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Friday, 16 July, 2010

Home

After leaving London Heathrow Airport to fly to Melbourne our first stop was at Copenhagen for a short stopover before boarding our SAS flight to Bangkok, which left Copenhagen at 10:25 pm, five minutes before schedule,. SAS claim to be the most punctual airline in the world and the flighst we had with them this trip certainly enhanced that reputation.

We arrived in Bangkok fifteen minutes ahead of schedule with a ten hour wait before our Thai Airline flight to Melbourne but SAS provided a room at the Novotel Airport Hotel, just ten minutes from the airport. This enabled us to have a swim, a nap and a shower and put on fresh clothes for our last leg.

We arrived back at the airport and hour or so before departure and we were advised at the Thai business lounge to allow plenty of time to walk to the departure lounge as it was a kilometre away. We probably walked past 700 metres of shops on the way and then had to wait for an additional half an hour before we could board, and then they discovered a passenger hadn’t boarded but his luggage had, so it was another hour and a half before they found his two bags and removed them. Then to add to the late night every time they started serving the meal we hit some turbulence and everyone had to return to their seat, so it was after 3:00 am before we finished dinner. In spite of the early morning we probably managed nearly five hours sleep and we were only a little over one hour late when we landed.

A quick check through customs and without a wait our bags came out on the carousel so we would soon be heading home. Wrong!! When I went to pull up the handle on my case there wasn’t one so we had to go through the procedure of reporting damaged luggage and then I had to carry the case as I couldn’t wheel it.

In spite of the delays we were home just before 4:00 pm, 45 hours since we left my cousin’s house in Kent on Wednesday morning.

A wonderful holiday and now we have all those mundane matters to attend to, check nine weeks mail, mow lawns, weed the gardens, prune the roses and try to find my car and front door key which have hidden themselves in our absence.

Now to start planning our next holiday.

Homeward Bound

Wednesday, 14 July, 2010

London – Heathrow Airport

I’m writing this in the SAS Business Class lounge waiting for our flight to Copenhagen which will depart in two hours. This is the start of a 33 hour trip to Melbourne which includes a 9 ½ hour stop over in Bangkok but at least SAS put us up in a hotel so we won’t be stuck in a transit lounge.

Since writing my last Blog we have travelled to Maidstone in Kent to spend some time with a cousin and her family. A pleasant few days doing nothing except talking and a little family tree research, just what we needed to recharge the batteries before our flight home.

I may add to the Blog in Copenhagen or Bangkok or the "sign off" paragraph may be written at home. However after nine weeks we are ready to return home.

London

Friday, 8 July, 2010

London – Hampton Court Flower Show

After breakfast we caught the underground from Earls Court, changed at Wimbledon onto the South West line for Hampton Court and walked to Hampton Court Palace to visit the Hampton Court Flower Show which we were told was equal to the Chelsea Flower Show.

This was the 21^st year the show has been held and the theme this year was based on Shakespeare’s plays and the first area of the show we visited included small gardens, Shakespeare’s comedies scarecrow competition for children and all the entries were based on a Midsummer’s Night Dream. Nearby were gardens with themes from the plays, “As You Like It”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “The Taming of the Shrew”, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” and others. In front of these gardens a group of actors presented snippets from the plays which were very entertaining.

Our next stop was to the floral marquee which was over 200 m. long and contained displays from well over a hundred commercial plant and flower growers and most had produced very innovative displays, literally works of art to showcase their plants.

After lunch we visited another marquee featuring food and drink from small producers and many offering small samples of their wares, a sip of wine here, a piece of pork sausage there, some cheese, pickles, soup and many other little nibbles, we should have visited before lunch. Leaving the marquee we wandered past dozens of stands offering everything from floral “wellies” country clothing, gardening tools, sculptures, through to glass houses, outdoor furniture and cottages.

From the commercial area we walked through many show gardens with various themes, sustainable, bee gardens, the UK has lost a large percentage of their honey and bumble bees and there is a nation wide campaign to plant gardens to encourage bees. Other gardens showed the changes of plants over the past hundred years and what may occur if these trends aren’t reversed. A most interesting garden was the Shakespeare garden which was growing plants and vegetable that would have been found in the Bard’s time, one of the plants was the white carrot which preceded the orange carrot by a hundred or more years.

After walking past all the theme gardens we entered the rose marquee which as well as displays from many rose breeders and growers there were many other commercial plant growers’ displays. London has been experiencing hot weather over the last few days and today’s 30C+ temperatures have badly effected the displays and the roses in particular were wilting and dropping petals as were many other plants and with two more days to go the growers were very worried as they didn’t have back up plants or roses to cut for their displays. Visitors on Saturday and Sunday may be confronted by a lot of “dead heads”.

After nearly eight hours at the show we walked around 1 ½ km to the station to be greeted by rail staff telling us to form a queue to enter the station, the queue tailed back onto the bridge over the Thames and we had to wait nearly half an hour before we entered the station and were lucky to obtain a seat on the train. Arriving back at Earls Court ten hours after we left, our first stop was at a pub for two pints of the best and some fish and chips and then back to the hotel for a large pot of tea, we then felt that we had restored our fluid balance which in spite of drinking a lot of water at the show was at a low level.

Saturday, 10 July, 2010

London – Ham House

At home we have a book written by an acquaintance which is a modern day murder mystery and all the action is at Ham House on the bank of the River Thames at Richmond, as we had never visited Ham House before we thought it was time we did.

Ham House was built in 1610 and in 1626 William Murray, a childhood friend of Charles I leased the property and later as a reward for his services, Charles gave the freehold of the estate to Murray. After the Civil War and execution of Charles, Murray fled to France and left his wife Katherine and four daughters to manage the estate. After Katherine’s death the eldest daughter was able to retain the estate by apparently supporting Cromwell but all the time working to see Charles II restored to the throne. Following her father’s death, Elizabeth’s title as Countess was confirmed by Charles II and the house and estate remained in the family until the 1940s when it was passed to the National Trust.

Much of the original furnishings and room decorations remain almost untouched or had been restored by later generations so Ham House has many features dating back to the late 16 early 1700s. The Trust has also restored some of the gardens using the original plans and plants from these times, though the vegetable garden is probably only a tenth of its original size as the Trust depends on two gardeners and volunteers to maintain the gardens.

Leaving the house and gardens we walked down to the Thames to sit and watch “people messing around in boats” before returning to Earls Court and as it was still in the 30Cs we purchased some salad and cold chicken and walked to Holland Park to eat dinner.

Tomorrow we leave London.

London - Eventually

Thursday, 8 July, 2010

Cheshunt (Lee Valley YH) to Earls Court, London

Today was the end of our car hire and we were due to return the car To Earls Court by 10:00 am which according to a printout of roads to follow, it was about 21 miles from the hostel to the depot and to allow for slow traffic we gave ourselves 1 ½ hours to complete the trip. The way roads are marked in the UK makes it very easy to navigate by following the road numbers and there isn’t any need to know the street and road names and the directions usually don’t includes names.

The directions made navigation simple and the traffic was moving freely so when we were about ten miles from our destination we stopped to fill up with petrol, right to the top, as the tank would still show full when we arrived. All went well for around another five miles when we had to turn off the A503 onto the A4201 for a mile and then onto the A501 for a mile and then three other “A” roads to arrive at Earls Court.

We were starting to congratulate ourselves on how well we were doing and we were going to arrive at the depot on time, when our confidence was dashed, there wasn’t an A4201 signposted or painted on the road, so we turned in what we hoped was the direction we needed until we were totally lost. The only road number we spotted was for the A502 but that was in the wrong direction. Stopping to ask for help we were sent in the opposite direction and after several more twists and turns we arrived back almost to where we asked for help.

Taking a different direction we spotted a sign for the A503 in the direction we had come from and arriving back at Campden we made a “U” turn and started again, with the same result. We again sought help and we were told that where we had turned left previously we should have turned right, this was alright until we arrived at the intersection to find it was one way and we had to turn left but after a few right hand turns we were able to enter the road we wanted. Driving along crossing Harley Street, past Madame Tussauds and over Baker Street we thought we were back on track until we entered the Marylebone Flyover which wasn’t on our directions and appeared to be taking us to a motorway. Panic!!!

By now we were resigned with having to pay an additional day’s rental for a late return when we saw a slip road and an Earls Court sign and luckily at every turn, Earls Court was either painted on the road or there was a signpost pointing us in the direction. Eventually we found ourselves in Earls Court road and a right turn brought us to our hotel where we double parked to unload our luggage on the footpath and I set off to find a service station and the depot and when I arrived I was nearly 1 ¾ hours late. Listening to my tale of woe they didn’t charge me for the late return.

Walking back to our hotel I found that Ann had been assisted to take the cases inside and was checked in to our room, after lunch we walked around to the underground station to purchase Oyster (travel) Cards, so we are set to find our way to Hampton Court Palace tomorrow for the flower show.

Still moving South

Saturday, 3 July, 2010

Once Brewed (Hadrian’s Wall) to Ambleside

We set off on what should be an easy drive to the Lakes District but because of the route we had chosen we were soon back on narrow winding lanes, some of the time through woodlands and other times through open fells with hundreds of grazing sheep, after about forty miles we reached a large dual lane road near Penrith but we only had four miles before branching off for the Lakes.

Just before the turn off a large tourist coach cut in front of us and entered the lane first. The lane actually has an “A” classification but it was still a winding narrow country lane. The coach drove at around 20 mph and soon had twenty or more cars strung out behind, it was so wide that cars coming towards it had difficulty passing and at one stage there was a small truck parked on the side of the road and it took the coach five minutes to squeeze past.

After driving in second gear for about eight miles we saw a National Trust sign for Aira Force, a waterfall, and drove into the car park to give the coach time to get out of our way, eight other cars followed us in.

From the car park we walked for about two hours over a gravel and rocky track through woods, actually walking for quite a way past the falls as from the side we were on it didn’t appear very large and there weren’t any signs to indicate its location. A NT officer told us that they had removed the signs as people kept turning them around. Walking back on the opposite side of the stream we came to a small stone bridge from where we could look back up a narrow gorge to the falls and from this position it was far more impressive.

Leaving the falls we had an unimpeded drive for about ten minutes until we caught up with a motor home, so it was back to second gear through the hills with some ascents and descents with up to 20% inclines. At the top of the Kirkstone Pass we branched off on another even narrower lane, totally lined on both side with stone walls, it was called the struggle and the slopes were even steeper than before so I suppose coming up really was a struggle. After three miles we emerged at the town of Ambleside, whose streets were nearly as narrow and winding as the lanes we had been driving along.

Ambleside is at the top of Lake Windermere and being a Saturday there were thousands of tourists about and the traffic was bumper to bumper. The hostel is on the edge of the lake at Waterhead about two miles from Ambleside and about three miles from Windermere and our window looks out over the lake, a lovely view.

After we checked in to the hostel we walked along the road for a mile or so to Stagshaw Gardens, which is just steep woodlands with azaleas and rhododendrons scattered through the trees, unfortunately they had all finished flowering. We walked on for about two miles towards Windermere and then caught the bus back to the hostel and sat on the edge of the lake enjoying the sun until it was time to cook tea.

Sunday, 4 July, 2010

Ambleside to Tideswell (Ravenstor YH)

Looking out the window this morning we were greeted with heavy rain, what happened to yesterday’s sunshine?

The only thing planned for today is to pick a route that will avoid Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, so we spent quite a while picking roads that would keep us in the country and small villages and take us through the Peak District. This involved selecting a route along twelve different roads, though some were the usual narrow, winding lanes but we achieved our objective and only touched the outskirts of a couple of minor towns.

Apart from a lunch stop high in the Peak District National Park we drove straight through to the youth hostel arriving at 2:30 and were delighted to find that it was a 24 hour access hostel so we were able to check in and relax. On entering our room Ann commented, I thought we had booked a private room with en-suite, nor a cupboard with bunks and en-suite, it was that small, but the beds were clean and comfortable and in spite of 30+ young teenage girl students staying at the hostel on a geography study trip, we enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

The next couple of days we will spend with relatives, so we probably won’t have anything interesting to report.

Monday, 5 July, 2010

Tideswell (Ravenstor YH) to Nuneaton

The plan today was to drive straight through to Nuneaton but owing to turning left instead of right we found a NT property, Sudbury Hall a Jacobean residence. The house isn’t open on Monday but the Museum of Childhood which is in part of the house was open.

The museum has many different rooms and the first was devoted to child labour, children working in the mines from the age of 8, boys working as chimney sweeps at the age of 6 and many other examples of children working in factories and farms.

The other rooms in the exhibition had items more for children’s enjoyment than exploitation with display cases of toys, games, dolls and many other items for the amusement of children from the 1700s to modern times. In all the rooms there were games, toys and other items for children to play with while their parents looked at the displays and commented “I used to have one of those”. Another room was set up as a late 1800s, early 1900s class room with many old classroom items, including slates and desks with inkwells (though these could have been 1960s era), old maps, attendance books and discipline items.

A most interesting display overall and one item that caught the eye of a few, if they looked up, was the complete child’s bedroom fixed to the ceiling of one of the rooms, looking up it was as if we were looking at a mirror on the ceiling reflecting the room below, it must have taken a lot of time and patience to fix the bed, computer desk and chair, shoes, games on the carpet and dozens of other items from the child’s bedroom.

Overall a most comprehensive display which combines the collection of a few enthusiastic toy collectors, together with many items from the last ten years or so, these together with all the hands on items for the children makes it an ideal place for a family visit and I’m sure the adults enjoyed it just as much as the children.

Tuesday, 6 July, 2010

Nuneaton

The first day we have been able to sit and relax and apart from going out to lunch with our relative we just sat and read.

Tomorrow back on the road again.

Wednesday, 7 July, 2010

Nuneaton to Cheshunt (Lee Valley YH)

Following the advice of my cousin we headed off in the direction of London on the A5 and after about 20 miles we joined the M1. We usually try to avoid the motorways but at this time of the day the traffic isn’t very heavy so driving wasn’t a white knuckle event. About 50 miles on the M1 we were going to turn off at junction 6a to join the M25 but the sign said to Heathrow which was the opposite direction so we continued on and left at the next junction and eventually picked up the M25 only to find that we were heading to Heathrow, exiting at the first junction and doing a 360 degree lap on the roundabout we finally headed in the correct direction to the youth hostel.

Lee Valley YH is a purpose built hostel with a main building containing conference rooms, and dining facilities and the accommodation is in a series of A Frame lodges. On the ground floor is a little kitchenette and three twin rooms and upstairs two dormitories, the only problem being that the upstairs dorms have a school group in residence, we hope the teachers are in the building.

The hostel is beside the River Lee Country Park which is over 1000 acres in area with around 24 lakes which were once gravel pits and many miles of walks, with woodlands and conservation areas, two of the fields contain native orchids and with good management the numbers of orchids have increased from the six originally discovered to over 200. In the park there is an area of construction which will be the 2012 Olympic Games White Water Canoe Centre when finished.

Due to its location and facilities for the disabled the hostel is very popular for school holiday camps and for other groups and at the moments there are two schools and a group in residence.

Tomorrow, to London and we say goodbye to the car.

Heading for England

Thursday, 1 July, 2010

Loch Lomond to Minnigaff

When we looked out the window this morning over Loch Lomond it was raining steadily, probably the most consistent rain since we arrived in Scotland. The first part of our trip today was on major roads so we also had to cope with the spray thrown up by the traffic, however by 11:00 the rain had eased so we didn’t have to cope with wet conditions.

We made a quick stop at Ayr and then drove on to Alloway, the birth place of Robbie Burns who incidentally shares his birthday with Ann, though not the year. The Scottish National Trust now looks after the Burns family cottage and has a large visitors’ centre down the road called the Tam o’ Shanter Experience which plays a film adaptation of Burns Poem Tam o’ Shanter every hour. Next to the centre they are building a large Burns Memorial museum which will open in November and replace the centre.

The cottage which was Robbie’s and three sibling’s birthplace and he lived there until he was seven years old. The cottage has four rooms, one was the kitchen, dining and sleeping room, the next the good parlour, then the stable and cow room and the last room was the feed room. Each room has an audio playing with voices and noises applicable to that room; one visitor was startled when a rooster crowed in the stables as she was looking at a saddle.

From the visitors centre we walked over to the Auld Kirk Alloway which is now just a shell and the churchyard contains the grave and memorial to Burns’ father, the memorial also mentions his mother who is buried elsewhere. Crossing back across the road we entered the Burns Memorial Gardens which contains the Burns Memorial and inside a bust of Burns, also in the gardens is the Statue Room. This room contains life size statues of Tam o’ Shanter, Souter Johnie and Nance Tinnoch all who feature in the poem Tam o’ Shanter as does the Auld Kirk and Brig o’ Doon, the bridge which is just outside the gardens was the one Tam had to cross on his horse when pursued by the witch and as witches can’t cross running water he had to cross past the middle of the bridge to be safe which he did but the witch made a last minute grab and removed the horses tail.

Leaving Alloway to drive to Newton Stewart we decided to drive along a minor road which follows the coast instead of using a major road, this turned out to be a stroke of luck because looking across a small bay, perched on the top of cliffs was a large imposing castle. This turned out to be Culzean Castle and Country Park which is owned by the NTS so we decided to exercise our NT Life Members card for the second time today. Every building is built on a grand scale from sandstone and even the farmyard square and the castle stables could pass as mansions.

Surrounding the castle is around 600 acres of grounds and an earlier Earle is reputed to have planted 5 million trees and plants, many imported from around the world. The park has been declared the first Country Park in Scotland and receives funding from several sources. In the grounds is a walled garden which is the largest we have ever seen and was used to produce fruit, vegetables and flowers for the castle, it also contains several glasshouses which contain grape vines and stone fruit trees.

Some of the earlier Earls also built their own gas works and a small railway to deliver coal. There is a large Camellia House, two ice houses to store winter ice to be used during summer and a 16 acre Swan Pond.

The estate was given to the Trust in 1945 after the 90 year old Earl died, leaving three elderly sons, the new Earl decided to gift the estate when it was worked out that following his death the 74% inheritance tax imposed by the Labor Party would cost the family 2 ½ times the value of the estate. He placed one condition on his gift and that was that during his lifetime General Eisenhower was to have the use of the top floor in the castle any time he wanted to use it. The castle now has a permanent display devoted to “Ike”.

As we didn’t arrive until 3:00 we didn’t have the time to explore all the grounds, this would require at least a full day so we had to be satisfied with a quick two hour visit. Leaving the castle we had a forty mile drive to our hostel and as we had been driving on wider roads with fewer bends all day we expected a quick trip. Wrong! We were soon confronted with a very narrow winding road allowing a top speed of 40 mph, so it was after 6:00 when we arrived when we arrived at the Minnigaff Hostel.

Tomorrow we cross the border into England.

Friday, 2 July, 2010

Minnigaff to Once Brewed (Hadrian’s Wall)

Minnigaff didn’t live up to its’ reputation during the day “Come to sunny Minnigaff and watch it rain” but when we looked out this morning it was obvious that it had rained during the night.

Today was easy driving for most of the day, fairly wide roads and gentle bends and we drove through the largest expanse of flat ground we have seen in two weeks in Scotland.

Heading towards Gretna Green, Ann noticed on the road map that we would soon pass an NTS property, Threave Estate, so we decided a small detour was in order. Threave has a Boronial style house and several hundred acres of grounds and 64 acres of gardens and was given to the Trust, like many others, when the family was faced with a large death duties bill.

The gardens, walled garden and glasshouses are probably the best maintained we have seen at any NTS property and there seemed to be a large staff of gardeners and we later found out that the Trust runs a one year post graduate course for horticultural students, so that explained the apparent large staff numbers. Throughout Scotland at most of their properties the Trust has halved the number of gardeners and the gardens have suffered as a result.

Turning off the main road we followed a little coastal road towards Gretna Green and decided to stop for lunch in a park in a little village, the gardens in the park had a beautiful display of tuberous begonias, however as the wind was strong enough to blow a dog off it’s chain we retreated back to the car.

Arriving at Gretna Green we decided to by-pass visiting the old forge where run-away couples were married as it has been turned into a tourist production and is nothing like the place we saw many years ago, so we crossed the border into England and dropped onto the M6 and drove for about ten miles before leaving it to drive towards Hadrian’s Wall where our next hostel is situated.

A little over 2 miles from our hostel are the ruins of Homestead Fort which was built by the Romans against Hadrian’s Wall about 128 AD to provide living quarters for the troops guarding the wall; previously they had been stationed many miles away. The fort covered several acres and contained around ten barrack buildings, each provided accommodation for 80 troops, there was a hospital, the commander’s house, a bath house, granary and many other buildings to support around 1000 people living there. From the ruins of one of the turrets on the wall we could see the wall winding away into the distance, this made us realise the massive job entailed in building the wall as the stones came from quarries miles away and each Roman troop was responsible for building and manning a section of the wall.

The Lakes District is our destination tomorrow.

Glencoe

Tuesday, 29 June, 2010

Ratagan to Glencoe

At breakfast this morning we looked out across the loch with the a mountain reflected in it, a beautiful sight as the mountain was not covered in cloud, unlike the Five Sisters of Kintail which were covered in cloud, all these peaks are over 1000 m. high.

Our first stop was at the site of the Battle of Glen Shiel but apart from a sign with 1719 there is no information to indicate the significance of this location. The battle occurred in 1719 during one of the early Jacobite uprisings but this was quickly put down by the English army.

Driving on to Spean Bridge we arrived at the Commando Memorial which was built to commemorate the WW2 Commandos and in 1942 this area became the training base for the Commando Units. Since our last visit a circular memorial area has been built and on its inside perimeter are hundreds of small personal memorial to Commandos who have died in service or just of old age, some very recent ones were for men killed in Afghanistan, one a young man of 21 had his Green Beret laid with the small memorial.

The next memorial, the Glenfinnan Monument, is from an earlier age and it is situated at the head of Loch Shiel and commemorates the site of Bonny Prince Charlie’s raising of his father’s royal standard and calling the clans to support his attempt to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the English throne. The monument was built in the early 1800s and can be climbed inside by a narrow winding stone staircase, 60 steps to the top; at the top we had a view down Loch Shiel and back towards the mountains and the Glenfinnan railway viaduct. We have now completed a Bonny Prince Charlie trip in reverse, starting with his defeat at Culloden and finishing at the start of his uprising.

Near Fort William we arrived at the end of the Caledonian Canal, another of Thomas Telford’s engineering works, the canal runs from Loch Ness and finishes with the “Neptune’s Staircase” a series of nine locks dropping 21 m. to Loch Linnhe. After the last lock there are two swing bridges, one carries road traffic and the other the train line, while we were there we watched two yachts pass through four of the locks and past the two opened bridges before entering Loch Linnhe to return home, one to France the other to Finland. The charge to travel along the canal is £18.50 per metre of boat length and is valid for eight days.

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From the canal we drove on to our hostel for tonight, through the village of Glencoe and along a single track road, tomorrow we hope to find out more about the significance of Glencoe.

Wednesday, 30 June, 2010

Glencoe to Loch Lomond

We started the day with a visit to the National Trust of Scotland’s Glencoe visitors centre. Glencoe, literally “The Valley of the Weeping” is probably best known for the slaughter of members of the MacDonald Clan but it is a popular centre for walking and mountain climbing in both winter and summer.

In 1691 King William demanded the Clan Chiefs swear a pledge of loyalty to the English Crown by January 1^st 1692, with the threat of reprisals if they did not comply. The Chief of the MacDonalds missed the deadline by five days because of the atrocious weather conditions but pledged his loyalty on the sixth; however the authorities in Edinburgh would not accept this late pledge and ordered the troops at Fort William to eliminate the Clan. The soldiers, many of them from the Campbell Clan and led by a Campbell Captain accepted the hospitality of the MacDonalds for ten days but early one morning in February 1692 the Captain ordered the attack and more than thirty men, women and children were killed and their homes burnt, many who survived the slaughter were stripped and sent out in the snow where dozens more perished. Many Clan members survived and it is thought they had received a warning from troops who were against the planned attack.

From Glencoe we headed south towards Glasgow driving past many more “Munros”, mountains over 3,000 feet, which the serious walkers try to “bag” as many as possible, some have climbed every one. About 15 miles from Glencoe the country flattened out between mountain ranges, this was Rannoch Moor which featured in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Kidnapped, and is also famous for the many species of rare wildlife is supports, including the ferox trout which origins go back to the ice age.

Leaving the moor we moved back into the mountains with the winding narrow road and steep inclines, at least the moor allowed us to relax a little. Ten miles from the moor and about four miles from the head of Loch Lomond we stopped to walk to the Falls of Falloch, not as spectacular as other falls we have seen in Scotland but a pleasant walk along the bank of the winding river.

At the head of Loch Lomond the cliffs almost reach the water’s edge and they probably did before around 17 miles of road was carved into them, so although it is a two lane road it takes a great deal of care to avoid an oncoming bus or truck. All along the road are signs indicating winding road for a mile or so but as the whole distance is winding we wondered why they were there, also approaching bends there were signs advising reduce speed or slow down but as at times we were only travelling at 20 mph we asked “how slow do they want us to go?”

We eventually reached a wider section of the loch road which meant we were unlikely to meet a wide vehicle protruding over the centre line, travelling a few miles we saw a Youth Hostel sign which was sooner than we expected, driving up a lane through woods we arrived at the hostel, a mansion not quiet as large as Carbisdale Castle but still an impressive building and it is claimed to be built on the site of Robert the Bruce’s hunting lodge. The house is classed as a pseudo-castle and was built in 1865. Another grand youth hostel, though we still prefer the smaller ones as the large hostels tend to be rather impersonal.

Tomorrow we continue our travels south, towards the English border.