We made it to Lochiel by around 5pm to a free camping spot I had found on WikiCamps – a useful app that people use to share info on camp sites. It was at a place called Lochiel Lookout. That it was Friday night and there appeared to be donut tracks in the dirt did concern me a little, as well as the fact that we were flaunting the ‘grey nomad’ free camping rule which is if a place is empty on dusk it might not be a safe place to stay. Still, it appeared peaceful and had a lovely view over the famous ‘pink’ lake. Julian was very impressed that we were finally “free camping”!

Our evening went swimmingly until around 9:30pm when a car pulled into the lookout, idled for about 20mins then turned its engine off and sat there for about an hour and a half in the dark. Julian and my paranoia went into overdrive. What were they doing? There was no music playing. There was no apparent ‘rocking’ of the vehicle. Could they mean us harm? Why would you park less than 6m from a caravan in the dark for 90mins? Should we pack up and move on? Where could we drive to? Wouldn’t we just be in the same situation wherever we stopped as it was now so late?

Luckily my rational of “it’s properly just a couple needing somewhere for a private chat” won out as well as the knowledge that moving on would mean packing up the van, waking up the kids and then driving at least an hour then sleeping in the car. We were still vacillating about whether either of us could sleep with them there when they left. Needless to say I woke with each car that passed us by (luckily only 2) although Julian slept soundly in the knowledge I would wake him if he was needed!! We woke next morning to a deserted car park and a stunning sunrise.