This time out, we decided on a micro trip. i.e. two nights away over the weekend. And having done some research, we knew exactly which way to turn on leaving our driveway! So left it was, and we headed off to the south of Scotland to New Lanark, where we had read one could park overnight in the heritage village car park.
After a leisurely hour or so of driving, we left the motorway and headed into Lanarkshire along the twisting country roads, at the end of which we rocked up at the New Lanark Heritage Village car park at about four-thirty. However, we soon established that a) there was virtually no 4G and b) therefore, we could not 'check in' online to pay the parking fee. Thus, after a brief chat, we decided to 'exit stage left' and head towards Carluke, where we had seen an alternative spot previously online.
Our destination, the Lee Garden Farm, was a pleasant second choice which provided three hard-standing slots for camper vans in the farmhouse's extensive front garden. Fortunately, as luck would have it, no one else had booked in, so we were spoiled for choice! Then given the time of day and the gathering gloom, it gets dark in these parts at around six thirty in October; we settled down for a night in Iona.
Sunday morning inevitably followed Saturday night, and we woke to a pleasant sunny autumn morning which we embraced with a cup of our usual Java! Then, later in the day, we enjoyed a lovely hour-long walk around the farm, during which we found the 'ice house', the adjacent Lee Castle, and a river in spate that required us to add a few extra stones to enable us to step across! Once back in Iona, we booked a taxi to take us into nearby Carluke, where, after a couple of disappointments, we found a pleasant local boozer before heading to the Indian Restaurant for a delightful meal.
Waking on our last day of this micro trip, we encountered a very blustery morning; it is mid-October, after all! So we set about busying ourselves in Iona, not a chore, as there is always plenty to do, and by two o'clock, the blue skies were venturing out again and so we stopped off at the outstanding New Lanark World Heritage Centre for a coffee and some sustenance for lunch before braving the wind to walk along the raging river Clyde. Well, given the deluge we had encountered over the previous 24 hours, the river was a magnificent sight and we thoroughly enjoyed the bracing experience.
It just shows that one doesn't have to travel too far to find new experiences and lovely places!