I'll Be in Scotland Afore Ye

Ben Venue and the Loch Achray Hotel

"I'll be in Scotland Afore Ye" is what the driver of the coach we were due to catch for our short-break holiday could have said when he rang at 09.10 on Saturday to find out why we weren't waiting at the pick-up point in central Lancaster. Fortunately, he was a little more helpful as for reasons beyond our control (i.e. stupidity) we were expecting to be picked-up exactly 24-hours later!

There followed a frantic chase around the house cramming stuff into bags and an equally frantic rush up the M6 to Burton-in-Kendal services where he had agreed to wait for us for up to half-an-hour after picking up the rest of his complement of passengers.

We made it with five minutes to spare and after a crash-course in paying for parking over the phone (something I've never attempted before as I don't like the idea of committing my debit card details over a mobile phone "line") we were aboard the coach and heading north to Loch Achray in the Trossachs where we enjoyed two days of walking in the hills and forest trails of a beautiful area I'd not visited before.