Bongo Fury

Well that was a lovely weekend in a stunning part of the country. Thanks to all who helped organise it, to Chrissie for the Stornoway black pudding on Sunday, to Paul & Annette for taking Chris on the bike ride, and to David for taking Hannah out in the canoe.

On a couple of previous tours I’ve wanted to go to Edzell castle & gardens near Brechin but we’ve always ran out of time – so this time I thought we’d make it first on the list. We left home about 11.30pm Wednesday in order to miss the traffic I thought “We’ll just get past Glasgow” and then “we’ll just get past Perth” and then “we’ll just get past Dundee”.... we were at Edzell before it was properly light


Edzell castle....


....& gardens








Then on to the remains of Old Slains castle near Collieston....


....before moving on to the remains of New Slains castle at Cruden Bay....


....which has a chequered history but may yet be restored.












Fyvie castle




Huntly castle


So we eventually pitched up on site 18 hours after leaving home


First job, get cooking!!






Friday morning – time to survey the scene


Did I mention that the site was a bit damp in places?


The shop was doing a brisk trade in anti-midge devices


Anyway, smoke is a good deterrent so let’s get breakfast on the go!!




Muzette wanted to go to the reindeer centre....




















Meanwhile Muz Jr went on a mountainbike ride with The Gordons – thanks Paul & Annette....


They went around Loch Morlich, through the Glenmore Forest and down Gleann Einich to Loch Einich – about a 30 mile round trip.














Muzette then blagged a go in David’s canoe

























Lunch anyone?


Muzette then decided we’d take the easy way up Cairn Gorm
















Loch Morlich


The campsite from the top of Cairn Gorm




Back to the site....




....for another barbecue....


....with some quality ingredients


Loch Morlich sunset






Several varieties of locally distilled produce were available....


....plus some other interesting home-made delights!!




A perfect morning to pack up after a cold but dry night

Love the photos Muz. It was a pleasure providing the home made delights. I saw you taking photos of the morning after the night before carnage!

Chrissy

Bongopoet wrote:I saw you taking photos of the morning after the night before carnage!

They're often the funniest - this one was from a recent meet in Wales

Muzorewa wrote:

Bongopoet wrote:I saw you taking photos of the morning after the night before carnage!

They're often the funniest - this one was from a recent meet in Wales

Lovely pics Muz, you fitted a lot into your time there. How come Hannah ended up outside the canoe?

She was being towed - a lazy way of going swimming around the loch

Was it not cold? I am only looking at pics and it feels cold.

Sunday we hit a tropical 25degrees! No such thing as wrong weather only the wrong clothes!

Oh, I'm sure it was absolutely freezing but you know what Hannah is like with water. I didn't even dip my toe in there

Muzorewa wrote:Oh, I'm sure it was absolutely freezing but you know what Hannah is like with water. I didn't even dip my toe in there

I walked in but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be! But then it is maybe all those unhealthy puddings that keep me warm!

Good to meet up with some new faces as well, and to finally meet Brorabongo and Dave Aber after yonks on this forum. Thanks also to Zoe for the Birthday cake, I trust Matt's shins are recovered after Saturday night

Competition time - who can guess who is inside the tent....

Muzorewa wrote:

Bongopoet wrote:I saw you taking photos of the morning after the night before carnage!

They're often the funniest - this one was from a recent meet in Wales

its funny what you can do with clever camera angles,that mess wasnt outside our bongo as the pic implied , it was that umbongo clan from darn sarf. .
(the boss is goin to spam you muz)

Northern Bongolow wrote:

Muzorewa wrote:

Bongopoet wrote:I saw you taking photos of the morning after the night before carnage!

They're often the funniest - this one was from a recent meet in Wales

its funny what you can do with clever camera angles,that mess wasnt outside our bongo as the pic implied , it was that umbongo clan from darn sarf. .
(the boss is goin to spam you muz)

who us??? never!

And we weren't burning wood on the BBQ and we did put it out properly when asked nicely by the nice site manager.
And yes it was outside our van but then everyone who had a bongo was sitting around our nice water feature.

Bongopoet wrote:And we weren't burning wood on the BBQ and we did put it out properly when asked nicely by the nice site manager.
And yes it was outside our van but then everyone who had a bongo was sitting around our nice water feature.

Killjoys these site wardens, we were at a site adjacent to a disused airfield in Northamptonshire that stipulated no fires, and they personally used sand to extinguish some pallets that mysteriously happened to have caught fire next to our tent

Crazy thing is that your fire wasn't endangering anything or anybody, and was being studiously watched by plenty of people so should anything untoward happen it would be dealt with right away.

We were threatened with eviction from Belgium for this....



....them Smurfs don't have a sense of humour either

Mrs Muz said can she have the recipe for that drink thing, whatever it was, she's slurring her speech just at the thought of it and she's got to drive to work in a few minutes