Loch Barnluasgan and Bellanoch Viewpoint

This started out as a short, flat walk, just round the loch along a path suitable for baby buggies or wheelchairs.

 

It's a pleasant spot with water lilies flowering in the calm waters of the loch, trees covered in weird and wonderful lichens, and in summer dragonflies flit around. 

It's close to the main Knapdale beaver watching site, and their activity - distinctive gnawing of fallen trees and such - can be seen here though I've never spotted them themselves.

Things got more energetic - and tiring  - when I decided to add on a walk to the Bellanoch viewpoint. 750 metres can't be far, I thought. And anyway, it's uphill, so every return step is downwards. I can turn round when I start to feel I've gone too far.

The route follows a forest road - in fact cars can allegedly use it to reach a wildlife visitor centre but it's loose gravel and while it's a good path, I'm not sure it's a good road unless you've got a 4x4. After the visitor centre the road deteriorates but is still clear  

 But having gone up ... and up ... and up it turned out that I then had to walk DOWN to see the view. 

I nearly gave up then. I could see the view - sort of - and didn't expect it to be much different at the viewpoint. But worried about missing something wonderful I sent my more energetic husband ahead to check how much further I had to go, and how good the view was, and he came back with photos that inspired me to walk that bit further, even knowing I was going to end up walking back uphill. 

So I, not quite inched, but walked gradually downhill, ready at any moment to turn round if I thought the walk back would be too much, till the trees fell away and the horizon opened up before us with the most amazing view out over Crinan Ferry past small islands to Mull.

Closer to hand, though partly hidden by the hillside, was Bellanoch canal basin, with Crinan canal winding past it on its way to the sea, and the river Add running alongside while the tide moved in over the wide expanses of sand and mud-flats.

Inland the river snakes across the tidal flats that lain Banks in The Crow Road turned into Upper Loch Crinan, with his fictional town of Gallanach situated somewhere on the edge of the distant hills.

It was definitely worth making the effort for, though my legs weren't too happy at the first uphill section as we walked back, but at least the remaining bits were downhill then flat around the loch!

 

Tayvallich

I first holidayed at Tayvallick about 30 years and, although we've visited in the intervening years and stayed at other places in the surrounding area, this is the first time I've been back to spend more than a day in the village.

It lies on one of those long spurs of land separated by fingers of sea that characterise the Knapdale area, facing east towards the shelter of land. We stayed in a flat overlooking  the curve of the bay and passed a couple of lazy mornings walking from one end of the village to the other, and sitting to watch the goings-on. 

For a small place, there's a lot to occupy visitors. There are boats to watch bobbing in the harbour, a passenger ferry to Jura, a cafe with decking overlooking it all (sadly only open for takeaway during our stay due to staff shortages but I've eaten there in the past and it's a lovely spot to spend an hour or so), and at the opposite end of the village a restaurant. There's even a community centre with tennis courts and such that visitors can use, but we didn't.

A short walk from the main harbour took us over a slight ridge to another bay - Carsaig; a more untamed place with a shingley/seaweedy beach which looks west towards Jura, and has wonderful sunsets, and although there's no cafe there's a cake honesty box. A good place to just sit and watch the water lap at the shore.

And at Kyle Scotnish picnic place just north of the village, we spotted an otter swimming and diving for food. There are beavers in the area, from the Knapdale release scheme, but I think to have spotted one of those would have been too lucky*, and I'm happy to have seen an otter. Slightly further afield there are walks through Knapdale forest (more of that another time) and the Taynish Nature Reserve, more boats to watch along Crinan Canal, and historic monuments to puzzle over at Kilmartin Glen. 

One of the snags about re-visiting somewhere you know well is having to curtail the things you could do if only you had time. I'm already planning a trip back to catch those missed-out things.

* I've since watched the video of a near-to-home release of beavers at Willington in Derbyshire, and I'm still not certain what I saw. It could have been a beaver but an otter seems more likely.

Loch Fyne and Crinan - part two

For a very short break, we seemed to pack a lot into our time away, so, as a follow-on to part one, here's part two of our stay in Argyll :)














We stayed in a cottage (found through AirBnB) in the village of Minard, on Loch Fyne, (above) just down the road from the National Trust for Scotland's Crarae Garden, which I very much wanted to visit while we were staying so close by.













It's not a formal, flower-bed sort of garden, and doesn't feel planned and designed, but it is.












A steep-sided Scottish glen has been transformed resemble a Himalayan valley.with paths wandering back and forth across the burn as it cascades down the hillside.













































There are rhododendrons, eucalyptus trees, bamboo, and Japanese maples, but everything seems so completely at home in this setting that it's hard to remember that most of these plants and trees aren't native.

We'd fortunately stumbled on one of those wonderful sunny West Highland days when the sea lochs reflect the blue of the sky. and the scene from the viewpoint was breath-taking.

It's not a long walk round but it was certainly the hilliest of the weekend, so cake was needed before we left. This delicious slice was the last of a courgette and avocado cake - not something I've tried before, but definitely would again.

It was onwards then, down a wriggly road beside Caol Scotnish, one of those fingers of sea that cuts deeply into the land round here, to the village of Tayvallich. There are lots of forest walks around here but we weren't really equipped for them, so headed just south of the village to Taynish Nature Reserve.








Here there's again a variety of walks but we chose the shortest - to Taynish Mill and back - and discovered it to be the site of a series of outdoor art installations.



































































The mill itself is now a ruin, but the burn which once fed its machinery falls prettily down rocks, and not much further on the path reaches the sea - Loch Sween this time

I didn't manage to photograph dragonflies on our walk the previous day at Loch Barnluasgan, but on the return to the car at Taynish we spotted several sunning themselves on a bench.

We definitely didn't have time to see and do all we wanted to, but these few days have got me back into the mood of holidaying, and spending time away from home. Next year I'm sure we'll be back for longer