Summer in Scotland: Adfern and surrounding area

Neolithic burial mound in Kilmartin Glen

For the final few days of our time in Scotland last summer we stayed at a B&B in the small community of Ardfern with a rather eccentric host (who has since sold the B&B). Here are some of the highlights of our time exploring the local area.

One of the first and most memorable things we did was a guided walk of the neolithic (mainly burial) sites in Kilmartin Glen. The guided walk started and ended at the Kilmartin Museum and we spent a couple of hours being guided round the glen by some very friendly locals. The glen is packed with incredibly well preserved neolithic remains.

I can't remember many fact from the walk now, but I do remember enjoying it at the time. They take a limited number of people on the walks and regularly hit capacity so it is worth getting your name onto the sign up sheet early in the morning and then coming back for the walk in the afternoon.

Becks disappearing into a burial mound

Not to far from Kilmartin is the small settlement of Crinan. We visited twice, once during the day to go for a walk along the canal and then we returned in the evening for dinner in the seafood bar at the Crinan hotel which is well known locally as one of the best spots in the area for seafood. Having ticked langoustine off my list in Islay, this time I ordered a plate of scallops which was another item on my holiday check list.

Scallops at the Crinan seafood bar

Knapdale Forest

Taking advantage of the long summer days up in Scotland we stopped for a walk in the Knapdale forest on the way home from Crinan. The forest is the site of trial to introduce beaver colonies back into the wild in Scotland. We didn't spot any of the beavers, but did see some of their dams and had a pleasant walk round the forest on some of the trials.

At Arduaine gardens

On another long day out and about we started of by looking round the Arduiane gardens (lovely, but we were a bit out of season) before heading up to Oban. Compared to the rest of our trip Oban was tourist central with lots of overseas visitors around. Oban is clearly a tourist hub and a gateway to some of the outer islands.

Lobster in Oban

We had lunch at Eeusk (lobster, the final tick on my seafood wish list)  on the waterfront and a quick look round the centre of town before jumping into the car again and heading to Easdale island, a delightful, if slightly odd experience. 

Wheelbarrows Easdale

The tiny island of Easdale can only be accessed by a small ferry which only takes foot passengers. When you arrive on the island, the first thing you see if an assortment of wheelbarrows that the locals use to transport their shopping from the ferry back to their houses.

The island is covered in abandoned slate mines and was clearly a hub in the activity in its day. The only thing to do on the island is to have a walk around some of the abandoned mines and through the small settlement near the ferry.

Abandoned slate mines on Easdale

The island was very idyllic but it must be a tough live living on the island, exposed to the weather and only able to access your home via a small very. I suspect everyone that lives there must do it because they love the island. 

Bridge over the Atlantic

Summer in Scotland: The Isle of Jura

Becks looking towards Lagg

My favourite day of the holiday was the one we spent on Jura, which is just a short hop on the ferry from Islay. It would be fair to say that there isn't much to do on the island apart from drink in the scenery, but oh what scenery it is.

There is only one main road on the island and we spent the day driving as far north as we could (the top of the island is private land), before turning round and retracing our steps in time for a ferry back to Islay.

Inverlussa Bay

The furthest north we went was to the inlet of Inverlussa. In between the rain showers we managed to go for a walk on the beach and a visit to a converted horse box, which is now a make shift café. One of the locals puts a freshly baked cake into the horse box each morning along with a couple of Thermos flasks of hot water. You can make yourself a drink and enjoy a slice of cake and leave some money in the honesty box when you are done.

Tea on the beach

We were thinking about taking on part of Evan's walk, but the wind was howling a bit too much for us. Plus it looked quite a lot like rain....

Evans Walk

No visit to Jura would be complete without popping into the distillery. We'd missed the daily tour, but one of the people working in the shop kindly took us into the distillery to see the stills and also to the barrel room. Once back in the shop I asked if I could do a tasting and much to my surprise they don't do paid tastings but they were very happy to give me a free dram instead!

Jura distillery

Summer in Scotland: The Isle of Islay

Portnahaven on Islay

Islay has to be the most famous whisky producing venue in the world. The more attentive readers among you will notice a complete absence of whisky in this post, but never fear I have a dedicated Islay whisky blog coming up!

On our first day on Islay we headed down the western side of the island. Our first stop was at Port Charlotte where we visited the Islay National History Centre and the Museum of Islay life, both of which were charmingly stuck in a bit of a time warp but interesting to look round none the less.

Machir Bay

After Port Charlotte we headed to Portnahaven (top photo) at the tip of the western peninsula which is a quaint, and exceedingly quiet, little fishing village. On the way home we stopped for a walk on the almost endless beach at Machir Bay.

Langoustine at The Lochside in Bowmore

Our best meal of the holiday was at The Lochside Hotel in Bowmore. From the outside it looks like a slightly rough pub, but looks (or my prejudice) is utterly deceptive as inside is a modern bar and a large dining room looking out to sea. I ordered an enormous place of sweet langoustine that I enjoyed devouring and Becks had some equally excellent scallops. We were lucky to get in without a booking, so make sure you reserve a table if you are in Bowmore.

Highland cow on The Oa

While on the island we also did a walk round The Oa peninsula which is a huge RSPB nature reserve. The reserve is home to the American Monument which commemorates two troop ships that were sunk in 1918 during WWI. Unsurprisingly we saw quite a few American tourists making a respectful visit to the memorial.

During our walk I took the above picture of a highland cow which made it to the final of the photography exhibition held by the Islay Book Festival!

American memorial on The Oa

Becks at the lighthouse near Port Ellen

In the afternoon of our walk round The Oa, we also walked around the headland from Port Ellen to beach known as the 'Singing Sands' (below). The sun came out while we were at the beach and it looked almost tropical, but looks can be deceptive as the water was absolutely freezing! I lasted a matter of seconds in the sea, but did manage to find a shallow rock pool which had been warmed by the sun and made for a much more pleasant paddle.

Singing sands

On the blog I generally follow the principle that if you can't say something nice, it's better not to say anything at all. However, I'm going to break my own rule to say that I was unimpressed by our stay at The Harbour Inn in Bowmore. The staff were lovely, and the breakfasts were very good, but the rooms were just not up to standard. The impractical layout and the fact they were a bit tatty round the edges were a minor annoyance, but worst by far was the fact the mattress was shockingly worn out and sagging, completely incompatible with a good nights sleep. If you are thinking of staying check they've replaced the mattresses.

Port Ellen beach

Summer in Scotland: The Isle of Arran

Machrie Moor standing stones

Back in the summer we spent ten days travelling round Scotland, starting off with a couple of nights on the Isle of Arran.

On our only full day in Arran we did a lap of the island in our dinky little hire car. We started off by visiting the standing stones at Machrie Moor, a neolithic site with multiple sets of standing stones within a relatively small area. We had the area almost completely to ourselves and saw lots of pink foxgloves on the walk to and from the stones.

Pink foxgloves

Continuing round the island we saw a new distillery being built (which we learned the following day was owned by the Arran distillery) and then stopped for a walk along the beach in Whiting Bay. We parked opposite the Arran Art Gallery and decided to pop in before we continued our drive round the island. I didn't have much hope for the gallery, but it was actually really good with lots of pictures and prints that we wanted to buy. We ended up buying four pictures that the shipped back to London for us at reasonable rates. I'm pleased to say we still like the pictures several months on!

Arran distillery

On our final morning on Arran we took the tour at the Arran Distillery. Having tasted one of the first bottles that the distillery produced I have to say that I don't hold their whisky in particularly high regard. They seem to be doing really well so you probably should take my opinion with a pinch of salt! Their tour was very interesting and they gave me a dram to take away (which I still haven't tried).

Copper stills inside the distillery

The distillery make a big thing about being independent and making non-peated whiskies, so it gave me a wry smile to learn that the distillery we'd seen under construction was owned by them and was being set up specifically to make peated whisky.

Lochranza Castle

From our short time in Arran, I'd say the food was a bit mixed. We had a nice evening meal at The Stag's Pavillion, but the most pleasing surprise was discovering The Sandwich Station. They make really good sandwiches on locally baked sourdough bread and using interesting local ingredients. I think the sandwich bar would holds its own in any city in the UK and was not the dry white bread and soggy lettuce I was expecting!

Lochranza sandwich station

One of the strangest things about Arran, in a nice way, was the number of red swings that were dotted around the island in completely isolated locations. Why build a swing where there are no nearby houses to make use of them?

There were swings all over Arran

We left Arran on this small ferry heading towards the Isle of Islay.

Leaving Lochranza by ferry

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Trees

When we were planning our trip to California, I was determined to fit in a visit to a National Park when I was there. When I was reading reviews, Joshua Tree very rarely came up, or at least if it did it was pretty far down the list. However, all of the blockbuster parks were further from our base of LA than we wanted to drive we decided to take a chance on Joshua Tree. I'm really pleased we did as our day inside the park was easily my favourite day of the holiday.

Hidden Valley trail

We started our day in the park office close to our Air BnB apartment to pay our park fee and get some advice on what to do during the day and then we were off into the park!

Our first stop was the Barker Dam trail. As with all the walk during the day it was an easy 30 min - 1 hr loop from the car park which head out to a small, and now empty, dam that was built by cattle ranches in first half of the last century. On the way to the dam we saw some ancient rock paintings which, if I remember correctly, a TV crew had painted over to make them stand our more for their filming!

Inside the Hidden Valley

It was then a short drive to the Hidden Valley a one mile loop through large boulders in, surprisingly enough, a hidden valley. There were a number of rock climbers inside the valley who were looking for challenges to climb.

Hidden Valley rock formations

After we'd come out of the valley we sat at some of the nearby picnic benches to eat our lunch and soak in the amazing view below of hundreds of Joshua Trees as far as the eye could see.

Joshua Trees as far as the eye can see

After lunch we drove up to the Keys View lookout, which had hazy views down to the Mexican border which you can apparently see when the smog isn't too bad.

Skull Rock

We then drove onto Skull Rock which really does look like a skull, as you can see for yourself from the photo above.

We then drove across to the Cholla cactus garden. I was pretty nervous walking along the paths and in between the cacti as there were signs telling you that the needles were really difficult to remove if you managed to prick yourself. Not somewhere that you'd want to lose your footing....

Cholla Cactus Garden Trail

The cholla cactus garden also marked the point where the national park transitioned from the Mojave dessert where we had spent most of the day to the Sonoran dessert below us. There were huge and vastly different vistas.

Our trusty hire car

Our final stop of the day, as the shadows were lengthening, was the White Tank camping ground for a short walk round one of the trails and a visit to the rock arch below.

The arch at White Tank

And with that our Californian holiday came to and end. It has only taken me fifteen months to get the final blog of our holiday posted!

What on earth are you doing in Rancho Cucamonga on your honeymoon??

Becks with her giant pancakes

It would be fair to say that I wasn't particularly looking forward to the long drive from Solvang to Joshua Tree National Park, so the night before we'd been looking at the map of somewhere to break the journey along the way. We settled on Corky's Kitchen and Bakery in Rancho Cucamonga as a point to aim at, a bit over half way and beyond what should be the worst of the LA traffic.

Corky's didn't turn out to be the idyllic American diner you'd perhaps be dreaming of, instead it was modern building in a small parade of bland shops just off the freeway. But we'd arrived and I was looking forward to a break from the driving so we headed inside.

Reuben sandwich

Detecting our foreign accents, one of the friendly servers asked us what we what we were up to. When we said that we were on our honeymoon we the rather startled, and priceless response, "what on earth are you doing in Rancho Cucamonga on your honeymoon?".

Eating enormous pancakes is what Becks' was doing. The pancakes were so large that the accompanying scrambled eggs and bacon had to be served on a separate plate. They were fearsome looking beasts but Becks put in a valiant effort only leaving a amount for a takeaway box.

My reuben was thankfully a lot more modest.

Rolling back into the car we completed a trouble free drive to the Air BnB apartment we'd rented in Joshua Tree just outside the National Park.

Our Air BnB house in Joshua Tree

In the evening we took a load of washing to the laundrette and sat there while it was going round in the machine. There were some 'characters' who came to do their washing while we were including one women, who after studying us, decided to come over and tell us that she thought we were a well suited couple.

Fed up of eating out we made our maiden visit to Walmart to pickup some supplies for the next couple of days. The US hypermarket was a sadly underwhelming experience and not that different to big supermarkets in the UK or France (or at least the Joshua Tree branch wasn't).

Hiroshima, Japan

After breakfast in the hotel we walked up to Hakata train station in Fukuoka to catch our bullet train to Hiroshima. Taking my first ride on a bullet train in Japan was one of the things I was looking forward to about our holiday in Japan and it didn't disappoint.

We got to the station well in advance of our train, and standing on the platform, the first thing I noticed was just how many bullet trains there were. They aren't some sort of special service a couple of times an hour, but were constantly zipping in and out of the dedicated bullet train platforms.

The second thing that struck me was the precision of everything, there were lots of clear signs telling you where to stand for your carriage / seat number, the trains stopped perfectly in front of the platform edge doors and it goes without saying that all of the trains were on time.

The only thing that would have made the experience better would have been a speedometer in the carriage so we knew how fast we were travelling.

Hiroshima sports dome

After unsuccessfully managing to find a locker for our luggage at the train station (a bit of a theme during the holiday), we dropped of our bags in our Air BnB apartment and then set off for a walk around Hiroshima.

Full of tourists and emotion we initially didn't spend too much time in the Peace Park, instead starting our sightseeing of Hiroshima just to the north of the park.

Hiroshima castle

We spent some time in the grounds of Hiroshima castle which was convincing reconstructed in 1958. We didn't go into the castle itself, but wondered round the grounds and looked inside a temple inside the grounds which seemed to have the Japanese equivalent of a christening taking place.

Shukkeien garden.

After the castle we wondered across to the Shukkei-en garden. We arrived with only half and hour before the garden closed, which was just enough time to have a look round. It was a tranquil and pleasant space, largely free from the large number of tourists that seemed ubiquitous in the rest of the city.

My photos of the garden don't really do it justice, but it was a lovely space. We saw quite a few tiny crabs scurrying along the paths as we made our way round the eastern side of the garden.

Becks in the park

For dinner we started our routine of decision that beset us every time we wanted to find somewhere to eat in Japan. We'd wonder up and down the road staring cluelessly at each restaurant, then down a side street and possibly one more before finally choosing somewhere to eat for no good reason other than we stood outside it. And to think we consider ourselves decisive people most of the time!

Becks at the counter

On this occasion our indecisive shuffle led us to this Hiroshima style okonomiyaki restaurant. We were shown to two prime seats sitting at the counter of the hot plate where we got to see the chef making our okonomiyaki right in front of us. (Although Becks went rogue and was the only person in the place to have noodles instead.)

While I really enjoyed the theatre and atmosphere of the restaurant my okonomiyaki  did get a little same-y but the end of the dish. It probably missed all of the delicate subtleties of the dish.....

My Hiroshima style okonomiyaki

After dinner we went for a walk round the Peace Park before heading back to our apartment for the night. It was much more tranquil now that all the tour groups and day trippers had left which gave us time to appreciate the park much more than you could during the day.

A bomb dome

Restaurant address:
3 Chome-3-5 
Ōtemachi, Naka-ku, 
Hiroshima-shi, 
Hiroshima-ken
730-0051,
Japan