The Wheel & Kelpies

 Sunday 15th September. Day 29.

After torrential rain and winds we woke up to clearer skies  which was good as I had booked us on a horse and carriage ride around Hoggi’s 300 acre farm which we were staying on. He picked us up at 10am. 


It was a carriage just for the 2 of us, Hoggi and his dog Bess were up front. 


We set off up the farm tracks. I had to open the gates. Hoggi is a real character he takes no prisoners and has a quick ironic wit. He told us we were going on the magic triangle route which would take 10 years off our age. I asked if we could go round 4 times 🤣


Tommy the Irish cob was taking it steady up the slopes.


We could see the hills in the distance.


Bess had taken a real shine to John.




Hoggi breeds horses, Irish Cobs. There were some foals in the fields.


It was so relaxing just slowly meandering along in the buggy.


The campsite below in the distance.
After a while we came to a clearing which was apparently where a UFO had landed. Hoggi said there had been about 300 UFO sightings here over the years. He pulled up Tommy and we stopped. Hoggi asked me to hold Tommy and he then took out a small guitar (apparently it’s not a ukulele it’s a three quarter size guitar) and started to play. It was surreal and wonderful! I managed to video some of it. As well as the Bonny Bonny banks of Loch Lomond he also sang Green grow the rashes O, according to Hoggi, Robert Burns wrote the poem here. We think anything Hoggi says can be open to interpretation 🤣
It does appear though that Bonnybridge which we drove through on our way to the campsite has had numerous reported UFO sightings over the years.





Our carriage ride was over, it had been a wonderful and unique experience.

After this, I walked Dex along the canal towpath towards the Falkirk Wheel and John packed up the van. He would meet us there. 









We had to walk through the Roughcastle tunnel.


We could see the Wheel at the other end of the tunnel. 



I was so lucky as a boat was waiting to come down so I got to see the wheel in action. It really is an incredible piece of engineering. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel


















It was amazing to watch the huge arms rotate slowly, bringing the boat down to the ground level. There were no boats going up but a lot of water which weighs the same using Archimedes principle. 







This reminded us of our narrowboat days going through the locks.






We went for a walk and Dex was happy to have a dip.






There is a Roman Wall around here called the Antonine wall. We think this is it but it wasn’t very obvious!


After our walk we set off to see the Kelpies, the amazing statues of the mythical horse like creatures. 


We were absolutely spellbound by them. Nearly 100 ft high they were incredible and so beautiful. I’ve never seen such an amazing art installation. 




















After the Kelpies we checked into our hotel for the night, the Grange Manor. This is in walking distance to the Kelpies so my plan was to walk back after dinner to see them illuminated. 


We were so happy to have a spacious bedroom and bathroom it was sheer bliss!





Dinner was fab too, the sticky toffee was amazing 😋



After dinner we walked from the hotel back to the Kelpies to see them illuminated. They are on the canal so we could join the canal towpath and reach them from there. Took about 15 minutes. It was amazing seeing them lit up. 

















It had been a very special day.




Comments

  1. Steph18 September 2024 at 14:45

    What a magical day, those memories you have made together my darling 💗 Love Hoggi's little dirty, just needed a whiskey in your hand! 🥰xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back on the road!

Image
 Sunday 18th August and Monday 19th August Days 1 & 2. Pleased to report we are starting the next part of our Scottish tour 😍 John is much better and Tekki has had a new clutch fitted and new brakes so we are good to go! Our first night was at a site just outside Stafford. Very quiet and good for an overnight stay.  The boys were happy watching the cricket 🤣 On Monday we set off to Penrith and found a site near a lovely village called Kirkoswald.  The site was at Mains farm. It was a lovely location and had an honesty shop which was great.  The facilities weren’t so great 🤣 We decided to walk Dex into the village about a mile away. The village was lovely with lots of lovely old buildings. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkoswald,_South_Ayrshire We found a pub open, the Fetherston Arms. Stopped for a quick pint and a chat with the locals who were really friendly and welcoming. Dex met a young cockerpoo called Lola. Afterwards we walked back and I made chicken...
Read more

Ullapool

Image
 Day 29 Tuesday 14th May John’s hip was still really hurting and he was struggling so much I decided to try and get him seen by a doctor. I was really lucky and he got an appointment for 10am so we drove into Ullapool.  On the way we could see the tall ship in the harbour. Next to the medical practice was the Highland Stone pottery shop so I popped in for a look around whilst John was seeing the doctor. So unfortunately John has trapped his sciatic nerve and also has lumbago as his back keeps going into spasms due to the pain. He will need physio and it will take time so we are going to slowly head home. Inverness for 2 nights then a few stop offs on the way back. We can start again once he’s fully recovered. It’s a real shame but at least we have a diagnosis now and it’s silly carrying on when he’s in so much pain.  We headed into Ullapool and went for a slap up seafood lunch at the Seaforth restaurant. It was delicious 😋  I had scallops to start and John had Culle...
Read more