Local nature beats Hansa Park.

Our kiwi german friends Tanja. Cristoph, Marlo and Maja came to visit us from New Zealand having spent around a month in Germany with family and friends before seeing us. Marlo's (6) and Maja's (4) favorite part of their trip thus far had been a day at Hansa Park - Germany's Alton Towers. Not that I was trying to compete - oh no - but could our local historic sites such as Mugdock and Doune castles, folklore such as the Lochness monster (on holiday in Loch Lomond), beautiful countryside around Mugdock Country Park, Flanders Moss and the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, and our natural heritage therein beat Hansa Park? Is it possible that these attractions through the eyes of a 4 and 6 year old could compete with the adrenalin rush of a roller coaster ride at Hansa Park? Yes! As Maja put it 'The nature beats Hansa Park'. My favorite nature experience of the ones I shared with our friends was swimming with newts in a lochan uphill from Sallochy. Follow a trail uphill from the carpark, through the deserted village, left up a forestry road and its on the right just below the target summit knoll. If you go now there are lots of blaeberries around along with newts (I suspect palmate newts), damselflies, dragonflies, and common blue and ringlet butterflies.