Dingwall

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It did not rain overnight – however I had just set up for my early morning brew when is started raining – so I had to retreat into the tent. Our tent has a small living area in front of the bedroom, with enough headroom for me to sit on a stool and safely use a gas stove.

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The rain was so hard at times it was drumming on the tight tent roof – but this still could not wake Jeremy up.

It did brighten by 10am allowing us to have breakfast outside – but we have decided today is a good day to spend at the campsite. There were some bright spells between the five minute showers and heavy grey clouds.

We watched one of the campers chase her dog round the field – she let the dog off it’s lead, the Jack Russell chased the rabbits (of which there are dozens at any one time on the campsite) and she chased the dog!

We played Rummikub…

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…and Jeremy did some busking.

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New Backpacking Tent – MSR Hubba

Just before coming away I bought a new tent – a lightweight, one person MSR Hubba. Because the tent can be erected without pegs, I had put it up in our living room and in a friend’s conservatory but today was the first chance to put it up outdoors and pegging it out.

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It came with six light alloy stakes but I have replaced these with eight titanium hooked pegs. It takes just six pegs to put the tent up, the extras are, a second peg for the door and one for a rear guy line. This guy was not supplied with the tent but I am going to add one for stability in windy conditions and also to use as a line for drying equipment on.

Here are the weights in grams – total is 1374g.

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This is much lighter than my previous backpacking tent (a Coleman Bedrock II) and it packs much smaller. This packed size was the most important reason for changing my tent as it now gives me more useable volume in my Golite Jam backpack, for food and equipment on multi-day trips.

Compared to the wedge shaped Coleman tent it has more useable space as the porch is larger, although the floor area in the inner tent is smaller. However with the arched shape I can comfortably sit up in the centre of the tent and safely use my MSR Pocket Rocket stove, on a 100g gas bottle, in the shelter of one on the doors – and if the wind changes direction (as it did a few weeks back when I was camping at Dunbar) I can use the other door.

The tent is simple to put up – but I was doing it in no wind – on a windy mountain it would be a bit more “flappy”!

I was going to sleep in it tonight but after getting the tent up there were a number of strong rumbles of thunder, so rather than have a wet tent to deal with in the morning, I packed it away and will use it overnight, later on this holiday.

There was a little light rain, not a storm, just enough to make things damp but it stopped after twenty minutes, so I could have used the new tent.

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Sunday’s Photos

The railway runs behind the Dingwall Camping and Caravan site – although the trains are frequent they do not really disturb us.

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The footpath into the town crosses the line and with the sun this morning it made for a good photo – with a little help from Pro HDR, to balance out the light and add a bit to the saturation.

We headed north today and out to the coast near Nigg.

Ballintore

These fish are part of a number of public art exhibits along the coast.

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A close up.

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The Mermaid of the North

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The rocks on the beach had interesting patterns in them.

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click on the above image for a larger version

Tarbat Ness

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We walked along the cliff tops and were able to easily get down to the sea – and we somewhere suitable for lunch. Here is a shot of Jeremy preparing the lunch on the Crusader stove – meatballs and crackers, followed by bananas and peach tea.

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This is where we were having lunch.

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We then walked up and around the point near the lighthouse.

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click on the above image for a larger version

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With it starting to get cloudy we decided to head back to the tent – Jeremy to read a book and me to work on a quote for a prospective new client.

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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.

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