AGAIN!

Clearly, there is no peace for the wicked.

So, we arrived back here at Winter base in Kippford on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning we collected our post and found that Mr Snail has a hospital appointment in Aberdeen on the 15th of this month. We were expecting the appointment but had hoped that it would coincide with our journey home when we leave here at the end of March.

After evaluating the options. Mr Snail declined the opportunity to defer the appointment and similarly rejected the idea of going home early. His preferred option is to take a week-long trip up to Aberdeen and back again and then to pack up ready to leave at the end of the month.

Now, this is actually a piece of genius as it enables him to resolve a clash of hopes. We can fit in a return trip to Anstruther and The Cellar for dinner, yet still meander home via Arran and the West Coast.

A flurry of planning has yielded an 8-night itinerary. We leave here next Saturday and return the following Sunday. Huntly Castle, where we stayed for his hospital appointment in September on our way down here, is not yet open for the season, so we cannot return there as we had hoped.

At the moment the trip looks like this:

• Wild at New Lanark on night 1
• Silverdyke Caravan Park at Cellardyke for two nights. Dinner at The Cellar.
• Stonehaven nights 4 and 5
• Glenmore, nights 6 and 7
• Taste Perthshire, most likely, night 8. I’m holding out for a fried breakfast.
• Back to base

About 500 miles overall. More perhaps, if the snow gates get closed. Maybe I’ll pack my thermals, Ireland has rendered me soft.

I’m looking forward to my dinner and also to being at Glenmore, which remains to date our favourite caravan site. I really dislike Aviemore itself and have no wish to go into town at all but I do love Loch Morlich and the Glenmore Forest.