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philmophlegmSaturday
Ever since I started work as a trainee accountant, I have always wanted to go to Campbeltown, at the southern end of Kintyre. You see, the firm I worked for then, Kidsons Impey, had an office there. I wondered quite what commerce there was in such an out of the way place to warrant a national firm of chartered accountants having an office there.
I still don't know.
The weather today varied from mildly tolerable to too-stormy-to-actually-take-photographs-because-there's-rain-on-the-lens-and-it's-too-blowy-to-hold-the-damn-thing-steady. The worst was driving down the A83 on the west coast of Kintyre. (From Oban, I took the A816 south, which meets the A83 at Lochgilphead, and from there the A83 goes as far as Campbeltown.) The weather was too bad to enjoy the driving to be honest. I actually went past Campbeltown to Southend and west to the Mull of Kintyre (well, almost). On this day, Mull of Kintyre wasn't so much "mist rolling in from the sea" as "rain driving in from the sea". Campbeltown is a grotty little town too. I had an ice cream at a little shop that prided itself on the quality of its home-made ice-cream, but to be honest it was flavourless mush with poor texture. Try to sell something like that in Devon, Cornwall or Parkgate and you'd be laughed at.
The drive north from Campbeltown up the B842 on the eastern side of the peninsula was more enjoyable - a more exciting road and also more sheltered from the Atlantic winds. I stopped at Skipness as the weather cleared momentarily to take photos of Arran across the sound. Then it was back up the A83, this time turning right at Lochgilphead then northeast along the shores of Loch Fyne (quite scenic) then up into the mountains of Glen Croe (not Glencoe, that's somewhere else, but Glen Croe is a very good up and down twisty road) to Arrochar where I turned right onto the A814 on the eastern shore of Loch Long and then turned right at Garelochhead onto the B833, then the unnumbered but very broad and flat road to Coulport. This is a military road built to allow easy access to the naval ammunitions dept where they store Trident missiles. And from that road I was able to see a Vanguard-class Trident missile submarine coming into port. Which was nice. Other vessels at the naval base - one Type 23 frigate and three minesweepers/minehunters.
From there, back to Garelochhead, down the A814 along the Firth of Clyde to Dumbarton (an appallingly dismal place) then into Glasgow to pick up the M8 and then the M74 south. By now it was dark and really raining heavily - not my favourite driving conditions. After a week of mostly fun driving, this was an abrupt end to my driving holiday. I ploughed on through the rain, stopping at the excellent Tebay services (why can't all motorway service stations be like this) for some food (a delicious Gloucester Old Spot pork pie from the farm shop) before heading on down the M6, the M56, the M53, the A55 and the A483 to Wrexham.
It was my intention to spend the night in Wrexham. Unfortunately seemingly every single bed in the town's hotels, B&Bs, guest houses and travel lodges was occupied, so I had to settle for Northwich instead. I did drive through Wrexham town centre on the way to Northwich though - revealing that Wrexham now has the same mix of pounding music, cheap booze and short skirts on a Saturday night that places like Plymouth do. Actually to be fair, nobody seemed to be quite as drunk as they do in Plymouth and I couldn't see any evidence of violence, although there were proportionately more police than you see in Plymouth at night.
In the morning, I went to Mickle Trafford where Bunn and I used to live and took photos of the three houses we lived in, before driving south to Wrexham and doing the same with the two houses I grew up in and my infants, junior and secondary schools. What was St David's Comprehensive when I was there is now 'Rhosnesni High' which to me sounds like an American teenage soap set in North Wales. Then I finished off in the town centre with Wrexham's shiny new Eagles Meadow shopping centre (very new, with lots of slate and waterfalls). Probably cheaper than Plymouth's Drake Circus but a lot more stylish. I wonder where kids in Wrexham learn to drive now. (When I was younger, Eagles Meadow was the Asda car park and also the site of a weekly market, but when Asda was closed and the market wasn't on, it was useful as a vast open expanse of tarmac that wasn't a public road, so most children in Wrexham (including me) had their first driving 'lessons' there long before they were legally allowed to drive.
After Wrexham, southeast along the A525 before picking up the A41, then the M54, the M6 and then the M1 to Watford, which is where I am now. I stopped at a motorway services on the M1 which was full of NFL fans heading to Wembley for tonight's New England / Tampa Bay game. I'm in Watford because I have an IFRS course tomorrow. Which will be dull.
Oh well, holiday over.
Ever since I started work as a trainee accountant, I have always wanted to go to Campbeltown, at the southern end of Kintyre. You see, the firm I worked for then, Kidsons Impey, had an office there. I wondered quite what commerce there was in such an out of the way place to warrant a national firm of chartered accountants having an office there.
I still don't know.
The weather today varied from mildly tolerable to too-stormy-to-actually-take-photographs-because-there's-rain-on-the-lens-and-it's-too-blowy-to-hold-the-damn-thing-steady. The worst was driving down the A83 on the west coast of Kintyre. (From Oban, I took the A816 south, which meets the A83 at Lochgilphead, and from there the A83 goes as far as Campbeltown.) The weather was too bad to enjoy the driving to be honest. I actually went past Campbeltown to Southend and west to the Mull of Kintyre (well, almost). On this day, Mull of Kintyre wasn't so much "mist rolling in from the sea" as "rain driving in from the sea". Campbeltown is a grotty little town too. I had an ice cream at a little shop that prided itself on the quality of its home-made ice-cream, but to be honest it was flavourless mush with poor texture. Try to sell something like that in Devon, Cornwall or Parkgate and you'd be laughed at.
The drive north from Campbeltown up the B842 on the eastern side of the peninsula was more enjoyable - a more exciting road and also more sheltered from the Atlantic winds. I stopped at Skipness as the weather cleared momentarily to take photos of Arran across the sound. Then it was back up the A83, this time turning right at Lochgilphead then northeast along the shores of Loch Fyne (quite scenic) then up into the mountains of Glen Croe (not Glencoe, that's somewhere else, but Glen Croe is a very good up and down twisty road) to Arrochar where I turned right onto the A814 on the eastern shore of Loch Long and then turned right at Garelochhead onto the B833, then the unnumbered but very broad and flat road to Coulport. This is a military road built to allow easy access to the naval ammunitions dept where they store Trident missiles. And from that road I was able to see a Vanguard-class Trident missile submarine coming into port. Which was nice. Other vessels at the naval base - one Type 23 frigate and three minesweepers/minehunters.
From there, back to Garelochhead, down the A814 along the Firth of Clyde to Dumbarton (an appallingly dismal place) then into Glasgow to pick up the M8 and then the M74 south. By now it was dark and really raining heavily - not my favourite driving conditions. After a week of mostly fun driving, this was an abrupt end to my driving holiday. I ploughed on through the rain, stopping at the excellent Tebay services (why can't all motorway service stations be like this) for some food (a delicious Gloucester Old Spot pork pie from the farm shop) before heading on down the M6, the M56, the M53, the A55 and the A483 to Wrexham.
It was my intention to spend the night in Wrexham. Unfortunately seemingly every single bed in the town's hotels, B&Bs, guest houses and travel lodges was occupied, so I had to settle for Northwich instead. I did drive through Wrexham town centre on the way to Northwich though - revealing that Wrexham now has the same mix of pounding music, cheap booze and short skirts on a Saturday night that places like Plymouth do. Actually to be fair, nobody seemed to be quite as drunk as they do in Plymouth and I couldn't see any evidence of violence, although there were proportionately more police than you see in Plymouth at night.
In the morning, I went to Mickle Trafford where Bunn and I used to live and took photos of the three houses we lived in, before driving south to Wrexham and doing the same with the two houses I grew up in and my infants, junior and secondary schools. What was St David's Comprehensive when I was there is now 'Rhosnesni High' which to me sounds like an American teenage soap set in North Wales. Then I finished off in the town centre with Wrexham's shiny new Eagles Meadow shopping centre (very new, with lots of slate and waterfalls). Probably cheaper than Plymouth's Drake Circus but a lot more stylish. I wonder where kids in Wrexham learn to drive now. (When I was younger, Eagles Meadow was the Asda car park and also the site of a weekly market, but when Asda was closed and the market wasn't on, it was useful as a vast open expanse of tarmac that wasn't a public road, so most children in Wrexham (including me) had their first driving 'lessons' there long before they were legally allowed to drive.
After Wrexham, southeast along the A525 before picking up the A41, then the M54, the M6 and then the M1 to Watford, which is where I am now. I stopped at a motorway services on the M1 which was full of NFL fans heading to Wembley for tonight's New England / Tampa Bay game. I'm in Watford because I have an IFRS course tomorrow. Which will be dull.
Oh well, holiday over.
