Just like last year we arrived to much snow. We had delayed the trip a few days due to illness, but it was quite fortunate we did. I doubt we would have been able to reach the site had we come earlier. The shear volume of snow we arrived to was Alpine. There was 2 feet of standing snow at the site and 3 feet in the surrounding hills. Whilst the site staff had cut a path to our pitch and attempted to clear the pitch as well, it still took us 15 minutes of digging and salting to reach the pitch and park up. In addition the temperature was minus 11 and had been for a few days, so the snow had frozen to the trees and anywhere else it had landed. The photos don’t do it justice.
Here are a few photos :
Once again we spent our time simply walking the hills, managing more than 20,000 steps per day along routes we found using the Ordnance Survey App. These routes took us up into the hills, through Anagach Woods and down along the river Spey. In the hills there was no wind at all and combined with the extreme temperatures we found a near silent world. We stood and listened = but nothing. No planes, no cars, not even any birds – just silence and peace. What more do you need?
As with previous visits(see previous blogs – here, here and here) , the site was superb, although less effort seemed to be given to snow and ice clearance on the paths and roads around the site. But given the conditions I can understand why. A little rain had fallen on compacted snow / ice so it was just like an ice rink and difficult to even stand up.
Kirkpatrick Fleming, Dumfriesshire – near Gretna
To break the 400 mile plus journey home, we again looked for a site about half way. Again we had difficulty finding a private site that was open at this time in the year. This time we opted for King Robert The Bruce’s Cave Camping & Caravan Holiday Park. It was better than Cressfield Caravan Park but not by much. It was located between the motorway and the railway which was a little bit of a shock coming from the peace and tranquillity of the Highlands. The site itself was a bit tired and past it’s best, with laminated notices everywhere telling you what you should not do. Another one we tried and won’t be back to.
Round trip distance 815 miles according to google maps.