James Jopling is dad to six-year-old Ethan. He was looking for a boys' road trip and came across Big Tree Campervans. Here he tells us about his few days of campervanning in Scotland in October.
James says: "I decided that I needed some proper male bonding with my son. So what better than a campervan trip to provide it? The thing is, my ‘outside’ holiday experiences had previously been limited to a disastrous Cub Scout camping trip aged nine so I’ve been a B&B fan ever since. But surely a campervan trip would fit the bill: Part outdoors adventure, part indoors luxury.
"Having searched on-line Big Tree Campervans stuck out as they were flexible about how long I could have a van. A full week for one untrained adult and an unruly child seemed a bit too much!
"Big Tree Campervans also made campervanning sound like fun! In response to my first email Simon was full of suggestions about where to go and where to stay on our trip.
"Following his advice I left our plans open till the day itself - which was the right thing to do as we avoided continual rain in the west and chose strong wind in the north instead.
"Following (another) good steer from Simon, we stayed the first two nights at a great site on the banks of Loch Morlich, Aviemore.
"Having never camped or ‘vanned’ before there were a few early lessons to learn:
"1) Don’t put pyjamas at the bottom of suitcases below many things you’ll never need anyway.
"2) Everything has a place – best put it back there when it’s in your hand and washed.
"3) The pieces of home-made flapjack and garden-laid eggs we got from Big Tree were very welcome.
"My first morning was highlighted by a red squirrel sighting. My last evening, by a large stag in the middle of the road. In between, the van gave us the great option of lunch wherever we fancied. As my son only eats marmalade sandwiches for lunch this worked perfectly.
"I quickly learned that whilst the autumnal splendour of the Highlands was particularly captivating, it rarely rivalled the iPod and Star Wars for my son while we were driving. But once outside, we experienced everything from the snow on the Cairngorms (thanks to the funicular railway), to the biggest tree in the world (according to my son) at the Hermitage in Dunkeld.
"Campervans are also great at making you slow down from the normal pace of life. Trips to the toilet at night become exciting torch-lit explorations. Trifles can be eaten luxuriously in bed and retrieved out of the fridge from the bed.
"Ahead of next time (and I’m pretty sure there will be one) I’ll work on manoeuvrability in smaller spaces!
"But what will stay with me more importantly are the special moments in each of the special days that I shared with my son. Neither of us will forget them."
Over the past few weeks we've been getting out a lot with our 'winterised' campervans to make the most of the amazing winter climbing conditions. Our campervans have been spending a lot of time over in Glencoe, where we've been exploring a couple of new climbing venues. Using the campervans as a base, Malcolm Bass and I (along with a variety of friends) have been busy exploring the beautiful Coire Eilde in Glencoe. We did three great new lines on the Summit Buttress of Sron na Lairig, and also managed to develop a brand new climbing venue which is unlike anything I've ever climbed on in Scotland. It's an almost hidden canyon which has at least 16 compelling ice lines dropping into it, right at the base of Coire Eilde. 'Eilde Canyon' as it's now called is an excellent ice venue, with some good steep lines still to do....The campervans have proved invaluable as a cosy base to come back to after a great day on the hill, and the folk at The Clachaig Inn have been great in letting us use their carpark to park up overnight - as long as we make sure we sup a couple of their excellent pints that its!
