Framedlight

Following our soggy night we were worried about moving the van off our campsite the next morning, but as we were camped on sand the ground had drained quickly. Rain was still falling as we set off north, finally turning to cross the Kintyre peninsula and meet the main road to Lochgoilhead where we came across the Crinan Canal. This was built to cut across the top of the peninsula so that ships would not have to sail all the way round to get from the north into the Clyde. A road follows the course of the canal to the west coast and we followed this route and came across a lovely lock basin in Dunardry where yachts were negotiating their way through. By this time the rain had dried up although the sky was still very overcast. We watched as a yacht came though to a lower level. There are 15 lochs along the stretch of the canal and it must take a day to negotiate them all. To one side of the Lock there were some stone ruins which are the remains of the Li...

On Thursday Mairi and I went for a walk along the Lee Valley. The day was not sensational - overcast and muggy. The web site for the Lee Valley (http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/outdoors/walks-walking/walking-routes/) gives a number of walks and we chose a circular one, around 4 miles in length, about as much as the dog can do. We started off by the boat pool and ended up there again, after walking down the canal,  past Dobb's Weir and then through the new river path  and back via Broxbourne station. To start we saw a canal barge used for trippers and then, strangely, we passed a man unicycling down the tow path. At times the vegetation on the banks looked tropical.