Moffat Weekender

As it was Fiona's birthday on Friday we decided we'd head away for the weekend in the motorhome. The weather forecast wasn't great though, so we didn't want to go too far so our thoughts turned to the Scottish Borders. We'd heard good things about the Caravan and Camping Club site at Moffat and as it's only about 90 minutes from home we decided to book in their (booking is a good idea there as it's a popular site).

We're getting better at our new approach, which is to load up the car with the necessary clothes and food and then swap that for the motorhome at the storage place. Compared to what we used to do (which is bring the motorhome to the house the night before and prep it) it saves a lot of time and makes heading out at short notice a lot easier.

Arriving on-site we'd soon pitched up and headed into the town to have a look around. The campsite is close to the town centre so it's a short walk to a wide range of pubs and shops (including the main Co-Op). There are several pubs and all the ones we asked at were happy to have dogs in the bar - it's good to have options! Tonight though we decided just to pick up some fish and chips from the chippie attached to the Balmoral Hotel and head back to the motorhome for the evening.

We had a lazy start to the Saturday morning before heading out to walk Ludo along the waymarked route (of which there are several in Moffat) along the River Annan. Ludo enjoyed that, including quite a few dips into what looked like lovely clear and clean water.

We then headed back into the town and decided to have lunch in the bar of the Balmoral as it was serving steak pie and Fiona had decided that's what she wanted for lunch. The bar there was very dog friendly (including bringing Ludo some water) and, as usual, having Ludo with us was quite the conversation starter with several locals and tourists asking about him. The steak pie was good and a decent portion (even with Ludo helping us out) so afterwards we headed back to the motorhome for a nap - although not before exploring the shops and doing a bit of retail therapy.

Later on we took Ludo for a walk around the Station Park with its extensive pond, which is very close to the campsite. Much of the water had been drained from the pond but there were still quite a number of ducks and other birds in what was left. Or at least there was until Ludo took advantage of my inattention and the very long 8m lead I was using to jump into the pond and chase them off! The pond also turned out to be quite muddy so we walked him back along the Annan River so he could go in for a dip and clean off.

Overnight it started to rain very heavily and didn't look like it was going to stop in the morning either, so we decided to pack up early and head back home to Edinburgh after dropping our grey and black waste. We decided to drive up the A708 past the Devils Beef Tub, which is a good road - quiet and scenic, before hacking our way across various lightly flooded roads before dropping the motorhome back at its storage place.

Heading home so early meant that we could take Ludo for a walk and still have time for Sunday lunch at our local, the Grey Horse in Balerno - which was a nice way to round off the weekend.

The Moffat site is very good (as is Moffat itself) so I expect we'll be back a few times through the winter as I think it's open all year. It even has pretty decent free wi-fi throughout the site and was also only £20 per night, which is decent value.