We are having our evening meal at The Clachan Inn, Drymen – Richard reliably informs me is the old licensed public house in Scotland.
The food was excellent – I had Chef’s special lamb burger followed by hot chocolate fudge cake and ice cream. Having to return to Drymem because we could not get accommodation further down the walk has worked out for the best.
Drymen has
So my suggestion is forget Rowardennan and stay two nights in Drymen at Elmbank.
Small change of plan today, we have shortened today’s walk (to save on the taxi fare!) but what it really means is that day three will be a ten mile day rather than seven.
The accommodation here in Drymen is very good, we have a three bedroom apartment, all the bedrooms and living room have flat screen TVs, the kitchen is well supplied with tea,coffee, milk and the makings for breakfast. There is central heating, and two shower rooms. Richard has done really well to find this place. It has allowed us to sort ourselves out following the first days shake down walk. (Parrot count so far zero – see our Coast to Coast blog.)
We booked our taxi back last night with a local taxi company here in Drymen.
Before starting we watched Jensen Button win the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Pottery pub where we had dinner last night – the photo was shot just before setting off today – blogging in the rain again, at least for the first part of the day – that’s my positive attitude showing through.
The path was a stream.
Lunch – no raincoat and a great view.
I even wore my sunglasses!
We are now waiting for the taxi – middle of nowhere and a strong 3G signal – so I’ll publish this now.
Train into Glasgow, we need a cashpoint and a pie shop.
Is there an app for removing rain drops from my photographs?
The Start at Milngavie
There is no missing the start (or the end) of the West Highland Way.
It looks like today is the perfect day to use my water tight case for my iPhone, so I can blog and take photographs in the rain.
The rain has been patchy and mostly light (no over trousers needed) so it has not been hard to deal with. On the plus side there has been some nice light to photographs the woodland colours.
By 2.30pm the rain had stopped and I had my rain coat off.
We have driven to Drymen this afternoon to drop off our case (it saved us having to pay to have the bag transported). The plan is to have our case, which contains spare clothes, wash kit, food for the trail and other sundry items moved from one B&B to the next by “Sherpa Van”. However due to
the bag is going to spend three days at Drymen and then it is being taken to Crainlarich.
So here is where we will be walking to tomorrow.
Sunny Drymen
This is the B&B
Tonight we are staying with Diana’s cousin and his wife, Richard and Morag, and they are also going to keep an eye on my car as well. Thank you.
Tomorrow we will get the train from Muirhead via the Glasgow city centre to Milngavie and then we start walking!
We got off to a good start this morning, rain and hold ups around Manchester, nut the was a good sunrise.
We have stopped in Lancaster for walking fuel.
All packed & ready (for anything) | richardgoeswalking.
So tomorrow I am off to Scotland, and the West Highland Way, with my optimistic walking companion Richard. See his blog entry above.
I have everything packed, but it looks a very small pile of kit – although I have included two backpacks! I had packed my Karrimor 25l day pack, but I have changed my mind and I now have decided to use my Golite Jam 2, it compresses quite well and will give me the extra comfort and space for the day we have to carry our overnight kit (there is one B&B where it will cost too much to ship our large case there).
Another thing I needed to sort before leaving – my iPhone has gone wrong again. See this post – I have tried the “puting the earphone plug in and out” and the “restore my iPhone completely” options but still no phone audio. I was really impressed by one of the Apple Support suggestions – “turn the volume up!”. So I am off to Scotland with a phone that only half works, I will be using the blue tooth earphone and hope the charge on the iPhone lasts all day!