Another day, another cooked breakfast! This time brekky was at the Rowardennan hotel- after crawling from our beds much later than we should, we strolled across to the hotel and mixed with cushy non walkers. Our comfort was quite shortlived, however!

We had meant to walk an easy way for the first section of the walk - there was a part of the trail next to Loch Lomond that our guidebook described quite harshly - however it turned out that we missed the turnoff to the easy section... and what a start for a 20-mile day!

The trail was over boulders, around trees, up and down next to the loch... all very beautiful, but time consuming too! We did manage to make quite a good pace along and towards Rob Roy's cave... which we didn't bother exploring. We still had too far to go to explore that part of the local history!

Some of the local scenery found us though. A little down the path from the cave, Stephan mentioned "I wonder what kind of animals they have here? Smells like some kind of beast"... turns out that the next corner we rounded there was a huuge mountain goat vegging next to the path - and eyeing us warily. Some beast :-)

Another mile or two and at 1pm we arrived at Inversnaid, a hotel that actually made use of the scenery! After a photo or two and time to scowl at the other walkers who were staying for lunch, we headed off for our lunch stop - another 6 1/2 miles!

We reached the top of Loch Lomond and veered East. We were on a mission - to head for the Drover's Inn. And what a place! The entrance has stuffed bears, game birds and a suit of armour, while inside the pub the atmosphere was excellent - unfortunately they were renovating their kitchen, so we had to eat at the "Stagger Inn" across the road - which was quite aptly named. mmm gammon steak :-)

We popped back to the Drover's after lunch, but it turned out not to be a GBG listed pub :-( So just normal beers and time to work out how to wash soap off your hands when the toilet taps don't work. Still not sure how Stephan managed it...

We still had another 7 miles until dinner! We donned waterproofs and trudged through the rain, finishing with a walk through a dark spooky wood before reaching Crianlarich. It was 8:15pm by the time we got to the hostel, where we had to rush about and zip down to the local pub before they stopped serving food! It ended up being quite tasty, and we even managed to finish with a pub crawl - we ended up visitng *both* of the town's pubs :-)

Even managed to leave a "South London Walking Club" message there and finish with a whiskey. Just what the doctor ordered :-)

(Turns out that my script to update the site from my phone was slightly buggy- so had to wait till we found net access to fix it! Fingers crossed things will work now!)

After a mini pub crawl (starting with the Clachan, the oldest pub in Scotland) in Drymen on Sunday, we decided to have brekky at a milk bar an hour along the Way - although we still ended up hitting the road quite late! Too much time enjoying our bacon & egg rolls and tea :-)

So on with the walking- the 6 or so miles to Balmaha were along forest roads- there's tons of forest that was planted about 30 years ago being logged at the moment- supposedly (says Spontaneous Sue- more about her later) most of it was badly planned (too many pines- not enough forest diversity) and is worth barely no money now so is pulped. We had to dodge big trucks loaded with logs and workers using robotic arms to stack the trees up! Quite depressing at times, but at least Sue says they're not replanting the same forests, instead they're planting more ecologically sensible forests across the country.

I met Spontaneous Sue (one of Jim's nicknames- not her real name) at the farm where we stayed on Sunday- she'd only planned to hike the West Highland Way the day before! She'd already had to post a load of gear home on the first day, but apart from that she seemed to be quite organised. See, more random travellers than me do exist!!

As we came out of the forest we took the "hard" route over conic hill. After bumping into (soon to be Randy) Ian we started the descent down to Loch Lomond on the other side- the day was quite clear, and it was our first real taste of "highland" scenery.

After a bite at the Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha, and a little book reading (the pub had quite a selection) we headed north along the eastern side of Loch Lomond. The walking was quite easy, and the weather was good until we sat down on a beach and had a cherry ripe stop. As soon as we'd stood up on beach after photographing the ducklings the rain started- so it was quickly on with the jackets then off to the dinner stop!

Unfortunately we'd underestimated how fast we were walking, and we had to clamber over two quite big hills before arriving at our accommodation after 6! It was a bit of a shock to walk a hilly 14 miles compared to a flat 10.

I had time for a quick snooze before dinner, and we met talkative Luke (who will feature later). Soon it was time for food! So we strolled from the hostel to the hotel and picked up some beer and haggis.

In amongst the wwf wrestling and dodgey music (quite at odds with the beautiful loch outside) Martin turned up! After chatting up his cute doctor in London, he'd raced for King's Cross and had caught trains, buses and hitched lifts to get to us! Looking quite good considering his run-in with dodgey London crims the week before, he arrived with supplies (for Herr Ghandi's blisters) and enough energy to help us pick up the pace over the next few days!

The last thing I remember was the amount of noise that a sufficiently lubricated German and Dutchman made as they clambered into their bunks for the evening...

The end of our first day.... Almost. We're at the pub (surprise surprise) recovering after 11 miles, a good few pints of beer and a huuuge curry dinner!

But to rewind a bit... Perhaps I was too quick to praise BA the other day- our rescheduled flight was late by nearly an hour- so although we all left home between 10 and 11am, we didn't get into our hotel until 7pm!

And what an interesting place! Only cost us just over £13 pp but we had quite a bit of room and a full Scottish breakfast.... You just had to ignore the strangely sloping staircase and the damp smell throughout ;-)

So after dumping our bags we headed out on the town and ticked off a couple of real ale pubs. We found two with live music, which was nice, and the night finished with Jim and Stephan delightfully sampling some locally prepared "two jugs". Tis great how people are so talkative in scotland- have been talking to many randoms! At least they've been talking back ;-) Well, it's mostly good, apart from the fact that the beggars are more confident too!
B: gii us a poond
J: sorry, what did you say?
B: GII US A POOND!
J: err... sorry I don't have a pound to give you
B: yeah yi do, gii us a poond or I'll slit your throats!
(which is about the time that Jim and I buggered off... he may have actually had an actual knife in his pocket- thought it wasn't worth hanging round to find out!)

So the walk? We had quite a slack first day. We arrived at Milngavie at about 11:30, and took photos at the starting line for a while before starting off. We'd
left it so late that the discussion almost immediately was "will the lunch pub still be serving?"... Quite concerning as us hikers need much food!

In typical Sam style, I barely know anything about where we're going on this trip. I was looking at the map on Saturday and noticed that we walked really near Kate's house (whom, my diligent readers may remember, I visited in Blanefields about 18 months ago). I called her just before lunch and then we were off on a 1 mile detour to her home town! Despite nearly losing Stephan in a ditch as we were bush bashing our way, we ended up in the Blaine Valley Inn for a Sunday roast! Was really nice to catch up with Kate too- shouldn't be too hard to convince her that a visit to London will be quite a good way to spend some of the summer!

Kate dropped us back on the trail and we were off again! Apart from a slight detour for another pint in the afternoon, we arrived at our wigwam at 7pm.

So... I started writing this after we'd had our curry with Ian from Leicester... but now it's tomorrow! We've just finished brekky after an hours walk- but that's a story for another entry :-)

A Slow Start to Sam's Scotland Stay! Someone had jumped under a tube train so we missed our flight!

Fly BA! They changed our tickets for no cost- so although their cancellation policy is crap at least we didn't have to buy 3 new tickets.

I'm so kitted up now... I've even got hiking sticks for 3 people in my bag.... and I'm travelling light- my bag was just 8kg *with* the sticks! Stephan and Jim's bags both top 11kg... I'll be the one pushing the pace :-)

OK next msg will at least be from when I'm in Scotland! Off now to acquire a few more supplies...