Edit, I tried to post this yesterday, but the broadband was even more erratic than usual and I had to give up. So here is yesterday’s post, today. We’re back in Kendall today, so have just driven 200 miles. I’ll tell you about the visit to a power station tomorrow.

Don’t know about you, I’m having a great time 😉

Saturday…
We pulled our walking boots on today and walked 6 miles through the forest. Outstandingly gorgeous views everywhere. The day started off fine, so I risked it in just a fleece, no coat, as I get hot when walking. But I lost the gamble and got soaked by the end of the walk. No matter, it’s only water, and it wasn’t cold at all.

It was a circular walk and we had parked at Auchindrain where there is an abandoned village that is now used to display the way people used to live here. But by the time we got back, it was only open for another hour, and we really needed a good sit down and a bite to eat before we could do anything else, so we missed out on that. It’s a shame, I would really have liked to see that.

We had a nice lunch of soup made with local vegetables, and an oat and date slice. Then we did a ‘Forest Drive’, which took us 12 miles through the forest on a meandering gravel road and showed us even more breath taking vistas and views. The forests here look like a science fiction film, there is so much sphagnum moss everywhere, it looks like the trees are pushing their way up through it. And where that isn’t happening, where the Forestry Commission have been working, it looks like a film set where all the trees have been blasted by a bomb – for miles. It is truly vast. The trees don’t put down very deep roots, and when they go over they pull up this big, flat, root system, it soon gets covered in moss and they look like sculptures.

Then there are the places where the trees are perched on top of feet and feet of deep, black, dark peat. Or on top of variously coloured slabs of rock. I picked up a couple of small very green and sparkly ones that caught my eye.

This is the view over Loch Awe at what felt like the top of the world.

When we got to the end of the Forest Drive, we just had to turn right and meander along a narrow road for 12 miles, right by the Loch edge, back to where we are staying. We are off back to Kendall for a couple of days tomorrow.

On our first evening here we met a couple who it turned out live not that far from us at home in Heathfield. And this evening, we have just met a group of 6 people from the village that we lived in before! What a small world. Just as well I wasn’t up to no good isn’t it 😉

Here is my makeup free selfie, with DP, right at the top of the forest, overlooking Loch Awe