Tuesday 1 July 2014

Tearing down the coastline in the blazing sunshine

Last Sunday Mark and I loaded the car up with camping and snorkeling gear and headed out for a wee adventure. 
We followed the Firth of Clyde coastline to the south of Irvine (where we spent a lovely day on the beach last month) and made several little stops on the way.
We frolicked around in Troon, photographed swooping gulls in Ayr and stopped off to explore lovely Dunure.
Gulls take to the air in Ayr.
Jennie almost takes to the air in Ayr.
I was jumping around like a super excited kid all day.
Dunure was really lovely.
Set in a breathtakingly beautiful part of the coastline, its got a cracking castle ruin that you can have a wee wander around for free.
The weather was awesome too, which is always a big bonus.
There were some beautiful pigeons making their home in the doocot next to the castle ruin.
After chilling in the glorious sunshine with flask of coffee we made tracks in search of somewhere to pitch our tent for the night. Although we bought the tent two years ago this was its first time out of the bag.
A bit further along the coast we found the Culzean Castle Campsite.
At just £15.95 per night we both agreed that the stunning views across the Firth of Clyde to the islands of Arran and the Mull of Kintyre was worth that alone.
After the tent was up we headed down to the shoreline to watch the sunset armed with a couple of bottles of  ale. We had hoped for a quick evening dip but the tide was out so we had to settle for a paddle instead.
Thankfully the midgies weren't too bad and we were treated to a spectacular sunset in the company of herons and oyster catchers.
 We "cooked" our dinner (tinned veggie soup) on our Trangia camping stove and then crawled into our sleeping bags after an absolute cracker of a day.
I woke up at 4am bright as a button and considered making a cheeky crop-circle in the field in front but settled for a nice cup of tea and a bit of cloud spotting instead.
After breakfast and a lovely warm shower, we packed up the tent and headed back up the coast to Dunure to do some snorkeling.
The tide was coming back in and it was slightly colder in the water than the day before but we still managed to stay in for about half an hour. 
The kelp was amazing, huge clusters of long swaying tendrils with lots of crabs and little fish hiding among them.
We chilled on the beach for a bit and then headed back home.
A lovely 24 hour getaway :)
I am chuffed to bits that all of this AWESOMENESS can be found almost on my doorstep.
This was the soundtrack as we tore around the coastline in Cato...
Hope you are all doing grand peeps and that the sun is shining where you are.
Loads of love,
Jennie
xXx

PS. You can have a wee peek at the pics above plus some more of the trip over on Flickr.



5 comments:

Connie Staccato said...

Gorgeous! A forever memory.

Melanie said...

This looks like a lovely getaway, the photos are wonderful!

Connie said...

What a wonderful vacation!!! I can actually smell the fresh ocean air. Cartwheels on the beach. Isn't that what life is all about? Lovely photos, Jennie.

citizen rosebud said...

Jennie, what beautiful scenery- and looks like a wonderful time. Thank you for being awesome and for your kind words of support! xo! -Bella

Sue said...

First time visitor to your blog, and wow to your beautiful photos. Love your clouds on the hills one, instead of making crop circles. If I was there we would have made crop circles.