Gairloch View Guest House

... and negotiated. Armed with my trusty Rough Guide to Scotland, and some scribbled directions for each walk, I set off, bright and early (8.30?) for Callander - the "gateway" to the Trossachs. Noone else was on the roads - a good sign - so I pulled over for a couple of sneaky photos of the first Loch I encountered, Loch Venachar: Soon after ...

Today, I was planning to go to the youth hostel at the castle, but the Land Rover had other plans!!!

Oh dear, game over! I popped out to start the Land Rover this morning at around 9am and the engine was smoking like a trooper and sounding a lot worse than it normally does. I called the AA at around 10:00 and they turned up at at around 10:45 from a local garage. He told me that the engine is fairly terminal (piston problem ...

Today's route from Inverarnan to Rowardennan has a reputation second only to the Devil's Staircase for being "difficult". Rocks and tree roots line the path at the northern end of Loch Lomond and the going is reported to be difficult.

It's with some trepidation that I set off then but the path isn't quite as bad as I feared. At least the rain has stopped! There is a lot of clambering up and down and in ...

... hostel.

On the way I meet Hugh, a retired librarian, who has been doing the LEJOG route in stages over several years. He's abandoned ideas of wild camping tonight and decided to join me at Crianlarich. We stock up at Crianlarich's village shop and I get overexcited at the sight of vegetables! I was getting the impression that vegetables were illegal in Scotland - apart from "tatties" of course!

Hugh is a very experienced walk leader who leads ...

... in a Little House on the (Scottish) Prairie kinda way. This is the view from the lounge/front garden (I challenge you to spot another house) and what the locals think of Blairhoyle (see small print)...



Anyway, there is no ...

Liz & Alec, who gave me a lift last night, turn out to be heading back to Kingshouse this morning so offer me a lift straight back to the start of my walk through the winding valley of Glencoe. The sky is already looking ominously dark so it's on with the waterproofs and I batten down the hatches with my rucksack cover before venturing out across Rannoch Moor.

The rain starts almost as soon as I hit the moor. It's relentless and the headwind ...

... It's well over an hour to the next bus to Glencoe so I settle in at the walkers' bar and meet some of the campers and other walkers of the WHW. Everyone is really friendly, there are some cute dogs (a chocolate Lab, Dylan, and Moss, a collie) and it is great to hear other people's tales and reasons for doing the walk, as well as their tips for further on.

I head out for the 7.20pm bus and disaster strikes - it's five minutes early! It sails ...

It was a day of rest today. It rained all day long and it was actually a welcomed respite. We have been going every day since we arrived nearly 2 weeks ago. We did attempt to go into Aberfoyle to the local market, however, the roads had a different idea. When we arrived at the edge of town, the road was flooded and we could not go any further. We simply turned around and came back.

... is very small, and for 2 way traffic. The graveyard was quite spooky - yes, even for me. Maybe it was because it was so old, and I was there on my own, but I half-expected a headless monk to come out of the shadows. Sending a shiver down my spine just thinking about it!

Not much that is worth writing about has been happening since the last time I wrote. Last Thursday Chris and I met up with Frazer and James (Chris' friends) in the hope of finding a winter coat for both James and me. We didn't have much luck there but we went to the pub for a meal and watched the "breaking news" at heathrow where a plane had had an emergency landing on the runway. One of the people who met us at the pub, Ellie, was flying out to Birmingham that night and was getting ...