Tag Archives: Dingwall

Dingwall

Following a phone call from the site warden at Dingwall Campsite we were up early at Aviemore, cleaned and packed up and got to Dingwall Campsite before 10am. It is 11.30am, sunny, and the tent is up and sorted out.

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I have got the Crusader Stove on to make tea, updating the blog and listening to the noise from the football stadium!

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The reason for getting here early and the noise is that Ross County Football Club is now in the Scottish Premier League and is playing Celtic at home today – this means road closures around the stadium which shares the road with the campsite. We were early but I was still challenged by two stewards (nicely) before I got to the site. With the Celtic fans arriving early the road is now closed. Hence the phone call from the warden to advise us to get here early or later.

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As you can see from the Memory Map screen shot it is close – the marker is very accurate for where I am sitting writing this.

Highflight Secondhand Bookshop

It was Bill, the owner of the Highflight bookshop who recommended us to visit the Highland Aviation Museum – so we went back and had a look at his books.

He specialises in books about aviation and nearly half the store is taken up by these – however he also has a good selection of general books, and second hand novels ideal for the holiday maker who wants something to read whilst away.

JSC bought a Harry Potter Book (why?!) but I bought this:

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When I was at junior school my Dad used to read these, therefore so did I and if you are a certain age I am sure you did too!

Highflight
Aviation and General Second Hand Books
5 Castlebank House
Dingwall

Found! WiFi in Dingwall

Since arriving at Dingwall campsite, last weekend we have been thinking about finding a WiFi cafe – there was not an obvious one in Dingwall and we went to a cafe in Ullapool where we got WiFi last year but they no longer offered a free connection. It is not so important as I have a really good 3G data deal from T-Mobile but WiFi mean’s catching up on some TV via BBC iPlayer and JSC wanted to FaceBook with his friends.

The Camping and Caravan Club sites have WiFi but when I looked into this in the past it was not very good value, especially when compared to my data bundle.

I went into Dingwall this afternoon and after buying some award winning black pudding from the local butchers I went to Grants Café Deli, in the High Street, where I got a cappuccino and they had a free 30 minutes of WiFi – however it was a BT Openzone access point, so I logged on using my account and had nearly an hour online. I watched Click, edited the blog, logged into a client’s server to check a problem out and updated eight apps on my iPhone.

The opening times at Grants are good; Mon to Wed 9am – 6pm, Thurs to Sat 9am – 8pm and Sun 10am – 4pm, as many Dingwall cafes stop serving at 4pm.

I got back to the site and put my iPhone in flight mode to charge it in the car, whilst we cooked and ate our award winning black pudding – which also got our seal of approval! After tea I got my phone out to update the blog and when I turned it on, the WiFi was still enabled and I have discovered there is a BT Openzone access point within range of us here – and I am now wondering if this is also part of the C and CC Site WiFi which means there would have been WiFi at Dunbar as well! I just never thought to check or ask because of previous costs and my current 3G deal. I will check in future.

Breakfast in Dingwall

For some people it is breakfast in bed – well Jeremy is still in his sleeping bag and has not yet got out of the tent.

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Below is the cooking area – using the board we found in Dunbar.

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The wind shield is there to protect the windbreak from any stray flames from the burner.

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Above you can see the Crusader burner with the meths burner unit from a titanium, Vargo Triad XE dual fuel stove.