Day Three: Scottish Caravan Tour

All four seasons in one day! That's what I experienced today on my tour of Caravan Club CL sites in the Glasgow area, and the past 24 hours have been all the more dramatic for the wildly varied conditions. 

Last night was blustery with hail rattling on the roof (and walls) of the Bailey Orion that is my home on the road. I woke at about 4am and peeped out into the fields surrounding the CL site near Beith, to see a waning crescent moon shining its light on a winter wonderland of snow! A few inches had fallen overnight.  An hour or so later I woke to the sound of skeins of geese overhead and could make out their forms heading south. Was this a sign of worse weather to come?

The warmth and comfort of the Orion was difficult to leave at 7.15am when I ventured out into the half light to look the day in the face. More geese, about 150 greylags, flew in 'V' formation to the south, honking continuously. Redwings and fieldfares followed. I noticed the tracks of a fox which had trotted through the site in the small hours and those of a cat (domestic not wild) that had nosed around my caravan.

After a brekky of eggs on toast, I hitched the van and headed for my next location through the still falling snow. By the time I reached the CL at Bankell Farm near Milngavie, the sun was shining, the snow melting and a sense of spring in the air. 

After an unpromising drive past a waste recycling plant, I turned into what was a charming little CL site overlooking a green valley, wooded on the horizon and with mature trees and stone walls bordering the fields. I almost immediately spotted a family of four roe deer, a doe with two well grown kids form last season, and a mature buck, antlers still in velvet. 

Caravan pitched, I scanned the hills and watched a kestrel and buzzard scouring the grassland for prey. With lots of sign of rabbits around the CL site and the distinctive scent of fox in the air, I also set up my Trail camera to try and record some of the wild goings on that occur around the caravan whilst I sleep. 

I then drove the short distance to Milngavie and the Mugdock Country Park.  Beautiful, lemon winter light greeted me as I walked the tracks through the silver birch trees. Late evening, as I made my way back to my car, I spied two more roe deer, a young buck and his mum, browsing on the rough ground by the road.  There was just enough light to snatch a couple of shots of these lovely creatures before packing the kit away and heading back to the comfort of my 'green godess' for the night.

Link to YouTube Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8Li902byo&list=UUu5KxZWyJcxJ8WsepYiccvQ&index=1