All the Burns - Lowburn to Bannockburn

Wednesday 25 March

A gentle morning at Lowburn - a soft sunrise, a hobnob with the geese at the end of the campsite who have their own cordoned off area, though they hang out wherever they please, an hour or so packing up then a quick dip because it was so hot inside Banjo. Once again, the lake level had fallen over night - the high tide line was from Sunday/Monday, by Tuesday afternoon it was about 1m lower and this morning a further 1-2m lower again.

Had a lovely chat with Nigel & Helen in their Victory van next door and waved farewell to our Moho neighbours on the other side as they headed off on their bikes just before we pulled out.

We weren’t going far, but there’s a 3-days per calendar month rule at Lowburn so we trundled through Cromwell and up into the hills of Bannockburn to stay at “Scottland” POP. The place was heaving - the NZMCA National Rally starts in Cromwell on Thursday and the crowds are gathering ready to swarm in first thing to get the best spots! Found a great spot for Banjo up at above the first section - drove through the hordes in the lower paddock and found this almost flat pitch with views on either side. You could see over Cromwell to Lake Dunstan one way and out towards the Nevis ranges the other way - stunning!

We found a lumpy but decent space in the upper level of the POP with awesome views in both directions, and after a quick late lunch we hopped on the bikes and headed off exploring around Bannockburn. It’s a cute historic village with some classic old buildings and vineyards in every direction.

We followed a chunk of the Lake Dunstan Cycle Trail then checked out Felton Road where most of the wineries are. Beautiful area 💚

It was a big uphill cycle back to Scottland so a quiet evening of blogging & admin followed, then a great gasp as we looked out the window to see the most glorious sunset - galah pinks, lilacy purples, raspberry reds and peachy oranges lit up the sky as a sliver of silvery moon rose over the lake - absolutely stunning! 🩷💜❤️🧡