The call of good friends and fine dining – North to Scotland! Days 1-6

After a frenzy of catching up with jobs; our granddaughter Ada’s 10^th birthday party; minding our grandson Arlo for the weekend; and re-packing Evie for colder climes, we waited for Mr B’s French Covid (as he proudly described it) to diminish sufficiently for us to venture north and begin part two of our autumn adventure! Mrs B, equipped as she is with a much more advanced immune system remained Covid free, of course.

We had originally envisaged that we would take last year’s newly discovered Route 49 (using the A49 along the Welsh borders to swerve the delights of slogging around Birmingham on the motorway). But with the clock ticking louder than we had anticipated, we decided to gird our loins and take the motorways as far north as we could get on day one, thinking that leaving Brighton by midday should allow us enough time to get comfortably north of Birmingham...

As it transpired, by paying £17.30 to use the Toll section of the M6, we found ourselves approaching Lancaster in the dark to find somewhere to park up for the night. We had spotted two possible stops – one that used our old skills of using a map and looking at likely spots (near rivers/lakes/leisure centres/cemeteries etc) and one on Park4Night. Our first choice was near all of the usual good criteria, but as we drove past the tower blocks, noticed the frequent police cars on patrol, and discovered via Google that the neighbourhood we had chosen had a healthy number of car thefts/break-ins and reports of gunshots the week before, our finely-tuned camping radars told us to move on to the P4N choice!

Just a few minutes off the M6, the suggested spot at the old Halton station site at Denny Beck delivered in spades. Located on the old line to Morecambe, it was closed in 1966 along with many others as part of the Beeching cuts. Used now as storage for Lancaster University’s boat club, there is a cycle path heading in either direction from the two car parks – one of which we eventually pulled into in the dark. Mrs B had read that we should take care to avoid approaching over a narrow bridge from the north, so, taking the southerly route we arrived to find an empty carpark on one side of the cycle track, and a large group of identically clad people with bright head torches and flashing red rear helmet lights on the other, so we understandably opted for the empty one!

After a very peaceful night with just us parked up, the mysterious events of the night before became clear: the local Coastguard were practising river rescues near the notorious Halton weir on the river Lune – which we had heard in the night. 

With enough time to have a brief walk around we could see why it was advisable not to try to cross the bridge in a campervan…

...and we decided that should we arrive here in daylight subsequently, it could be a great place to enjoy a short cycle ride, with a pub just across the nearby bridge too!

Deciding that we would aim to get across the border into Scotland, but not sure how far before we looked for a stop, we had to undertake the now obligatory stop beforehand at Tebay Services, where ritual dictates that we eat one of their delicious pies (and maybe chips)…

...before heading north! We’ve raved about these pies before, and we left the Services knowing that we would be back on the return trip! It is possible to stay here overnight in a campervan for £28, which includes a £10 voucher to use at the services, year-round in the regular carparks. There’s also a shower in the main building that can be used. However, in season, there is also a bookable campsite for £27 with EHU/showers/toilets that offers a £3 voucher, open from the 1^st April until the 31^st October. This trip, for us, the nearby deserted station at Halton will probably call us back, although it’s great to see this privately owned motorway service station offering not just good facilities for motorhomes, but a fantastic shop full of fresh, local produce, as well as great food and you can rest up for 3 hours, rather than the usual 2 hour limit enforced at most motorway service stations in the UK. We reflected again later that day what a breath fresh air this was, when we stopped at a Welcome Break, (subsequently re-named ‘Welcome Bleak’), as we were greeted with a shouty sign at the entrance to a shabby parking area and stating a fine of £15 for overstaying the 2 hour ‘welcome’!

As we left Tebay we agreed that we would try and get north of Glasgow, saving the delights of Dumfries and Galloway for a possible stop on the return journey, and drive on instead for what feels like Scotland proper! Swapping drivers on a 90/120 minute basis we realised that even with the huge traffic jams around the city of Glasgow we were in with a chance. And knowing that there was a spot we had used last year near Dumbarton castle to fall back on if we could not find a new alternative, it fell to Mr B to delve into P4N as Mrs B edged Evie around the grindingly slow motorway ring road.

Situated on the shore of the River Clyde, our P4N spot adjacent to the Ardmore peninsula was a cracker! With a couple of other campervans already parked up, we enjoyed the view across the Clyde at night…

...and decided to take a stroll around the shore of the peninsula in the morning…

...where Mrs B discovered a sea glass stash…

With our booking for Mrs B’s (late) birthday at the fabulous Inver restaurant a few nights away, we knew we could drift slowly north, stopping first at Helensburgh to enjoy the amazing Hill House, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and styled by artist Margaret Macdonald in the early 1900s. This place is fascinating on so many levels: as one of the best (apparently) examples of the Glasgow style of the period…

...with its fearsome plumbing and early version of a rainfall shower (or needle shower back in the day)…

...however the outside render (roughcast) of the building is suffering from cracking and water penetration, so the entire house has been shrouded by a very clever and elegant structure that protects it, whilst steps are taken to renovate and repair – as well as allowing visitors to walk around and see the damage firsthand…

Using modern (and untested) techniques of the early 1900s, Mackenzie ditched the traditional use of lime render in favour of cement, which cracked and failed spectacularly as we can see in the photos above.

We had found and booked a site at the head of Loch Long in Arrochar that we fancied for a couple of nights, as it should allow for some interesting walking. The drive there took us along Gare Loch, where we saw the remains of the famous Peace Camp at Faslane (we weren’t sure whether anyone was still there as it looks deserted) and Mr B got very excited that we might see one of the UK’s nuclear submarines at the naval base (we just saw a very high security fence!) and before long we were taking the roller-coaster road along the eastern shore of Loch Long, heading for our site.

Quirky is perhaps the fairest word to describe Glenloin Camping. We had a warm greeting from Vivienne the site manager, who, after taking our £40 cash only payment for two nights, explained the working of the £1 slot machine showers in the unheated log cabin amenity block, the 5amp maximum electricity supply, the location of the grey and black water disposal points and nearby walks, all with a friendly and well rehearsed patter. And we were able to choose a pitch near a beautiful old oak tree with views of the nearby hills…

We thought we’d take a quick walk around the site, which is when we discovered its idiosyncratic welcome sign…

...its permanently lit reminder of which religion was welcomed…

...state of the art grey and black water disposal points…

...and helpful lessons on electrical and plumbing matters…

Taking it all in, we set off for a quick walk along the Loch before darkness fell. It had clearly been stormy recently…

...and we wondered about the wisdom of parking under that giant tree!

The walk introduced us to the nature of village life, with the chippy doubling up as an artisan candle maker (those smells together!!), one (excellent and well-stocked) general store, a pub, a busy bistro serving fresh mussels with tequila (could work we think….) and a couple of huge hotels, still popular with coach parties. And, in a classic close-but-no-cigar moment, we thought we might get a chance to see a band very much in the vein of one of our all-time favourites, Niteworks, actually performing in the village hall! But, as luck would have it, not this time as Face the West were not performing in Arrochar until we were due back in England… Oh well! 

The next day we decided to have a go at the walk over to Tarbet on Loch Lomond. Mr B was very excited as it’s a famous site of a Viking raid that saw them taking their longships across land on log rollers. Mrs B was very excited as it must have been pretty flat to do that! Mr B checked on directions at reception, and equipped with emergency rations just in case, we headed off. After 30 minutes of walking however, we came across a locked gate, no obvious trail, and an Armadillo unit, monitoring 24/7 with 360 degree cameras linked by cctv to alert landowners and police of intruders. So we turned around and went back via option two – the steep steps that we had wanted to avoid, opposite the chippy/candle shop.

The Vikings would not have taken this route (unless they had stripped their boats down and used pack horses) so we celebrated the opportunity to test our Alpine skills, pausing to take scenic photos (and catch a breath or two)…

… making full use of our emergency rations as our 45 minute walk passed the 1 hour mark and we weren’t even half way…

...until we eventually reached the end of the hill section and we could see Loch Lomond in the distance…

Luckily the café was still open and after a very tasty bacon roll and a Tunnock’s tea cake for dessert, we wandered around this section of the loch, toying with the chance to go on a boat trip…

The somewhat dreich weather didn’t quite lend itself to a cruise however, and after checking out the newly built two campervan stop-over part of the car park (free from the camping permit at this time of the year – and free from parking fees as the pay-and-dispaly machine was broken!) we decided to emulate the Vikings and return to Arrochar via the portage route – now known as the A83!

It may have been a less interesting route as we walked in the footsteps of the Vikings, but it was indeed flat – and much quicker! And as we neared Arrochar we stopped to admire this Halloween arrangement (where an invitation to press a button saw Mr B have his finger grabbed!). 

Departure day saw us heading back towards Helensburgh (via the less roller-coastery road) as we had enjoyed our brief stop and admired the sense of civic pride in the town, arranged in a distinctive grid pattern. The presence of (another) submarine museum was of course an added bonus for Mr B! With the rain settling in for a while at the point we arrived at a leisure centre where it was possible to stay over for free, had we wished, we were both glad that we would be indoors for a while…

The museum, housed in an old church, is the home of the X-51, the only surviving example of the UK’s midget submarines of the Cold War era. Based on a design originally used in WW2 (famous for the raid on the German battleship Tirpitz) and originally conceived to guard against Soviet threats, the boat can be viewed from the outside only…

Equipped with bluetooth headphones…

...we were then treated to a fulsome history of submarine warfare, which one of us enjoyed immensely! (Trip Advisor reviews do mention the length of the film…)

With a quick bit of shopping afterwards, we started our trip back up to Loch Fyne and our second visit to the amazing Inver restaurant where we were able, once more, to park Evie overnight! 

As well as our usual excitement at an evening of fabulous food and wine, we were also hoping to meet the owner/head chef Pam Brunton who had kindly agreed to sign Mrs B’s copy of her incredible book, Between Two Waters (thanks Amber!). 

The book is a great insight into a range of culinary and historical/feminist, socio/political food and land related issues – we loved it and were keeping our fingers crossed that Pam was working the night of our visit…

And she was, and very kindly came and chatted with us whilst signing Mrs B’s copy of her book!

The meal was heavenly, with just the right combination of inventiveness and attention to detail, backed up by super-fresh and local ingredients and a ‘top-to-tail’ approach to meat eating. We shared the wine-flight (we can no longer manage one each and still hope to make sense at the end of an evening!) and after four hours of foodie-fun, we walked the 50m back to our loch-side home for the night with very happy tummies!

With time (and enough faint hints of blue sky) for Mr B to make a few more photographic memories…

...we set off the next day on a new venture for us; a drive along the very scenic Kyles of Bute coastal road to Portavadie Marina...

...where we had booked into the Marina’s motorhome site for a couple of nights, with a promise of an infinity pool, spa, jacuzzi, sauna, restaurant and good walking – camper-vanning as we have never known it! But would it be our cup of tea…?

S&J 24.10.25

From the Île de Ré to Omaha beach. Days 20-22

Grateful that our drift northwards to the coast was accompanied neither by stormy weather nor routes barrées, we found ourselves north of Nantes and facing the choice of finding somewhere to park for the night either south, or north or Rennes if we were to park up before darkness fell – always advisable when somewhere new! We know that one day we will make the effort to visit the capital of Breizh, but not this trip, as a convenient stop was found by Mr B that was near an ‘interesting old tower’… He’d spotted it on P4N and it sounded good with dedicated free motorhome parking and nearby boulangeries. Passing on the location (Grand Fougeray) to Mrs B to guide us in on the App, we were both a bit perplexed to turn into a dark and gloomy woodland glade with no sign of any designated parking… And we’d just passed what looked to be a designated Aire a couple of hundred metres earlier. Curious! 

With us each checking our P4N Apps we quickly realised we had made another ‘wrong garden’ error – two locations in the same village! Realising we clearly needed to up our game when using P4N across two devices, we beat a hasty retreat back to the actual Aire, which rapidly filled up within 20 minutes of us arriving!

Unlike most free Aires, where you need to pay for fresh water, this offered it for free, a very generous decision by the municipality. And, as we discovered during a quick walk into the village centre, there were indeed two boulangeries and they were both due to be open in the morning – a Sunday, luckily for us, as they were, of course, closed on the Monday as usual!

As regular readers may remember, Evie identifies as Scottish, so we were interested to see that amongst the other 7 campers was a fellow and very well travelled Scot, the large van in the first photo above…

It turns out that under that mahoosive body shell is one of Evie’s Iveco Daily relatives – the 6.5t version. Essentially identical to Evie’s engine and chassis design but with a higher load rating, the Carthago M liner also dates back to 2005. We know which layout we prefer!

With Mr B falling asleep later that night dreaming about whether his build ambitions for Evie had been grand enough, we woke early enough for him to nip out to the boulangerie for croissants, have a quick chat with the local priest who was just setting up for 1100 Mass (is there no end to his willingness to try his French on anyone that stands still long enough?) and fit in a visit to the local ‘Duguesclin tower’ that had caught his attention when looking for likely stopovers.

The tower, built in the 1300s, turned out to be the one remaining of nine original towers that formed a castle, itself once one of a string of fortifications guarding the borders between France and Breizh, with the latter not becoming part of France until the early 1500s, and remaining autonomous until the French Revolution in the late 1700s. Although closed when we were there, public visits are possible and the tower is used for a variety of local events. Should we come back this way, we might also be tempted by the restaurant that looks out onto it!

With the rest of the day due to stay sunny, we enjoyed an easy drive up to the Normandy coast, heading to a site on Omaha beach, inspired by our reminder of the D Day landings when we were back on the Île de Ré on the beach which featured in the Longest Day film!

We have visited some of the D-Day memorial sites when we first headed west to Breizh back in 2019, at Arromanche-les-Bains and Gold beach, where British soldiers landed, so it was serendipitous that our route took us to the other, western end and Omaha beach where American troops landed.

The site was perched right on the cliffs overlooking the long stretch of Omaha beach to the east, with fabulous views. Just like a lot of municipal sites that were allowed prime spots in the post war drive to enable ordinary folk to have access to affordable holidays, we thought. And it turned out that Camping Omaha Beach was indeed a municipal until about 15 years ago, when it joined the Flower Campings network. At least they are still affordable and good quality, with the full range of usual camp site amenities.

We were allocated a pitch where we just about had a view over to the landing beach…

… we had time before dinner to have a wander around the section of beach close to the site. In fact the site had a path that led down past the remains of a German observation post, before opening up on the immensity of the beach itself…

...with some of the old Mulberry harbour infrastructure still visible…

...along with Mrs B demonstrating to Mr B how to work out whether sun protection is necessary only if your shadow is shorter than you are tall. Obviously none needed here…

On our way back up to the campsite we paused at this memorial to American Rangers that had landed nearby…

Before we turned in for the night, we were treated to a rising near full moon over the beach out of our ‘dining room’ window…

...and in the morning, from the same direction, a bright rising sun in our ‘kitchen’ window. Both photos highlighting Mr B’s urgent need to get a wiggle on with dealing with the scratched windows!

The sunshine was short lived however, and by the time we made it to the nearby museum, it had disappeared altogether. Which was a real shame, as although the museum is mainly indoors, it is not heated and it was our chattering teeth and shivering bodies that eventually drove us out and back to Evie.

The museum is typical of the many small, private collections that have sprung up across France to tell the story of WW2. Some are apparently little more than collections of rusty old bits and bobs – but this one was pitched just right with an interesting, if initially disconcerting hi-tech interactive film…

...some very interesting dioramas (aided by information updates on our phones as we entered each section)…

...including this idiosyncratic British invention of a mini motorbike for airborne troops, the Welbike…

...a portable battlefield X-Ray station…

...an original Enigma coding machine…

….. a painting of Churchill and code breaker Alan Turing featured on the external walls and a fascinating collection of paintings and histories of significant figures in the history of WW2 in a series of small ‘rooms’ outside the main building.…

...and, always with his cycling head on, Mr B found a WW2 era tandem with a Brooks saddle…

We left the museum with mixed feelings of admiration and sadness for the bravery of the troops that had made the landings at a very high price in terms of lives lost and injuries, as well as civilian fighters (there is a good section in the museum celebrating partisans and women in the war). We also couldn’t help having a fascination in the ability under difficult wartime conditions to invent some incredible machines! 

The vast majority of fellow visitors were North Americans, and for once we avoided the temptation to get into a conversation about what they made of the current situation over the pond; mindful that some may well have been descendants of the combatants. 

Warmed briefly by the quick march back to Evie for a hot lunch, we then ventured west along the coast as Mr B, still in WW2 mode, had spotted a couple of concrete bunkers on Google Maps that (to him) looked worth a visit. Suffice it to say that the absence of any photos might speak volumes as to the size and scale of what we reached. There are indeed some very large and impressive WW2 bunkers on this bit of the coast – we just didn’t find them that day!

The final day before the ferry back to the UK saw us visited by sunshine again – allowing Mr B to take this fetching photo of one of Evie’s new hand-crafted ramps which he is trialling. We often find that we need to level the van just a bit to stop the cooker leaning into the galley area and making a tip or spill hazard; or if it’s just a little bit too low on our head-end to allow non-blood-rush dreams to develop. Easily remedied by getting our giant ramps out, but it’s often overkill. Much easier Mr B said, if we kept a couple of bits of timber handy. And so we are now trialling a couple of bits of old rafter, and a couple of bits of decking. So far, so good, and the giant ramps weren’t used at all on this trip!

At the other end of Omaha beach is the Normandy American Cemetery, and, as we have done in the past, we always try and pay our respects when we are near any of the many cemeteries and memorials of the First and Second World Wars; more conscious these days than ever before of the lives sacrificed from across the world to protect and maintain democracy.

Arrival at the enormous site (the bodies of over 9,400 war dead are buried here, with a memorial wall to a further 1,600 missing), is a sobering event. And as we parked up in the very well laid out area for campervans…

...it was reassuring to see registration plates on vehicles from across Europe and to hear so many non-UK English and French voices. Americans again were, understandably, in the majority, but we also heard a variety other languages. 

The cemetery is set in a beautiful location on a hill that lets on to a fabulous view of Omaha beach…

...and is accessed via a very moving information centre, with perhaps the most eye-catching quote on the greeting board that we could have expected to see, especially in Trump’s isolationist and anti-democratic USA:

“These men came here to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambition that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-government in the world."

• Dwight D. Eisenhower

President, Commander in Chief

There is also a stark reminder of the simple, temporary battlefield graves that many of the buried war dead started their journey to the cemetery in…

...and the sheer number of dead in the serried rows stretching down towards the beach…

...along with the majestic scale of the monuments and statues…

...as well as seeing for the first time the manner by which the names of military personnel missing in action (MIA) are amended, in the American cemeteries, by the addition of a small bronze rosette next to the name when remains are discovered. There were a lot more American MIA in WW2 than we had imagined (over 78,000), of whom the remains of approximately 6,000 have been recovered across all the theatres of war the USA was involved in. And of the 1600 listed at Omaha, we only saw a small number of rosettes…

...adding to the poignancy of the sacrifice and loss of so many.

Leaving the cemetery conscious that there was so much more that we could have seen, but aware of the need to get to our final stop for part one of this autumn adventure – back to Auffay where we started, we headed off to join the Autoroutes we had used earlier in the year on our first trip to Breizh. It may be mainly dull (except for the section over the massive Pont de Normandie)... 

...but at least it enables us to travel at a more-or-less predictable pace, which meant that we were able to arrive at Auffay on time, in the daylight, and, a first for us, the only campervan in the village…

We passed our last night on French soil for this trip, enjoying home shucked scallops, lightly fried with lardons and accompanied by fresh haricots verts and grenaille potatoes, under a beautiful and almost full Hunter moon…yum!

The joy of coming to the end of part one of our trip in such lovely circumstances was swiftly forgotten, however, as the alarm went off at 0345 to enable Mr B to drive us through the (unforecast) ethereal fog to get to check-in at Dieppe at the required time. We had agreed that Mr B would do this solo, allowing Mrs B to get some extra shut-eye for the 30 minute drive. And we had chosen the 0600 ferry as the cost of the usual tea-time 1800 sailing was so much higher. Not sure we’ll bother again though if we have a choice, with Mr B muttering that he really needed his beauty sleep – whatever the cost!

The crossing was smooth, and uneventful (largely as we snoozed through most of it) and our disembarkation saw us sail through the customs shed before the staff had clocked on for the day. And as we’d only had time for a quick cuppa at Dieppe (yes, the tray is still working!) before we were embarked, we stopped along the coast at Seaford to have coffee and pastries; a pale, but enjoyable reminder of an amazing few weeks in France. We may have only made it as far south as La Rochelle, but as we are increasingly realising, it doesn’t seem to matter where we go, if we find somewhere that takes our interest and the weather is kind, there’s a lot to be said for slowing down and enjoying the chance to explore and soak up the vibe of a small area. And in France, this is very easy indeed!

The next stage of our autumn adventure will see us heading north to Scotland, and we hope to be updating the blog on a weekly basis again, subject to good WiFi access as always. Hope you have enjoyed following our time in France!

S&J 13.10.25