Killin Hotel

... a national park and to climb some obscure hills, inspired by my Snowdon climb the week previous :) I wanted to do one in the Trossachs, and one around Loch Lomond way so I could get a good view over it. The internet was supremely helpful as always and I identified two moderately hard but relatively short climbs, both with excellent views ...

... into the Lowlands. This whole area is part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park but it also contains the Ben Lomond Memorial Park, the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, an RSPB nature reserve at Inversnaid, Forestry Commission land and a couple of private estates, all of which seem to have their own plans for conservation and regeneration of the natural forests, and their own signage. Co-ordination meetings must be complicated! Thank goodness the ...

... phones through to the AA and books a transporter to take me back to take me back to Nottingham (East Leake).

Tow truck 1, turns up at 11:50 to take me on the first leg of the journey home from Fort William to Stirling. This takes approx 3 hours and I get dropped at Stirling service station where I am supposed to be met by the next tow truck. It takes about an hour for the next truck to turn up. Which was arranged for 14:30

... wet I can see how it would be particularly difficult, but perhaps because this section comes at the start of my day, whereas everyone else does it at the end, it's not overwhelming.

Rob Roy is the focus of the legends for this stage with both Rob Roy's Cave and Rob Roy's Prison on the path. The path to the cave is full of huge rocks and after a few minutes I opt to turn back as I'm pretty sure ...

... 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 ...

... if I'd never seen one before), and hills.



On this little post-work afternoon stroll I made it as far as Port of Menteith and the Loch Lomond/Trossachs National Park. Then I realised I could actually continue walking for miles, but ...

... night tonight!

Tyndrum is disappointingly a glorified layby but the hostel is lovely with plenty of space, a great drying room and I'm looking forward to my day off!

Things that made me smile today:

The sun coming out at Loch Tulla
The gate with the "Please Close the Gate" sign. It was stood all alone with no supporting fence, hedge or wall for miles!
Getting to Tyndrum - I was pretty tired after 64 miles in three days!

... 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 ...

So, before I ever left for Scotland, I had to choose a program, which ended up being Arcadia University. And when I signed up for travel through them, I had to pay this little 'program fee'...which wasn't quite little, but it paid for things like in-country orientation, some opportunities for free trips and some chances to get some free tickets to events. There were also several discounted trips offered, and I decided to sign up for one of those, a ...

I think it's hilarious when we reach Killin. This is mostly because of a sign for "Killin Hotel." Erm, yeah. Is that like the Bates Motel? Anyhow, Killin is lovely. The Dochart Falls are absolutely spectacular and we have a great time walking ...