The day before yesterday

Breakfast split; 8am-11am, 630pm-close. Breakfast service is always more relaxed than dinner. There’re no pre-drinks, only 3 courses, table cloths aren’t ironed on. A lot of people had the porridge followed by a full Scottish. How do they fit it all in? Once they all left we set up for lunch/dinner service – change the used table cloths, iron them all, add some more silverware, put out the glasses and decorative plates, vacuum and mop. Then I was off.

It was a brilliantly sunny day. Finally. Nicki had bought me a new cycle computer as a present so I thought I’d take it out for a test ride. Not to be deceived by the weather, I packed my camelbak with an extra thermal top and my rain jacket, and set off just before noon. Since we arrived Nicki and I have both wanted to ride the cycle trail which connects us to Calander (the closest town with more than one street), so I chose this for the ride. This section of National Cycle route 7, or the lowland highland route as locals apparently call it, crosses our glen road at Balquidder 4 miles from the hotel. It stays on the road for a while passing through beech and pine forests gradually climbing before opening into a 4wd track with views down the loch towards Calander. (photo). It then drops down slowly becoming a single track trail through farmland, and runs through the bottom of the valley on the west side of a loch. For the last few miles the trail is a nice gravel path running next to a river and then more farmland til it hits town. I kept looking at the cycle computer knowing that with each mile further I went I would have to go that much further to get back home. By the time I got to Calander I had ridden just over 17 miles. I sat for a while on a bench by a river watching a father and son feed the ducks, and ate the apple and the orange I’d brought in my pack. Bought a snickers to eat and two huge blocks of cadbury’s chocolate for the house and set off again. At 20 miles my legs were tired and at 25 they were fairly jelly like. But as I got closer to the hotel I felt a second wind and the exhilaration that comes as the end of a long ride approaches. To my surprise the sun was still on the glen road as I turned on for the last 4 miles towards the hotel. Finished the 35 miles just before 4pm with plenty of time to relax before going back to work at 630. This was the first real ride I’ve done since we got here and it felt good.






Yesterday

8am-4pm shift. I wear a black shirt, trousers, apron and shoes. Black tie with red stripes. Brown socks. This was a quiet morning with only 8 guests in for breakfast. Again the sun was met by a cloudless sky around 10am as it rose above the mountains facing the hotel. With most of the guests checking out and the newcomers not arriving until the afternoon, I kept myself busy cleaning the conservatory windows, polishing glasses and organizing the cellar, and splitting logs for the fires. There were a few walk-ins for lunch. The residents (this is what we call guests after the first day, if they are staying for more than one night) returned just before my shift ended from a long walk up Monachyle glen with tales of having seen a large stag silhouetted by the sunlight upon a ridge. I left them talking over sandwiches and pints in the bar by the fire.

Today

Off today. A sleep-in was very welcome as the ride from the day before yesterday seems to have caught up with me. I had a bid of time to play the mandolin (which I’ve not been playing enough) before nicki came back from work at 11am. The weather being unseasonably nice, I suggested a bike ride. We headed the other direction this time towards inverlochlarig – where, incidentally, Rob Roy spent his later years leading a relatively quiet farm life. After just a short 2 mile ride to the end of the tarmac road we locked up the bikes and set off on foot up a mountain to the north. Nicki had to be back at work by 6:30 so this was only a short excursion. However, had we had more time this is the very same route we would take to reach the top of Ben More, the highest mountain in our area at just over 1100 meters. We had been comfortably biking in just shorts and tee-shirts, but after we rose above 500 meters it began to get cold. Time to put on the thermals and fleeces we had brought. We stopped in a sheltered spot at about 700 meters for a feast of hot soup from the thermos, sandwiches, apples and chocolate. From our vantage point we saw the potential for many other outdoor excursions. To the south a couple of glens head towards loch Katrine. To the west a farm road leads to loch Lomond. To the north Ben More and the Crianlarich hills. And of course east back to loch Voil and the hotel.