Scotland & England | Peter Campbell

Scotland

Scotland. The land of my forefathers (and mothers) birth ...

In mid 1853 my great, great grandfather Matthew Campbell, a young man of only 33 years, and his young son James, aged just 8, left his home in Greenock, Scotland, possessed, I assume by "gold fever". They arrived in Ballarat, Australia to join our Victorian gold rush, less than 18 months before the infamous Eureka Stockade rebellion; an event at the very heart of Australian culture. Indeed, history recalls they they were amongst the first people to enter the stockade the day after the massacre.

Over 160 years later I make my first trip to Scotland, accompanied by my daughter Natalie, a 5th generation Australian and great, great, great granddaughter of Matthew.

These pages document this journey. Click on the blue hyperlinks below to see each day's post.

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Hoşça kal Konstantinopolis

Days 13 – 16 – Tuesday 20th to Friday 23rd October As I said (or at least alluded to) in Tuesday's post, it just didn’t feel right to be doing the whole tourist thing and then telling the world all about it as if nothing was wrong given the events of last Monday. Not that there’s the slightest thing I can truly do about that crazy world. So I just sat with that feeling for a few days and decided that to wrap things up with a farewell post now felt about right. So here I am on

pac

5 days ago8 min read

What to say??

Day 13 – Tuesday 20th October So here I am, touring around the other side of the world, whilst so many other things appear to be going down the gurgler. We’ve just departed from Romania, which borders on Ukraine, and which we talked about with our guide Victor at some length. A couple of days ago it was reported that Presidents Putin, Xi and Trump would meet to decide the fate of that country; this century’s three worst dictators potentially meeting to decide the fate of

pac

Oct 201 min read

It is İstanbul, you know

Day 12 – Monday 19th October An amusing little anecdote to start today’s brief commentary. We were wandering around the Galata area (more of that later), and a lovely patterned shoulder bag caught J’s eye. The shop owner invited us in, as they do, to see all his wares. Most of the bags had pictures of cats on them, to which J said “I don’t like cats”, meaning “I don’t want a cat bag”. The owner gave her a wry smile and said “It is İstanbul, you know!”. Those of you who’ve bee

pac

Oct 201 min read

Merhaba İstanbul

Day 11 – Sunday 18th October Unlike the last week in Romania, there’s no societal or community stories to tell here; at least not yet. Yes, there’s plenty of history, both generally about the Ottoman Empire and specifically about places such as the Hagia Sofia, but I think today I won’t dive into that. Today was simply a day of wandering and exploring. We had arrived last night and had strolled down the road to Sultan Ahmet Park to do a quick orientation, and this morning aft

pac

Oct 191 min read

Rămas bun, România

Days 9 and 10 – Friday 16th and Saturday 17th October Our final day and a half in Romania really capped off a brilliant experience. I said a day or so back something to the effect that the trip was delivering beyond expectations. And so it continued. The most graphic standout was learning about life under some 40 years of brutal regimes. I know I have a propensity for intolerance; having listened to Victor's stories over the last week, culminating in standing in Bucharest's R

pac

Oct 185 min read

B & B & B – Brașov and Bran and Bears

Day 8 – Thursday 15th October Today was our only 2-night stay during the Romanian leg, staying at the lovely Schuster Boarding House in the centre of old Brașov. After a sensible start we joined Victor for a two-hour walk around the old town. Brașov is a town of just under 400,000 people in the greater metro area, with, like so may places in Romania, a recent history going back 1,000 years (the ancient history rgoes back 10 times that figure). We started with a visit to the

pac

Oct 162 min read

Day 7 – Wednesday 14th October

Sighișoara to Brașov via Viscri and Prejmer It’s sort of hard to know where and how to continue this blog/story. The enigmatic gift that is Romania keeps on giving. Going back more than 12 months when we planned this trip, it really was no more than a whim which brought us here. The trip was simply to go to Istanbul and looking at a map I chanced on Romania simply because it was nearby. What a mistake it was to discount it so flippantly, and what a bonus it has been to visi

pac

Oct 155 min read

Day 6 – Tuesday 13th October

Rimetea to Sighișoara via at Jidvei wineries and a gypsy town (literally!) After breakfast we trekked to the ruins of the nearby 13th C Trascau Fortress. A pleasant walk to the top, and quite spectacular views from the top as the various guide books state. Perhaps the highlight though was the interaction with the goat herd, who were both friendly and curious. Then we found our way to Jidvie Wines for what turned out to be a wine tasting, a meal, and yet another communist er

pac

Oct 144 min read

Day 5 – Monday 12th October

Sibiu to Rimitea via Corvin Castle and Alba Iulia Citadel When I first planned this trip Corvin Castle was one of the “must see” highlights (the hyperlink provides some very interesting background). Prior to that I knew nothing of it beyond what my travel AI and Google had told me; everyone visiting Transylvania knows of Bran Castle for example, but Corvin is not commonly known. It took a couple of hours to get to there, and we arrived at 11:30 and wandered, as on Mondays the

pac

Oct 142 min read

Day 4 - Sunday 11th October

Bucharest to Sibiu via the Transfagarasan Road All being well I’ll throw a few photos in to this post. After leaving the hotel at 8am we hit the road towards the Transylvanian Alps, aka the Faragas Mountains or the Southern Carpathians. First stop was a photo opportunity to see Burg Poenari – first constructed in 1453 and one of the “homes” (fortresses) of Vlad III (aka Vlad Drucula or Vlad the Impaler), who lived from 1428/31 until 1476/7. Much more of Vlad later in this jou

pac

Oct 134 min read

Days 1 - 3

Yallingup to Perth to KL to Istanbul to Bucharest – Thursday 8th – Saturday 10th October We’ve been “on the road”, so to speak, for almost 2 days. Actually on the road only from home a little after 6pm on Thursday to Perth, where we dropped off the car at Helen’s place around 10-ish, caught an Uber to the airport, and then two flights – one Malaysian and one Turkish – to Istanbul. About 16 hours in the air in total, plus a couple of hours at KLIA. The Malaysian A330 was nice;

pac

Oct 134 min read

Le tour, and other things …

Paris, 19-21 July, 2026 OK, the last contemporaneous blog. I'll probably post a reflective one of some sorts over coming times, particularly of the walk, but as tomorrow we start our long haul home there'll be nothing of particular import to write about. So this is it in this series. Le tour is said to be the most visited ticketed monument in, wait for it, the world. Not just Paris. Now I'm going to be happy to take Mr G's word for it. Might be true, might not (I would have t

pac

Jul 212 min read

Beautiful Bretagne

Another non-blog; simply a few brief comments on the last four days in this lovely part of the world. 14th July - leaving Nantes We were staying in the central part of Nantes, and the previous day upon arrival had not had time to visit the cathedral - Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes - before it closed. So the start of today was a visit before we hit the road. On 18 July 2020 the 600-year old cathedral was the subject of an arson attack, and was closed for 5 ye

pac

Jul 192 min read

On The Move

Monday 13th July, Nantes, Britagne/Brittany Not so much a detailed blog (I don't think, I've not written it yet), but a brief photo essay of the highlights of the last few days, with a bit of commentary. St Jean to Bordeaux via Biarritz The early part of the day went well according to plan. Left SJPdP (and the fabulous Les Chemins d'Elika - highly recommended if you ever happen to be there) via the train to Bayonne and another to Biarritz, and then via Bolt (an Uber-like sys

pac

Jul 141 min read

Remembering

Vingt-quatrième jour - Friday 10th July, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Massive thunder and lightning storm at 1am; glad we weren't out walking. Lazy day today. Resting. Wandering the old city and walls. No story, just a few photos. An ever so slightly social end to our Camino last night (Thursday), on the lovely terrace of the very nice Le Relais de la Nive restaurant. From left Cathy from Sydney, J, me and Simone from the UK. (Earlier that night we'd caught up with American couple

pac

Jul 111 min read

Never Say Never II

Subtitle: 5,000,000 steps Vingt-troisième jour – terminer - Thursday 9th July, Larceveau - Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port - 19.5 klms (final total approx 425) Our trekking poles are a little worse for wear, and with just a little hyperbole I made some comment that they had walked a million miles with us. Janet did some quick processing and came up with the assessment that they'd probably walked 5 million steps!! Now let's not get too precise, but if you think about it, my very first

pac

Jul 104 min read

Flying blind

Vingt-deuxième jour - Wednesday 8th July, Aroue (Etcharry) - Larceveau - 24.4 klms (running total approx 406.2) We were presented with options today. Head down this route to visit this town, that route to see that monument. We chose only one set of options - what would be shortest and easiest!! According to the guidebook the longest set of options turned the day into a "strenuous" walk of over 30klms with an up/down altitude variance of some 800 metres. Ah, no thanks. The sh

pac

Jul 93 min read

Pen-Penultimate

Vingt-et-unième jour - Tuesday 7th July, Navarrenx - Aroue - 21.6 klms (running total approx 381.8) I don't even know if "pen-penultimate" is a real word, but hey, it's my blog and if I want to mangle my English/Latin well, who cares? I've written about previously, and indeed experienced multiple times, that the last few klms of any day's walk are usually the hardest. It's a mental more than a physical thing - yes after 20 klms the feet hurt and one is generally tired (and ho

pac

Jul 83 min read

Another World

Vingtième jour - Monday 6th July, Sauvelade - Navarrenx - 14.4 klms (running total approx 360.2) Early in the walk we passed many signs with various philosophical statements or sayings. They were all in French, and whilst I translated a couple just for fun, most of them are simply sitting in my phone as a "tomorrow" project. And then today, very early into the day, I passed the sign "Another World is Truly Possible", which gave rise to today's title. It's a gentle exhortatio

pac

Jul 73 min read

Third-third-third

Dix-neuvième jour - Friday 3rd July, Arthez-de-Béarn - Sauvelade - 20.6 klms (running total approx 345.9) There's a maxim for/on the Camino Frances that the first third is for the body, the next third is for the mind and the last third is for the spirit or the soul. Given that a maxim is a generally accepted truth, as opposed to an absolute or scientific truth, I hold the third-third-third maxim to be a pretty accurate rule of thumb. For the Camino Frances. Or the Via de la P

pac

Jul 63 min read

Planning

Dix-huitième jour - Saturday 4th July, Pomps - Arthez-de-Béarn - 10.0 klms (running total approx 325.3) The "official" guidebook (nothing's really official, you can do what you like) has recent past and future walking stages set at around 30klms/day. Whilst we've had two days approaching this number, and one to come, actually planning to have multiple days at these distances seemed like a bridge too far to me. So wherever possible I chopped them in half. It doesn't always wor

pac

Jul 53 min read

Buen Camino

Dix-septième jour - Friday 3rd July, Arzacq-Arraziguet - Pomps - 21.4 klms (running total approx 315.3) I think I'll start today with a PPR (a Podiatric Progress Report 🤔) for the record. With 6 days and around 100 klms to go there is a possibility that the feet will actually get me to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. How's that for confidence??? Now let me start properly. Staying in a 15th C "hotel" as we did last night was a high point, trumped as it were by the meals which our ho

pac

Jul 42 min read

Musings

Seizième jour - Thursday 2nd July, Miramont-Sensecq - Arzacq-Arraziguet - 18.8 klms (running total approx 293.9) The day started with petit-déjeuner at the maison of the lovely Clothilde before a stroll back into Miramont-Sensecq (the back way, through the cornfields) and then on on. We were accompanied by the intermittent roar of the jet engines, as we had been a couple of days earlier. A bit of research tells me that the jets concerned are the Dassault Rafale delta wing fig

pac

Jul 33 min read

Vast

Quinzième jour - Wednesday 1st July, Aire-sur-l’Adour - Miramont-Sensecq - 20.7 klms (running total approx 275.1) Having left Aire-sur-l’Adour on what seemed to be an endless uphill climb, as I wondered and wandered through the morning I thought that I'd find nothing to write about. There was a same sameness to the landscape which didn't lead to great inspiration. But then, surprise surprise, two things popped up. The first is the agricultural landscape itself. It's changed a

pac

Jul 22 min read

Well earned

Quatorzième jour - Monday 30th June, Aire-sur-l’Adour - rest day Our second - and last - rest day has been well earned. It's given the blisters (sadly, yes, there are a few) and the legs some respite, and moreso a chance to explore this ancient city. Not much appears to remain of its old past which goes back over 2,000 years to the Gallic Wars waged by Julius Caesar against the people of Gaul, in the '50s BC. My guide book tells me that the victorious general Publius Licinius

pac

Jun 303 min read

Sounds

Treizième jour - Monday 29th June, Nogaro - Aire-sur-l’Adour - 29.5 klms (running total approx 254.4) A short post to balance a long day today. Our elapsed travel time was about 8 hours, with 6 1/2 of them actually walking. One of the things which I've been noticing and which surprises me a lot is the apparent lack of pelerins. We saw two people a little ahead of us earlier this morning, and I think that they were the same two French chaps we saw yesterday. So, two days, two

pac

Jun 302 min read

Odd

Douzième jour - Sunday 28th June, Éauze - Nogaro - 21.0 klms (running total approx 225.0) I was quite at a loss as to what to call today's blog, until I arrived at our accommodation in Nogaro. Then it immediately came to me. One of the joys of travel is that it throws the occasional curved ball, to borrow an expression from our American friends. They can come in all shapes and sizes, often in my case to do with the hitherto sight-unseen accommodation choices which are made fr

pac

Jun 294 min read

Roamin'

Onzième jour - Saturday 27th June, Montreal-du-Gers - Éauze - 18.1 klms (running total approx 203.9) The Roman plans evolved in a completely unplanned and unforseen way. No worries. The initial plan had been that we would take the deviation via Sèviac and go visit the Villa gallo-romaine de Séviac, which has an extensive display of a Roman villa including some 100s square metres of mosaics. But it doesn't open until 10am, which would have required a lot of waiting around init

pac

Jun 283 min read

The little things ...

Dixième jour - Friday 26th June, Condom - Montreal-du-Gers - 21.7 klms (running total approx 185.9) It's the little things which make a difference, like clouds in the sky, coffee and ice-cream in the town square, air-conditioned room on arrival ... The day went fully according to plan. Up early-ish, breakfast at 6:30, depart the accommodation by 7:15 (tricky that, as our delightful hostess was very chatty), off to the boulangerie for trail supplies and then hit the road at 7:

pac

Jun 272 min read

One for all ...

Neuvième jour - Thursday 25th June, La Romieu - Condom - 15.0 klms (running total approx 164.2 klms) Here we are in Condom. Let's start with the obvious - name clarification. Condom is pronounced, I think, something like condoh. Between my guidebook and the local tourist brochure I'm told that because it is situated between Baïse River and the Gèle Stream the town's name comes from an ancient Celtic or the Aquitanian settlement called condate-o-magos, which means 'market of

pac

Jun 273 min read

Here Comes The Sun

Huitième jour - Wedesday 24th June, Lectoure - La Romieu - 17.5 klms (running total approx 149.2) I had thought that I had used this title once before, years ago. I had, almost, but not quite (see Sunflower). I grew up on the music of the Beatles, and this one from George is one of my favourites. Hard to pick favourites of course. But I think for today the variation Here Comes the Cool would be even more welcome. We continue to walk through agricultural land, and the emergent

pac

Jun 255 min read

Nothing, really ...

Septième jour - Tuesday 23rd June, Lectoure - rest day It's a sign that the trip is going well when you have to ask your wife what day it is, and she has to look at her watch to confirm that today is indeed Tuesday 😉. I could have figured that out because yesterday the shops were all shut, which of course meant it was Monday. But that would require some thought. Our apartment here in Lectoure is nice, even if unfunctional. There are at least 4 heaters in the place, and one s

pac

Jun 243 min read

Top of the hill

Sixième jour - Monday 22nd June, Miradoux to Lectoure - 16.3 klms (running total approx 131.7 klms) I've said this before. Janet and I get on very well. We are quietly comfortable in each other's presence. Sometimes we chatter as we walk, sometimes we just wander along in silence. She is often in front as I dawdle along stopping to take photos. Today she asked me what I think about as I walk. Often it's about what's going on around me, perhaps influenced by whether I should t

pac

Jun 233 min read

Relative

Cinquième jour - Sunday 21st June, Auvillar to Miradoux - 18.2 klms (running total approx 115.4) I don't really want to turn the blog into a daily weather report, but sometimes one has to acknowledge the elephant, in this case, outside the room. Today was a relatively easy day. But in the middle of a severe heatwave, relatively takes on a different meaning. We arrived into Miradoux a little before 2pm. Elapsed time about 6 hours; walking time about 4 hours 30 mins. Here's a w

pac

Jun 222 min read

Flat out

Quatrième jour - Saturday 20th June, Moissac to Auvillar - 20.7 klms (running total approx 97.2) An unusual typographical day. Whilst the previous three days had total accents and descents in the 500/600 metre range (both ways), today’s was about 100m up and down. In other words we walked our 20 klms pretty-well dead flat all day. That was a real bonus in the circumstances. I can divide today’s narrative into three sections. Part one – exploring Moissac. The tourist highlight

pac

Jun 212 min read

Mind Games

Troisième jour - Friday 19th June, Lauzerte to Moissac - 29.8 klms (running total approx 76.4) There were many potential titles for today’s blog, but after an elapsed time of just under 10 hours on the road, of which Strava tells me that we were moving for 7 of them, I chose this one, for reasons which are probably clear enough. Before I go one, here's a link to show today's journey (and if one of my kind readers who does not use Strava can tell me whether the link actually w

pac

Jun 202 min read

Beauty and the Beast

Deuxième jour - Thursday 18th June - Lascabanes to Lauzette, 23.6 klms (running total approx 46.7) Beast is probably a bit harsh, even though the heat was rather beastly at times ... For reasons we can’t quite fathom, even though it was much the same distance as yesterday, today's journey took a good couple of hours longer in time, and that's with a bit of cheating 😀. As arranged Nathalie drove us back to Lascabanes around 8am and without much mucking around we hit the road.

pac

Jun 194 min read

Philosophy

Premier Jour - Cahors to Lascabanes, Wednesday 17th June 2026 - 23.1 klms Well, what a day. I think we’ve both done very well. But more of that later ... Before the day started, I had a plan as to what I was going to talk about today. But as regular readers of the blog will know, often – indeed usually – a theme emerges as I walk along. And today was no different. But before I get into today’s theme, let me briefly talk about that which I had planned to say. Today is a good

pac

Jun 184 min read

Fast & Slow

Monday, 15th June, somewhere in the southern French countryside. I'm writing this from on board a fast(ish) train from Paris to Cahors, where we will start our walk on the day after tomorrow. We're whizzing along at around 130 kph. We've passed bigger towns, pretty little villages - the one a moment ago had a Rapunzel-like castle, open fields with freshly rolled hay bales, little local roads wending their way through the trees, the occasional industrial site and lots of wind

pac

Jun 163 min read

Across the world

The ever-increasing, exorbitant cost of airfares generally combined with our somewhat extravagant preference to undertake long-haul flights at the pointy end of the plane meant that we had to make some concessions. The concession was that rather than fly either direct to France or even our normal Perth-Singapore kick-off on Qantas, we chose the somewhat convoluted route of Perth-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok on Malaysian to pick up Finnair to Helsinki and then onto Paris. The Finnair

pac

Jun 154 min read

Au revoir l'Australie

I quite like being Australian (too bad if I didn't), although at times I don't like elements of modern Australia, which is another story for another day. It's good to be here and it's also good to leave occasionally. [As an aside, three years ago when we were walking the Via de la Plata I made an intentional and overt comment on a particular matter of Australian politics about which I was most bitterly disappointed; and was then fully bemused to have one of my readers post a

pac

Jun 83 min read

Never say never

Sub-title: there's only so many years left I don't think that it's equivocation to keep one’s options open. My justification – if indeed that’s what it is – is that one can’t be certain what’s around the corner. With a few fundamental exceptions, locking yourself into a closed position may not necessarily be all that smart. That’s not to say that I’ve haven’t actually done it a few times – the most notable being when, in 2010, after an incredibly special trip to the Himalaya

pac

Apr 243 min read