Day 3
The next morning we got up fairly sharpish to get ready for the off. We had a bit of a journey ahead of us. We were heading north to a place not far from Glasgow.
On the way I had planned to visit somewhere where I had lived as a child. As described in my story my mother left my father when I was three years old, taking me with her to Scotland. The place she took me was Paisley and we were going through there on the way. I had discovered from my Auntie in Australia the particular area of Paisley I should be concentrating on.
On the way I had planned to visit somewhere where I had lived as a child. As described in my story my mother left my father when I was three years old, taking me with her to Scotland. The place she took me was Paisley and we were going through there on the way. I had discovered from my Auntie in Australia the particular area of Paisley I should be concentrating on.
I set my GPS for the particular street and headed off. We arrived early afternoon that day. As I neared it I was getting a little apprehensive of what I might have found. This was important to me and returning here brought back some of the pain again of a difficult childhood.
The houses were not as I had expected: Built just after the war they were mostly semi-detached pebble dashed on the outside. I was supposed to have been here from when I was three to when I was six but it triggered
nothing; no spark. I was disappointed.I decided to knock to ask someone. The lady who answered pointed out an elderly gentleman who had been in the area since the houses were built. We had a very nice conversation with him of how things have changed and what life was like then.
The centre of the community back then, we heard, was the local pub. We went to go looking for it. The man told us it had become a posh pub and changed its name. We found it a short drive away. We had a pot of tea and took some photos but still no memory. Maybe I was just too young.
So onwards to Lochwhinnoch.
We had booked a small campsite and the journey to there took us through some spectacular scenery. Andrea drove quite a bit so I was able to click away with the camera.
As we arrived we realised it was quite late. There were offices there so wondered if it was the right place. The door was open and I looked inside. There was no one about. If it wasn't for someone coughing in a back office I would have said the place was deserted. I found a man sitting at a computer. He looked a bit surprised to see me and went to fetch another man to help us. It was 6:30 in the evening by this time and I was glad they had worked late. They told me they don't normally do that.
We were going to use the tent but as I said it was getting late and would have taken too long to put up. We noticed in the same place little wooden huts in a secluded spot. The man told us the were for sleeping in and would cost only a little bit extra to use one. It was useful to for the next day too werealised we would have had to put the tents down thus saving on time.
It still took time to get sleeping bags, lilo, cooker etc. from the car to the hut. But we soon sorted everything that was needed. Unfortunately Andrea kept bumping her head on the low door into the hut. She didn't take long to make sure she ducked down. It happened to me as well.
Being even further north it was still very light at that time and we took an evening walk to a local woodland nature reserve. The Sun wasgolden as it was setting over the hills. It was peaceful walk and we saw a few birds. We even saw a deer hiding in the bushes.
As we returned to the site we were looking across the fields and saw a Barn owl fly to and fro hunting. It was a ghostly figure and an exciting thing to see.
We were ready to sleep looking forward to the next day.
