rewinding project called Frugaldom. Jacky was very excited as she saw a badger.

The following morning we went to feed some deer at a small refuge  that was brilliant. They were so cute and friendly. 

We visited St Ninian’s Cave as well, the beach is full of such a variety of pebbles, they are fascinating.

The Mull of Galloway lighthouse is now owned by the community, as it is operated remotely, and they have a small exhibition including some excellent photography.  I bought a postcard of the lighthouse and dawn clouds one for my van, such an incredible sky!

We have been so lucky with the weather, look at these amazing blues.

There have been virtually no midges either, so that has been great. We are off to our last park up tonight, then on to a campsite for 4 nights for a bit of luxury. 

Jacky will then go south to Northumberland then home, while I continue to the north of Dumfries and Galloway for more adventures.

So I will see you all soon with more Scottish loveliness.  Until then, have fun, take care  stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Heading west

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I am spending a lot of time on the West Coast of both England and Scotland this summer, so my journey from Ellen’s was a brilliant scenic drive through my favourite Peak District and Yorkshire Dales, out to a little village, ‘where the fells meet the sea’.

I am staying at Ravenglass on a beautiful wooded site. No squirrels as yet sadly, but I have been feeding a very tame robin.

The drive in past the edge of Eskdale and Wasdale was just stunning, and the site is within walking distance of the Coastal Path along the estuary.

The village has lots of cute cottages, with lots of greenery.

There was also a very sobering display outside one from a local man who has collected beach plastic. A horrifying, and fascinating look into what has been discarded,  just look at all the lighters!

This area has been settled since Roman times, and is also famous for its miniature railway, once used to carry granite from Lakeland mines, and since 1960, preserved solely as a leisure railway. 

I was lucky enough to see one of the engines being turned, and visited the very well interpreted museum there.

The poster display on the platform was excellent, love the vintage styles here.

I have visited the Lake District many times before, but its beauty always amazes me. I had never been to Wast Water before though, the deepest lake, next to England’s highest mountain, Scafell.

I once climbed Scafell, as part of a charity event where we did Snowdon, Scafell and Ben Nevis in a weekend. However that was about 30 years ago, with much younger knees, so I settled for a walk around the lake instead.

The weather has been really good, better than forecast, with only a little rain, and lots of chance to sit outside with a good book in the evenings, and look at the sun through the trees.

I am hugely glad to be here anyway, as in Spain they are having a heatwave and it’s been 44 degrees there!

So much nicer at 19 degrees with clouds and a fleece on!

I have one more full day here, then it is time to head to Scotland to meet up with my sister Jacky for a little explore of the coast of Dumfries and Galloway. So exciting 😀 Although I enjoyed last summer’s east coast adventures  the prospect of even more lakes, hills and mountains over the next few weeks makes my little heart very happy.

I shall see you soon, to share more of this western beauty. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Wandering and pondering

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I have just finished my only re-enactment event for this year where the weather was kind, the company wonderful, and there were excellent bands to dance to. It was the 40th anniversary of the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, and I am so glad it went well.

Before the festival I had a brief visit to Worcester to see my sister  and hear the happy news that my latest great neice arrived safely.  My sister will give her the little mouse I posted about last time. The baby’s name is Mia Poppy, which is so pretty!

I spent the following week at the lovely Blackmore Caravan and Camping Club site  at the foot of the Malvern Hills.

The weather was really good, despite one wet night, where sadly my trusty Vango tent in the picture above leaked.  It has served me well for 3 seasons but has had to be replaced by a lovely new larger one, which I have named Eugenia. 

I spent most of the first afternoon making Katy look pretty, with her new bunting, cushion, and the blue campervan tin.

I spent a lot of time just relaxing in the sun and reading, the views from the site were great, so it was lovely just to sit and think. I did have a drive to one of the many quarries in the area, Gullet Quarry, and a walk in the woods.

I also tested my OS app on a full route of footpaths around the campsite, which worked brilliantly.  The views of the Malverns were gorgeous, and there were so many wildflowers.

I really appreciate the diversity that the different climate here in the UK brings. The little roses smelt wonderful.

I ended the walk at the local Catholic church  with a very lovely door and entrance porch.

I am doing some writing on the road, and it is nice to have wanders like this to think through plot lines and possible developments.  Much of my travels this summer will be this type of walking with planned trips to coasts, lochs and waterfalls.

I leave for the Lake District tomorrow, so hopefully will have some lovely views to share soon. Weather forecast is variable but I love moody clouds anyway! Until next time have fun  take care,

Katy’s adventures in La Marina

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I had already planned lots of places that I wanted to visit, mostly with Mum, in the two months that I was at home. Like me, Mum loves walking and the beach, and we were able to explore some new places, as well as revisiting old favourites. The weather was unseasonably warm, so we were lucky that we had stunning blue skies and sunshine all through November and December.

La Marina is situated between the mountains and the coast, and is an area with lots of wildlife sanctuaries, and hiking areas. Although there are sandy beaches, my favourite parts of the coast are the rocky ones.

The first walk we did was along the coastal path from La Zenia to Cabo Roig. This very easy walking path goes underneath the cliffs, with gorgeous views. At the end of the 3/4 hour walk there is the harbour at Cabo Roig, with bars and restaurants for a quick coffee before setting back.

After our trip to Cordoba we went back to one of my Mum’s favourite spots, the coastal path below the cliffs and the lighthouse at Santa Pola. This is a beautiful stretch of rocky coast which is very popular with campervans. I went back later on just for the afternoon when Mum was busy, and sat parked up in Katy listening to the sea and reading, bliss!

We also visited one of the area’s reservoirs. Although desalination plants are our main source of water, due to the lack of rain, we do have some very beautiful reservoirs. Unfortunately we couldn’t find our way down to the hiking area, that ended up being the off road experience that I mentioned earlier! At least the drive round was great and there are lots of viewpoints with parking and picnic benches.

I also did a couple of trips out on my own, one to the local bird reserves, El Hondo, that I have cycled to before. This time I went right to the other side, and parked up at the interpretation centre. There are walkways through all the different parts of the reserve from here. We have so many types of birds that nest here, and I was lucky enough to see a baby flamingo.

Many flocks of flamingos live on our salinas, or salt lakes. The lakes have been here since Roman times and are still in production. The salt is exported for use on roads across Northern Europe and Russia. The one nearest Torrevieja has a beautiful pink colour in the sunlight. It is a gorgeous place for a peaceful walk on a sunny day.

The nearby town of Rojales is famous for its cave houses, which have been turned into artist’s workshops and galleries. Once a month they have an arts and craft fair, and in the summer there is live music every Sunday in an outdoor stage area.

There is a little museum area inside one house showing how the original inhabitants lived. We haven’t been for fifteen years and it was great to see so many more of the caves have been restored, with gorgeous floor paintings.

There is also an eighteenth century windmill just outside the town, very similar to those I saw at Conseugra on my journey home. This has been restored and events are held there sometimes.

Also in the mountains above Rojales, there is a country park. El Recorral is actually a water management scheme, designed to capture water from the mountains and stop it flooding the salinas, but rather than just build storage tanks they have created these beautiful wildlife ponds and a sculpture trail. We don’t often get rain, but when we do it can be very heavy and cause flooding so this is a great solution. There are lots of picnic and bbq areas, as well as hiking trails and playgrounds.

I went again with Ellen when she was visiting and we managed to find the caves further up in the park. I don’t think these were every occupied, but they do have stunning views of the mountains across the plain.

One of our Sunday excursions was to visit a monastery set in the mountains behind Murcia. This is the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta, and dates from the 1600s.

There must at some point have also been an Islamic building here, judging by this architecture, but sadly it was in disrepair and there was no further information. We had a picnic in the grounds and then a walk in the mountains.

We also went on a couple of trips without Katy, one my favourite things in Spain is the fiestas, and on the feast of St Nicholas, on the 6th Dec, there was a parade of the Moors and Christians. These are some of my favourite events, they take place all over Spain and celebrate the reconquest, when Isabella and Ferdinand took back control of southern Spain from the Muslim settlers.

The parade was a wonderful hour and a half of proud armies in wonderful costume, interspersed with marching bands. The work that goes into these outfits is amazing, usually each village in the area will have its own association. There are many museums where you can see the costumes close up and they are well worth a visit if you come across them.

The lights, and the giant nativity were also very pretty, and we had a great wander around the city. This was one of the many excellent coach trips, the advantage of these for fiestas is that you get a local pick up and don’t have to worry about parking or traffic!

I hope that you have enjoyed this little overview of what there is to do in the area, it is a fantastic region for all sorts of outdoor activities, with mountain climbing, trekking and cycling being very popular, as well as all of the water related sports.

This will be the last of my travel posts for now, I will post about Cordoba as soon as I can but have so many pictures to sort, and not that much time before I leave again, so will wait to tell you all about that fantastic city. I am off now to do more unicorn fettling, the final bits of attaching heads and putting on clothes await, and then I can show them to you in the next post.

Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Norfolk coastal beauty

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As you will know, I love the sea. I was told that the beaches in Norfolk were lovely, and they have been. One of the things that I have especially liked are the pebbles.

They don’t make for a good sandcastle building holiday but I love the variety of them, and the way that are used in all of the buildings. I have driven through so many villages full of these gorgeous flint and brick houses and churches.

I visited Snettisham RSPB reserve one very hot day, and met more Canada Geese than I have ever seen before.

I also went to Sheringham Park for a meet up with Jules, who I met last year at Hayfield. She has an identical van to mine, with a full conversion, and is still travelling full time, having extended her gap year. We had a brilliant time sharing the joys of van life.

I enjoyed my trips to Cromer and the Sheringham 1940s weekend as well. Loved the vintage adverts for Cromer and the pictures along the beach at Sheringham of the Victorian bathing tents.

Had a brilliant 40th anniversary of starting at Huddersfield Polytechnic weekend back in Yorkshire last weekend and then conquered three more motorways, so feeling very happy with all the driving so far.

Here am I with two lovely friends, Ange and Carol. It has been so good to meet up with people this summer, hadn’t seen Carol for about 25 years!

This will probably be the last update on the blog for a while. I am in the final week of the UK part of the adventure, and am now in Kent. Off to France and Spain next Saturday and I will be on the move so much then I will probably wait until I get back. I will post as much as possible on my Instagram @katykangoo, if you want to follow me there.

Many thanks as always for following my adventures. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Lincolnshire skies

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After the Slumber on the Humber festival I went to stay at Mablethorpe for 10 days. I had a really lovely relaxing time here on the coast and was joined for the weekend by my friend Sharon, from Marsden. She is thinking of buying a campervan so had rented one for the week to get an idea of what type she would like.

The weather was really good and I spent most of the time along the coast, and looking at the clouds. Lincolnshire is very flat and the campsite was next to fields, so apart from the windmills in the distance, all you could see was sky and there were some brilliant sunsets.

I went for a few walks to local beach nature reserves, there are lots of salt marsh reserves here and there were amazing clouds over the beaches.

I particularly love this last picture where it looks like there is a fight between the good and bad clouds with the evil.darkness about the envelop the fluffy white one.

We loved the patterns that the water made flowing through the sand and found shells that had worn away to form beautiful patterns of holes.

We did do a little bit of National Trust visiting, to Gunby Hall, which had the most gorgeous gardens and orchard.

The family that lived in the house in the Victorian era had lots of links with the famous writers artists and thinkers of the era. One of the daughters, Emily Massingberd founded The Pioneer Club in 1892 to support women’s suffrage.

Another daughter, Sybil, was friends with Gertrude Bell, the traveller and Middle Eastern specialist who I have blogged about before.

I really enjoy learning about links between all of these inspirational women. It sets all of their lives into context.

We had a lovely time and Sharon enjoyed her cute little campervan. Hopefully she can find one of her own and we can have more adventures together.

I am very much enjoying my time here in Norfolk, after a busy weekend at the Steampunk Festival in Lincoln after my stay in Mablethorpe and then a week at Ellen’s decorating.

Dunster and the delights of Devon….featuring roads I will only ever drive on once!

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I do tend to base many of my holidays around National Trust properties, and although this was primarily booked for the coast and moorland, I have been making good use of my membership again.

A couple of days ago I went to Dunster Castle which has a lovely little village below it, and a very interesting history, having originally been a fortified castle from the time of William the Conqueror and survived the Civil War to now be a very impressive former family home.

There was not a huge amount of textile loveliness but I did find this wonderful quilt, made of silks and satins, probably Victorian looking at the fabric.

As well as the interior, featuring Elizabeth and plaster ceilings, Jacobean carved staircases and all the lovely things you would expect to find in a house in almost continuous occupation for 1000 years, there was an amazing garden and Riverside walk, ending at a working watermill.

I love hydrangeas, the colours and shapes are so amazing, and there were so many of them.in the castle gardens.

I have become slightly obsessed with English cottage gardens as well. All this time amongst the bougainvillea and cactus has made me really appreciate the very delicate flowers that were growing in this memorial garden in Dunster Village.

The garden was in the grounds of the old priory, next to the Tithe Barn and a fascinating dovecote dating from the 13th century that had space for 500 pigeons, all bred for eating.

Yesterday I drove across the border into Devon again, to visit the Valley of the Rocks. The coastal path runs along here and the views are amazing.

The rock formations look like ruins of castles themselves.

There are wild goats that live here, one family of which was perched on a ledge so high above the sea.

To get there I had to put on my big girl pants and drive up Porlock Hill, 25% slopes and so many sharp bends!!! I also happened to be following the coastal bus.

Katy and I did really well but I did opt for the route back across Exmoor with slightly flatter roads, stunning views and only the odd sheep and cow in the road. Since I started learning to drive in Marsden that is something I am very used to.

I only have one more day here before I go to my first festival. A few days of meeting other van people and hopefully chilling listening to blues in a sunny field.

I will be back soon with a new location, spending a couple of days in between festivals at a childhood day out location pretending I am 12 again. Until then good bye from my sunny campsite.

Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Clouds, coastlines and cottages

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I have now been in Somerset for nearly a week and am very much enjoying my time here. The weather has been variable, but that has meant lots of opportunity to watch the cloud formations over the sea and moorland so I don’t mind at all.

There have also been some fabulous rainbows across the bay.

I have had various posts from friends who are melting in Spain, so am enjoying my 17 degrees!

Minehead is a very cute little town and is the start of a coastal walk, of which there are many sections. I have only done a bit so far due to the rain, but have enjoyed the sea and pebble beach views, very different to my Spanish scenes.

The harbour at Minehead has some cottages with beautiful little gardens.

Somerset is full of quintessentially English thatched cottages and today I went to Selworthy, a National Trust village.

There are four gorgeous little cottages, grouped around the village green, with gardens with some of my favourite flowers in.

Two are a tea shop and gift shop and I think the others can be rented.

There were lovely views over the valley.

The church there was also very impressive, with stunning carved pews and a ceiling full of carved angels and bosses.

There was also another of the Mother’s Union Virgen Mary banners that I have seen in so many churches.

I would love to know if the patterns were centrally supplied for these, as I have seen so many that are similar on my travels.

I also went to Porlock Weir, for another set of cute cottages and pebble beach, and one of the smallest museums I have ever visited.

This was a packed room of all things sea related.

There was some great stuff, like this set of signalling flags from the 1800s.

I am trying out a new app that allows me to make collages which are faster to upload while on the road so I hope you like the layout.

I have another four days here so there will be yet more Somerset fun to share later in the week. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

England’s green and pleasant land

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Well I am off on my travels again, at the first campsite of many this summer, fingers crossed. I have had an excellent if a little damp time at the Tewkesbury Medival Festival, and was lucky enough to have a dry couple of hours yesterday to pitch up here in North Somerset.

I am just outside Minehead, on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, with excellent views over the bay.

The campsite is on a very large hill with lots of walks along the coast and views of the moorland so I am looking forward to lots more outdoor adventures.

The forecast is not brilliant but I have got a great vantage point for cloud watching and it doesn’t get to be so green here without a bit of rain!

The heather is still in bloom, along with gorse and I love the way that the raindrops get caught in the spider’s webs.

It is great to be back in such a different landscape, I love Spain but this is such an amazing area, with such different foliage.

There are woods with trees that seem to have eyes, whose roots cover the walls, and walls so old you can hardly see them for the moss on them.

I was very excited on my walk this morning as I came across some beautiful Exmoor wild ponies. We saw some on Dartmoor a couple of years ago and they are amazing.

My Mum bought me an excellent book for my birthday, written by someone who spent years walking the Cairngorms. It is a really detailed piece of nature writing and is a great read while I am camping.

I have also treated myself to this book above so will enjoy sitting in the reading nook, with the new lap quilt and chilling.

There are lots of rabbits on this campsite, as well as squirrels so am looking forward to some excellent relaxation

As well as blog posts I have also set up a separate Instagram for my travels, as that will be easier more regularly, especially when I don’t have much signal. If you would like to follow that it is @KatyKangoo

I am here for two weeks and have lots of museum and heritage visits planned, as well as more of the spectacular coastline, so I will see you again soon.

Take care, have fun, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Rural Japan, temples and bamboo

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Much as Tokyo city was very interesting, it was the two trips that we took out to more rural areas that were the most fascinating. We were lucky to have our excellent tour guide, Jake, who knew all the best places to explore, and that meant we saw a lot more of Japan than we would have done on our own.

One of the side effects of him living there though the pandemic has been that he has done lots of visiting rural places, such as temples, shrines and going on mountain hikes, as much of the city was closed during that period and he wanted to avoid crowds.

Our first visit was to Japan’s ancient capital, Kamakura. We went on the train for this which was brilliant, I love train journeys and it was fascinating to see the extent of the city of Tokyo. We got off at a station not far from Kamakura and went on a hiking trail from the small village.

This meant that we got to visit a couple of small shrines and see lots of the forest.

I was fascinated by the wild bamboo and very excited to see a Japanese squirrel!

Ellen always laughs at me when I see squirrels as there were so many of them at her last National Trust job at Clumber Park so she saw them every day. I love them and am now happy to say that I have seen four types of squirrels on three continents. We saw some very fat grey squirrels in Central Park in New York and I have posted previously about the lovely little dark squirrels that we have here in La Marina.

The hiking trail took us up to the top of the area, with brilliant views over to the sea. The photos in no way do it justice and it was so wonderful to see all of the flora around.

At the summit there is a beautiful park, and then when we came down the other side we visited the Great Buddha that I have previously posted about. The trail was a little muddy at times and there were some very steep bits but it was brilliant fun.

Our other rural trip was by coach to see Mount Fuji! Jake had done this trip before but sadly it was misty that day and he didn’t get a good view but we were really blessed and got great views. I was very pleased that we could see it so clearly from the coach.

It was a really interesting trip as well, seeing the beautiful hills and mountains covered in blossom trees and the rural towns and villages.

We went to one of the five lakes surrounding the mountain, Lake Kawaguchiko, which is a very popular tourist spot with lots of hotels and boat trips.

The views were beautiful, not only of Mount Fuji, but also across the lake itself and I amused myself taking arty pictures through the trees.

By the time we were leaving the clouds at top had cleared and we were able to see the peak, which was extremely exciting.

I am so pleased that we got to explore so much of Japan. We will hopefully go back in a couple of years and explore more of the country. Now things are fully open Jake is keen to travel a bit further.

His last visa renewal was for three years, so fingers crossed he has another couple of years of exploration, and hopefully more as he would like to stay there as long as he can. I am so pleased that my children love travel as much as I do, and so proud of them for making their own exciting lives.

I have finished all of the Barbie collection of clothes so will post about that next. The fundraiser is next week, hopefully it will be popular and raise lots of money. I am having a quiet few weeks here trying to get some of my crafting to do list done before I have friends come to stay with me, which will be fun, the first ones since my retirement.

I hope that you have a good week ahead. It is getting quite warm here now so although I have done a couple of short bike rides, I am visiting the pool today. Whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.