Tuesday, 20 June - Bandits Roost, W. Kerr Scott Reservoir, Wilkesboro, NC 28697

OK, so we are on a mission this morning - decamped and ready to leave before 9.30 am.  We could not make the sharp turn to get up the hill behind our campsite, so had to go much further along the steep and rough roads into the campground - there were still no loops we could get into to turn around, so in the end we just back up around one corner and turn back to the exit.  So the first stop is the front office to confirm we are leaving today.  Surprisingly there was no argument, they will credit us the two free days we booked but didn’t want to stay for, but they ask no question about our stay and why we were leaving early??

We take the small country roads for 25 miles north towards Wilkesboro where we would like to stay at Bandits Roost Campground on W. Kerr Scott Lake, a Corps of Engineers Camp.  I could not book on line yesterday as they need two days in advance, but the website said there are usually sites available.  So we rock up to the office with a firm idea of which water front sites we would like and a lovely man helps us find the perfect site, right by the water and it is available for 3 nights.  The previous residents, just this morning moved from this site as they said it had mice!!  But the office had the exterminators booked to come in today and seriously who cares about mice, we have traps and stuff.  When we arrive we found food strewn around the campsite, no surprise there may have been mice.  We pick up the food and put out our sticky mouse traps everywhere, just in case.  But I have been sitting outside most of the afternoon and haven’t seen any rodents!  Just squirrels - and one was particularly precocious in getting onto our picnic table and putting his cute little hands around the can of “Bugg Off” which I had left on the table, aww – they are so cute!

The sun is just slightly filtered by high cloud and it’s hot so we want a swim.  We have a little track meandering down from our campsite right to the swim beach, which is just a square of floating orange plastic pipe, with a maximum depth of 6 foot.  There are house boats and runabouts to’ing and fro’ing and it is pretty.  This is much more like it!!

Our campsite by drone view!!

Plus we have a grill and a fire ring, so tonight we are cooking more of our flat iron steak over the coals, mm mm!  Kim does an awesome job being chief chef and the meat is delicious!

We can see the lake, framed by trees, from our front window and that is where the sun is setting, lovely! 

Our swim beach at sunset

We like this place – a lot!  We are on 50 amp, no WIFI, but great cell coverage, the bath houses and dumpsters are just a short walk away with just with a mild incline.  Our neighbours are friendly and life is good!