camping

Brecon Beacons 1

/ Camping, Travel / , , ,

Here is the view from the car – on the way to Wales – which is a place known for it’s rain, but when we were checking the weather map last night it looked better than the north! Norfolk looked drier but as we wanted to photograph mountains, Norfolk wasn’t an option.

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And why not not the north of England – click here.

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So the plan is to camp and day walk – the rucksacks were packed so we are camping with the equipment we would have been taking up on the hills, but we are going to stay on a site with showers and toilets. At the moment we are heading to Brecon and from there onto Pen y Fan – I’ve got my waterproof case for my iPhone with me so I should get some photos.

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Peach Tea

/ Camping, Outdoor Gear, Walking / , , , , ,

Whilst shopping in Lidl we came across this instant fruit tea.

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I am always looking for things to add to the brew kit and peach tea sounded good. Back at the campsite we tried it and both of us liked it, Jeremy especially like the idea that it could be added to cold water.

The instructions said use five tea spoons (20g) we used two heaped mini sporks in a mug and that was fine.

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I packed about six mugs worth in this 100ml nalgene bottle (I’ll weigh it when I get home).

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Found! WiFi in Dingwall

/ Camping, General, Technology, Travel / , , , ,

Since arriving at Dingwall campsite, last weekend we have been thinking about finding a WiFi cafe – there was not an obvious one in Dingwall and we went to a cafe in Ullapool where we got WiFi last year but they no longer offered a free connection. It is not so important as I have a really good 3G data deal from T-Mobile but WiFi mean’s catching up on some TV via BBC iPlayer and JSC wanted to FaceBook with his friends.

The Camping and Caravan Club sites have WiFi but when I looked into this in the past it was not very good value, especially when compared to my data bundle.

I went into Dingwall this afternoon and after buying some award winning black pudding from the local butchers I went to Grants Café Deli, in the High Street, where I got a cappuccino and they had a free 30 minutes of WiFi – however it was a BT Openzone access point, so I logged on using my account and had nearly an hour online. I watched Click, edited the blog, logged into a client’s server to check a problem out and updated eight apps on my iPhone.

The opening times at Grants are good; Mon to Wed 9am – 6pm, Thurs to Sat 9am – 8pm and Sun 10am – 4pm, as many Dingwall cafes stop serving at 4pm.

I got back to the site and put my iPhone in flight mode to charge it in the car, whilst we cooked and ate our award winning black pudding – which also got our seal of approval! After tea I got my phone out to update the blog and when I turned it on, the WiFi was still enabled and I have discovered there is a BT Openzone access point within range of us here – and I am now wondering if this is also part of the C and CC Site WiFi which means there would have been WiFi at Dunbar as well! I just never thought to check or ask because of previous costs and my current 3G deal. I will check in future.

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Dingwall Camping and Caravan Site

/ Camping, Travel / , , ,

We moved on from the time share in Aviemore this morning and set our tent up at the Camping and Caravan Site in Dingwall.

As a family we like this site and it is a regular place for us to camp. It is located within a short walk of the town of Dingwall with all it’s facilities including a huge Tesco with a cafe only 5 minutes away. In the other direction is a park on the shores of the Cromarty Firth both can be reached using the riverside (canal) path.

The view from the site is good. The sky is dramatically dark in some directions but it is sunny here and I am sitting outside for a change!

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The site is adjacent to Ross County Football Ground – there is home game going on there right now as I write this, and judging by the noise Ross County has just scored.

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Jeremy making me a coffee.

Part of the kit I have for back packing is a small sheet of heavy duty plastic which I use as a sit mat and as a dry area for when I am cooking. It can be. bit small and I cannot us it to stand rucksack or other gear on whilst packing it is too small. In the pound store I here in Dingwall I have just bought a 1m x 1m tarpaulin which I hope will be more versatile – and it is lighter.

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Trip to Scotland

/ General, Travel / , , ,

I am away on holiday, I drove to Scotland this morning with my son Jeremy. We did a Geocache on the way up near St Abbs and had a short walk along the the coast path before heading up to the Dunbar Camping and Caravan Club site near Dunbar.

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The above is a view south towards St Abbs.

However getting away was a bit of a rush – thanks to the “tech support” at U***** (more of that story later when I have time to write it up). In the rush I have left my sleeping mat behind – thanks U*****.

(You are not going to get the ADSL tech support story yet as my client has decided the best place for him to sort this issue is to take them to court.)

Better luck was on our side when it came to pitching the tent. We had just got the fly sheet up when the first spots of rain came along. It is a pitch the outer first tent, so we hurried and managed to get the inner up and all the equipment in before the heavier rain came along. I am now sitting in the tent, listening to the rain, drinking tea! Excellent.

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