Saturday 10th -- Loch Lomond

We're right on the edge of The Trossachs and Loch Lomond national park. It's time to check out Loch Lomond. We plan to drive down the west side of the loch, across the south then back home by the quickest way. Easy.

The road by the loch has some glimpses of spectacular views. There are lots of trees but occasional views across the water. The far side -- when I see it -- is high, steep and quite rough. Spectacular indeed.

The road itself is spectacular. Narrow and winding. Packed with high speed traffic. Driving is... nerve-racking.

I do catch glimpses of the loch. Mostly, I am watching the traffic. I try to pull over, to let cars get past. Then it sometimes takes a long time to get a break to get back on the road. No worries, for a long time there is nowhere to pull over anyway.

We begin to appreciate the idea of settling for a month or more into the one holiday location. A road trip holiday here, seems pointless!

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We manage to get off the main road and find a picnic area with a beach. (But see a later comment.) A beach of stones, on Loch Lomond. With people swimming and boating. A smell of old barbecue. Crowded but pleasant.

The West Highland Way passes by, we walk a hundred metres or so along the Way.

Then it's back to the main, busy road.

We reach Balloch, at the end of the loch. We look for somewhere for lunch, pass a shopping and eating area, turn into a wool demonstration building which also sells lunch. We park, look at the crowds, consider the heavy rain, drive on.

We take a suburban road. Interesting but leading nowhere. Turn back, get back on the main road. Which becomes less of a main road. The traffic must have stayed on the mainer main road. Phew :-)

It's lunch time. There's a sign, Eat, drink, indulge. Sounds good, we go in.

It's House of ?Drannach? It starts with a gift shop laid out like Ikea, a single passage winding through to the cafe. There is a cake display, every cake is at least 30cm high -- including the single serve strawberry tarts... We have scones. Delicious.

I suspect that the House is set up to trap busloads of rich American tourists. Not that there are any here today. Some English. A family of teenagers. Various others. It may be a tourist trap but the food and staff are all very pleasant.

We're now across the southern end of Loch Lomond. Past the worst of the traffic. We drive to Drymen, there's a Rob Roy walking trail starting here, we believe that the start of the trail may be a driveable road. We never see the trail.

We set the gps for Aberfoyle, to get a shorter drive on less travelled roads.

We see numerous walkers, hikers. The WHW follows a lot of our road. Oh, btw: That earlier beach stop was probably, really, on this leg of the journey... Oh well, I never promise accuracy :-)

We are now on narrow winding roads through forest. Lots of hikers. Then a carpark -- choc-a-block with cars and campers and hikers. And it's the end of the road. Even the gps says, turn back... btw: On day one I found a setting for this gps to record where we go. Some day I may find out where we are...

The gps takes us ten miles or more back along familiar roads, all the way back to Drymen. My guess is, I missed a turn. From then on, the gps is taking us to the nearest turn-around point -- the carpark at the end of the road. When we finally turn back, it is all fine. From Drymen the gps leads us quickly to Aberfoyle.

Next stop is Port of Montieth. Before or after Aberfoyle? I can't remember. I may look at a map. Later.

Port of Montieth. Monteith? That does look better. Port? Why a port, it's on a small lake?! Anyway: we stop for coffee at the Lake Hotel.

My impression is, this hotel caters to rich locals. Don't worry, staff are friendly. As are all the people we deal with in Scotland.

We enjoy delicious coffee, sitting by the windows, looking out over the lake. An island across the lake. A few people on small boats, fishing. A very very pleasant break. Especially welcome after the hectic driving of the morning.

And then it's an easy drive home. The last stretch is familiar, we drove here on our way from Edinburgh.

We pass the coffee cabin on the shores of Loch Lubnaigh... I suspect that I forgot to mention that: On our first drive, to Killin, we stop here for coffee and cake. All very nice, drinking coffee and eating home baked cake, looking out over the water.

Today, we drive past. And are home with time to spare to rest before dinner.

After dinner we go walking. Along the road, away from Killin. Almost at the end of the houses we turn off onto a smaller road (Pier Street?). I'm looking for the track which will lead to a cache. We don't find the cache but we do find the new cemetery. Enough walking. We turn back.

The *old* cemetery is directly behind our hotel. Ruins of an old church are between the hotel and cemetery, the current church is at the front, across the carpark.

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The end of another day. The morning -- driving -- was stressful. The day then improved. And continued to improve.

Tomorrow, we decide, there will be more walking and very little driving. And (in the real time of writing this post) Sunday is, indeed, more relaxing. More will be posted... tomorrow.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." … Blazing Swan Survival Guide

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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