Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
VisitScotland have launched a survey in collaboration with the Visitor Management subgroup for motorhome users and campers. The research is aimed at people who own or rent a motorhome, campervan, touring caravan and/or go camping in tents or other structures within Scotland.
You can access the survey via this link buff.ly/4522aEj
Responses will collected until midnight on 29th September 2023. If you have any queries about this survey or difficulties while completing it, please contact surveyenquiry@visitscotland.com
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Came across this motorhome in a very busy public car park when I was desperately trying to find an empty bay to park my VWT6. Does this kind of parking send a bad message about motorhomers? I'm interested to discover what people think. Answer with a simple Yes or No. Thank you
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Looking forward to speaking at the Aye Write Book Festival in the Royal Scottish Concert Hall in Glasgow next Sunday (21st May). I'm on at 2pm and I'll be chatting about my latest book, An Eye to the Hills. Essentially it will be a video tour of some of my favourite Scottish mountains and I'll be using readings from my various books as a guide. Be great too see some of you there.
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I met this lovely couple of Creag Meagaidh last week. They said they were followers of the Channel. I was so chuffed. After years of people stopping me on the hill and asking "Are you that guy off the telly?" I thought those days had gone. But now folk are stopping me to say, "Are you that guy off the You Tube Channel?" You have no idea how delighted that makes me feel. Thank you.
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I've been reading this book. It's a novel about two guys hiking the John Muir Trail in California. As I read it I realised how much good information it contains, especially for those planning a big multi-day backpacking trip this summer. There's a lot of great info about the JMT but more importantly, lots of really practical advice for a long hike anywhere. I've been fortunate in being able to walk the John Muir Trail, from Yosemite to Mount WEhitney in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, twice over and both times were wonderfully experiences. So if you're planning a multi-day hike this summer get hold of this book. Even if you're nbot, it's a damned good read. The author is Ethan Gallogly and it's published by Sierra Nevada Press. I bought it on Kindle. And if you are planning a big walk this summer, I hope you have a wonderful, life-changing experience.
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Creag Meagaidh cliffs looking very impressive on Easter Sunday. We spent overnight in the car park at the foot of Coire Ardair and took a walk up into the corrie on a day when it felt as though spring had finally arrived. It was lovely to meet some YouTube followers too - always makes my day when folk stop for a chat. In times past people would stop me and say "Are you the guy from the telly?" Now they say, "I follow your YouTube Channel!" How cool is that???
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How's this for a great overnight park-up? It's near Fisterra in Galicia in Spain and is known locally as 'the end of the world.' It's only one of a number of brilliant park-ups we enjoyed on a month-long visit to Spain and Portugal where all the aires we stopped at were actually better than the camp-sites! But more of that later. Because I was away it's taken me longer than I wanted to get back to you and thank everyone who took the trouble to react to my poll about testing gear on my Channel. I really appreciate your comments and it seems clear, on a basis of 77/23, that you would be happy for me to occasionally test items of gear on the Channel. I'm happy to do that, with a couple of provisos - anything I test must be relevant to the Channel content, so that's using a campervan to hike, ride my bike or explore. Secondly, I must be free to comment on the test item, be it positive, negative or whatever. In that context I don't send unpublished videos for company approval before publication. So I hope you are happy with that. In the coming weeks I'll publish some of the performance results of the Himiway bike I featured recently and I hope to test ride another budget e-bike before too long. And something else I want to mention - after trying out various bed toppers for a more comfortable sleep we eventually bought a Duvalay topper, not the full sleeping bag thingy but just the mattress topper, and what a difference that's made to sleeping comfort in our Carravagio. Will publish a vlog on it soon but for the moment get out there and enjoy spring, it finally looks as though it's about to arrive!
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Like many other You Tube Channels I've been reviewing some products that manufacturers have sent to me free of charge. It's been my intention to give fair and unbiased reviews but it's clear many viewers don't like to see such content, fort a variety of reasons. I wouldn't have a You Tube Channel if I didn't have any viewers so your thoughts are important to me. So here's the question. Do you want me to continue reviewing products that have been sent to me free of charge? Simply answer YES or NO. Many thanks for your time.
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This Sunday coming I'll be delighted and honoured to host the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour at the Fort William Mountain Festival. Every year, following the prestigious Banff festival in Canada, a number of films are selected to go on a world tour, taking in 40 countries in 7 continents. The films are examples of the best adventure, exploration and mountain culture films to be found anywhere and we're delighted to be able to show our own, specially curated, selection of Banff's best films. Tickets are £15, under 16's and students, £12. Available from www.mountainfestival.co.uk Some tickets still left for what should be a brilliant night of mountain adventure and culture. Maybe see you there?
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This is the brand new EcoFlow River 2 Pro and it's being released on Tuesday 24th February. I've been fortunate enough to have had one to try out and it's brilliant. With a super-fast charging speed and a boost mode that doubles its wattage I think it's a real game-changer for those of us who use a power bank in a campervan. Check out the video on Tuesday. Have a good weekend.
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This channel is about using a VW campervan to access the great outdoors where I love to go walking, hiking or ride my e-bike. I'm based in the Scottish Highlands and probably have an unrivalled knowledge of the highlands and islands due to my long career (fifty years) in writing, as a magazine editor and author of 23 books, and making television programmes for the BBC about the area.
I've been running a longstanding campaign in Scotland to improve infrastructure for campervanners, particularly those, like myself, who simply want a low cost off-grid stopover for a night or two to go off hiking or biking. I use campsites but have little need of those expensive facilities that many campsites deem necessary today.
I hope this channel may be helpful to those who come to Scotland in their campervan. The number of Scottish aires is growing but there is still much work to be done before we can compete with France, Spain etc. Hope you find the channel useful.
Enjoy your campervan!