My Brother has to be at the Doctors, so we are going to run him over there before we set off. So that we can save some time and get underway, we merge breakfast with this, so there's four scaffy, half sleeping bodies driving along eating porridge and drinking Irn Bru:
For those tempted to try and eat porridge while driving, you should be aware that it can seriously impair your enjoyment of salty Carbs, and piss of your brother who has to hold it when you aren't at traffic lights.
Anyway......
By just before 11am, we're finally heading up the west coast of Scotland via my brother's flat to drop him off. Given our discussions yesterday, our soundtrack at the moment is the Lemonheads:
It's great fun carefree music, and is perfect for the camaraderie and good feeling that we drive through Scotland with. I really enjoy the drive... For some reason I hate driving in Europe, it stresses me out. I'm not good enough at driving on the right to enjoy it and relax into it, but Scotland is much different, I know the roads and the side of the road, so I can relax and drive for pleasure. Before long we make the obligatory stop at Inveruglas, for Irn Bru, bacon rolls and photos:
Inveruglas is the perfect stop before the worst part of the trip. After this it gets twisty and the cars go very slow. If you;re gonna get travel sick you'll get travel sick, on the top end of Loch Lommond, but we get through it quite easily by listening to the endless stream of iTunes dished out by DJ Mowgli, and also knowing how great the scenery gets further up.
By the time we are turning left at Crianlarich, I'm pretty excited. You can turn right and stay in relative flatness - thats the stuff of Day trips, but we are going left - to the highlands.
We make good time, and don't stop at Tyndrum, so our first stop is on the Rannoch Moor:
The Rannoch moor looks lovely. It's one of the places that looks different every time. All the water is iced over and covered with snow this time.
It always amazes me how long all the tour buses will spend sitting at one layby, only to discover that the next layby has a far better view. We prefer guerilla touristry where you stop in every layby for 5 minutes, thus avoiding getting stuck behind that caravan that took so long to overtake, and getting the scenery from every angle.
Once we're entering Glencoe, we're on a high at seeing all the beautiful scenery. I love this place - I've said it before, but no matter how many times you go, you can't beat driving through the mountains:
We have decided that we are on our way to Fort William. It pulls us over towards some more interesting scenery, and it's a long time since Mowgli or I have been, and I don't think the Cadet has been at all.
Once we pop out at Ballachulish, it's about 20 miles along Loch Lhinnie to get to Fort William. I always feel this road's uninteresting after Glencoe, and it's always packed. I'm very glad to get out from behind the wheel when we arrive in Fort William. Not just because I've been driving for ages, but also because the scenery looks like this:
We have a good wander about Fort William. There's not a lot too see, but it's good to get out and discover somewhere that I've not seen 1000 times before. Fort William is the starting point for climbing Ben Nevis. I always think it's disappointing that you can't see some marvelous snowy peak towering over the town.
Once we are fed and watered, and we've stretched our legs, we get back in the car. More decision's have been made. Despite the fact that we are very close to the road up to Skye, we instead head over towards aviemore and and the Cairngorms on some back road. We have the lonely planet walking in Scotland book:
Not because we are planning on doing any munro's, but because it's great fro telling you where cheap accommodation is for scaffy travellers and backpackers.
It's getting dark now.... I'm getting tired, and the road seems to have given up on sign posts. The only thing thats keeping me going is looking forward to a drink once we settle gown. We've managed to book a room at Cairngorm Lodge on Loch Morlich, and we're driving through the darkness of a windy road until we get there. When I get out for a pee, I notice that even in the Dark the landscape is amazing:
To keep morale up during the trip, we explained to The Cadet what the sleeping arrangements were in a Scottish Youth Hostel. Usual thing - women's dorm's and men's dorms. She's not convinced. "I have to sleep with strangers!!!"
We joke that there will be butch German hill walking Lesbians in her dorm, and it's a running joke for about ten miles.
We finally arrive at Aviemore.
Aviemore is Scotland's premier ski resort, so it's a wee bit full of tourists, but I'm just glad to see some civilisation. We are pretty early for the hostel, so we stock up on some supplies in Tesco. We are planning to head to the loch side and have a camp fire later - we even brought an acoustic guitar for the occasion. I am surveying the red wine possibilities in Tesco when I am informed by The Cadet that since its -10 outside, we need something stronger. We stand perusing the stronger section with some other russians(no stereotypes there then), until we settle on Captain Morgan's rum:
I'm not entirely convinced, so I pick up a couple of bottles of Shiraz as well.
When we get to the hostel, we have to wait in a queue while other people check in the first language we hear is from a rather tall German woman - I point this out to The Cadet and we have a good laugh....
We head off to our respective rooms and dump our stuff. There's two snowboarders from Glasgow in our room with us. They seem like a good laugh.
After freshening up, we head into Aviemore for fish and chips
It costs far too much, and the edge is taken off the experience by the fact that the "little chippie" has an automatic door. This plaice(geddit!!!) has too much money, and it's fish and chips suffer for it.
With our fish and chips and our alcohol, we head to the banks of Loch Morlich to have a camp fire and a sing song. The romantic idea of this dies away pretty quickly. Although the stars are lighting up the sky and the loch is beautiful and frozen.... it is freeeeeeeeeezing and there isn't much wood around for fires. I need to make a mental note to keep fire wood in the back of the car for occasions like this during road trips.
We burn what scrap wood we can find along with a daily record and some suitable rubbish that was kicking about in the back of the car. The Cadet shows us how to down rum - something to do with breathing all the air out of your lungs first.
We play a few songs on the Guitar since we brought it, kick the fire onto the frozen loch and then head off to the warm comfort of the Youth Hostel.
My one recommendation for anybody planning on staying in a Youth Hostel is to bring your own entertainment. Youth Hostels appear to attract some very boring people.
We watch The Doors movie on Mowgli's laptop until some other people come into our room. They are 40 something serious walker types, so we decide to head off somewhere else and play cards. Having seen up to the Desert scene in the doors movie, and given that The Cadet is prone to being in a daze, "Ride the snake" becomes the statement of the road trip:
We head off to a quieter room and take a pack of cards with us. The youth Hostel is dead, so we are basically whiling away time until 11.30pm when we are meant to be in bed.
After a couple of games of pool, we head off to bed.
At about 11:45pm, the Glaswegian boys come into our room with a few others and ask if we want to go outside for some drinks. While we are humming and hawing over the plus point of Jack daniels versus the minus point, or ten minus points, of the cold. One of the afore mentioned serious hillwalkers gets out of bed, picks up his bag and storms out in the huff. The drunkards laugh and we say good nigth to them and wish them on their way.......
...riding the snake....
and drifting into sleep......
.....
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