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| Lunan Bay Cave |
This blog was always way down the to do list after The Outpost - what I learnt about life through tango - and The Intertidal Zone - the flotsam and jetsam of other parts of life.
We arrived back in Scotland in the autumn of 2007. Since then I've travelled, often with my children, around my local area up to about 90 minutes from Perth and only rarely further. That's because the area within that radius is a playground. There are so many places to discover, explore or return to that we don't feel a burning need to go much further. Before covid-19, we would take a cheap packed lunch, have an exhilarating day, as good as on any holiday, with none of the stresses of going away, have a hot chocolate or fish and chips or tea & cake out as a treat, and still be home for dinner and our own bed at night. My boys tend to the view that anywhere too far from home is overrated and certainly not worth the hassle of long travel and overnight stays. This blog was meant to capture some of the special places near us that we know and return to.
I haven't danced or travelled for tango for well over a year. In February, just as the children and I returned from a trip to Spain we got a nearly three-year-old rescue dog. While we already knew many of our local gems, the combination of dog and lockdown and the useful core path network map on the Scottish Natural Heritage website meant we discovered many more.
We aren't now going anywhere indoors outside our own home, or even to outside cafes. This is to help protect my parents - and because my March experience of coronavirus was sufficiently unpleasant and long-lasting that I don't fancy a repeat bout. It also means we don't see as much of friends who aren't local. Recently, I seemed to be spending a lot of time telling these friends and family what we'd been doing & sharing photos. I'd also been looking out future walks in the region. The idea of Perthshire and Beyond rose again from some back-water of memory. I am sometimes asked for suggestions of what to do in Scotland - and was again recently - and this seemed another reason to restart this blog.
The "About" section used to say "A place to put non-dance related aspects of travel and exploration at home in Perthshire and central Scotland and further afield...", "non-dance" a reminder of how much tango featured in my life. No longer dancing, I can now say it's simply about our travels in our region and sometimes beyond.
