Loch Lomond

After a bus and a train and a stunning but tiring walk around the shoreline, sometimes over jagged rocks, we made it to our Loch Lomond campsite. Loch Lomond is a large picturesque freshwater lake north of Glasgow. This was our first view on the way in:

Loch Lomond

Setting up our sparkling new tent and checking out the facilities we soon realised (again) that this camping gig is harder without a car and a stove!  The camping park we were staying at had a temperamental microwave as its sole cooking accessory. Luckily the 4km walk back to Balmaha to buy more appropriate food supplies and visit the restaurant was gorgeous at any time of day. Well, except for the time I rolled my ankle and that time that it poured with rain!

Traditional tent photo - with over the top colour co-ordination

It was mostly great to be back camping. A highlight was when I forgot to take my towel to the shower. You would not usually put that in the highlight box but it became very funny for me thanks to some youngsters having showers at the same time:

          

Kid 1: “Oh no I forgot my towel!”

Kid 2: “What? How could you forget your towel? Are you an idiot? It is the ONE thing you need to remember to bring when you have a shower.”

Kid 1: “Oh well”

Me [thinking]: Chuckling to myself that I am the adult that forgot the ONE thing I needed to remember for a shower!

After some silence, minutes later:

Kid 2: “I STILL can’t believe you forgot your TOWEL!”

Me [thinking, again]: Wow, really rubbing it in now. (As I try to dry my back with my shirt…)

We did do other things other than eat and take showers! There were some beautiful walking trails in the area, aside from our ordinary commute to Balmaha. My favourite was up to Conic Hill where you could see the the results of the Highland Boundary Fault which crosses over the loch. The Highland Boundary Fault traverses Scotland from the west to the east and separates the Highlands from the Lowlands. 

Looking down from Conical Hill and the fault line

I like it because you can immediately draw a connection to where you are, and the map!

Highland boundary Fault - Source: www.iat-sia.org

Walking along singing a song

Taking a break in the sun

Stunning scenery (this is the part where we 
don't admit to being lost)

Views over Loch Lomond

Walking to Conic Hill

Detour, i.e. we briefly got lost (finally admitted it)

Back in Balmaha, we celebrated our day by trying a haggis burger (really not for me!) and some cookie dough (always, always for me!). I thought that the cookie dough could probably have a more alluring name but I guess it was just cookie dough! It reminded me of an idea for a cafe that my friend Hayley has. Sorry can't reveal that here!

Yummy cookie dough and ice-cream

During our stay we took the ferry across to the other side of the loch to the village of Luss. The ferry provided some information on the area around Loch Lomond. There are apparently wallabies on one of the islands of the Loch but we didn't spot any! Once in Luss we did a loop walk around town which took in Luss Parish Church and some lush Luss gardens (I couldn't help it.) The quaint church had and a small cemetery which contained an 11th century Viking grave (called a hogback). After a walk through town we found a nice cafe for coffee where wrote in our journals and watched tourists taking photos of the waiters dressed in kilts.

Waiting for the ferry to Luss

Pretty cottages of Luss

Everyone likes an honest sign

Rob got stuck in a loop!!

Packing up the tent we walked back to Balmaha, had a great coffee before taking the bus back to Balloch. In Balloch a kind lady at the information centre let us store our big backpacks in the boot of her car whilst we explored. We walked through Balloch Castle Country park and its various gardens and checked out a few shops around town. Then we settled down for a "Scottish Breakfast" for lunch, naturally. That was an adventure! The sausages were square and I was not at all sure what the brown, round thing on my plate was. I have since looked it up: Black pudding, apparently, is common in many European countries and is made of pork's blood and oatmeal. Definitely not a dessert pudding!

Balloch Castle

Scottish Breakfast Source: Wikipedia

Although there are so many beautiful places in Scotland, I am glad we chose Loch Lomond as a place to explore. It was a short trip from Glasgow which gave us time to relax and explore. Hopefully, next time we will make it further north - into the Highlands!!

Guilin, and When We Discovered Dragons

Guilin was a great change from the odd experience that was Guangzhou (just perhaps, Dennis and Andy might have been right).

Guilin is a lovely 'town' with a natural beauty on just about each street corner.  It is as if someone took Ha Long Bay, drained all of the water out, turned the boats into buildings, gave everyone electric motorbikes and turned all of the signs Chinese.  

Walking along the river in Guilin

Finding the way from the north train station to our hostel, after a fast train from Guangzhou (248 km/h), was an adventure that involved: using my backpack as a blocker  to get on the bus (much like in an American football game) and walking through the walls of a Ming Palace.  The Ming Palace Hostel was more like a hotel and with the exception of heavy metal music during breakfast (selected by a nice guy who introduced himself by his English-name 'Jelly'), I would certainly recommend it.

Inside one of the 'rockparks'

Shrines on the canal

It was just such a lovely place to walk around.  The river runs through Guilin to Yangshuo, a place we intended to visit, and would have but for a miscommunication on which station the bus left from.  Instead, we walked the river and side-streets of Guilin, discovering rock-parks and small shrines all about the place.

Guilin is a great launching point for a visit to the Long Ji and Jin Keng rice terraces, also known as the Dragon's Backbone.  Sa Pa was a beautiful place, but for sheer size, the Long Ji terraces blow it out of the water.  They are a testament to human's ability to adapt their environment to suit their needs.  Although I saw many terraces during my time in Nepal and even Cambodia, it was never really as close or as intimate as either of these experiences.  Unfortunately, the weather hampered our photographic experiences.

We spent four nights climbing about the various viewpoints in the area, with two nights in Ping'An village and two nights in Dazhai.  We happened to be in Ping'An at the start of what I would have to describe as the field preparation season, and to celebrate a huge festival erupted in a town nearby.  With fire-crackers and food and music and loudspeakers, everyone celebrated the time when the fields are ploughed in preparation for the planting of rice.  Workers abounded with their tools slung carelessly across their backs and the local women poured into the streets offering us to take photos of their long hair (like Chai and the H'Mong people, they never cut it).

Towards the festival

The whole area is experiencing a construction boom - much like in Pokhara - required simply to accommodate the thousands of daily Chinese tourists.  So much so that really the most peaceful time we had was our early morning hike (about four hours) between Ping'An and Dazhai.  

On the peaceful walk to Dazhai

Through the valley

Not that I am complaining, the whole time there was wonderful, and while there were many tourists of all shapes and sizes, you could not wish them away, the views were just too good.  While on the walk, we had a breakfast just by the viewpoint 'Nine Dragons, Five Tigers'.  It was quite difficult to work out how to order, or even to be sure that they were preparing something for us, but in the end there was nothing to worry about because we got exactly what we were after, the mainstay of Chinese breakfast - noodle soup.

The Dragon's Backbone

From the Jade Buddha viewpoint

One has to use their imagination, much like at the caves of Ha Long Bay to see the shapes inherent in the names of the viewpoints, but I think that Dragon's Backbone is the most apt.  Other spots we visited had names such as 'Seven Stars & Moon' & Jade Buddha viewpoint.

Costs for things that matter:

• Local bus (Qingtan bus station to Long Ji gate) - 21RMB /person
• Bus from gate up to Ping'An - 10RMB /person
• Village entrance fee (pay once and stay as many days as you like) - 100RMB /person
• Accomm - 100-150RMB /double room

Bamboo Rice and smoked sausages

Tips:

• Do the lovely walk between Ping'An and Dazhai in the early morning, before the tourists and heat come out to play.
• Pick a hotel in Dazhai considering where the sun will be, it can be freezing if you are always tucked in the shade (we were there in April).
• Guilin - don't go to the wrong bus station to get the bus to Yangshuo - hint: it's not Qingtan.
• If we weren't watching the budget, it would have been great to try the bamboo chicken in Ping'An.