Well, the Scottish gentleman from yesterday was wrong. Summer has decided to stay around for another day for us in Scotland!

We drove north west for nearly 2 hours, through Glasgow and then north to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. Glasgow is only an hour away from Edinburgh and apparently there is huge rivalry between the two cities. Glasgow is bigger and from the drive-through I did today, seemed a little “grungier”. They’ve got much more high rise buildings and a lot of their buildings are made of red sandstone.

This is what tourists do when they’re stuck in a traffic stoppage because of roadworks when they’re out in the country. Rosie and I leaned out of our car window and tried to decide what the roadkill by the car was. We couldn’t decide whether it was a rabbit or squirrel. We plumped for a rabbit in the end.

We decided to head for the east shore of Loch Lomond to a little village called Balmaha. The east shore is supposed to be quieter than the west shore.  It’s very different towhat I had imagined it to be. Much bigger, for starters. 39km or 24miles long and very wide. You can’t drive all the way round it. We wouldn’t have had time anyway. The heavily wooded hills reach down to the shorelines. The Loch lies in a long valley with high hills rising around it.

Z

 

We’d brought a picnic lunch and decided to eat it down by the Loch. There was a boat shed there, and covered dinghys moored by the shore. We sat on the jetty and ate our picnic in the sunshine and watched the antics of the ducks and their ducklings. You can’t really walk by the Loch where we were. Despite what the song says!

There was a woodland walk for 45 minutes that went along the side of the nearby hills with views over the Loch and then along the road next to the Loch. Rosie and Philip went on this and really enjoyed it and this is one of their views they came across.

I wanted to do a more challenging walk. This will probably be the last chance I get to do one for a while. So I set off to climb nearby Conic Hill (358 feet). Through woodlands at first, then it changed to the open rolling hills covered with short grass and getting steeper and steeper all the time. As I said to one lady who was resting and admiring the view, “The views are breath-taking…. literally!!” And we both laughed as we huffed away.

And I don’t know why on all these hills the steepest and most difficult parts are right near the summit, when you’re already puffed out! At the top, there was a great breeze to help cool the sweat dripping off me! There was no-one else up on top of the hill.

And the magnificent blue Loch Lomond spread out below, reflecting the blue sky, and sprinkled with islands studded thickly with green trees. You could see the white wakes trailing behind a few boats far, far below.  Sheep had obviously been up there a lot as they’d left behind lots of their “belongings”.  As you looked out over the other direction, you could see the rolling hills going on and on into the distance.

 

It was a stiff, challenging walk. But I get such a feeling of exhileration as I bounded back down the hill.

 

We drove back to John’s place in Edburgh a different way. Through Stirling instead of Glasgow. Lots of hay being harvested in the fields, and I saw some proper haystacks instead of the huge round bales. In some of the wheat fields, the crop was ripe and ready for harvest.

It was good to get back to the house and have a shower. I needed it! A lot!

This is the famous song about Loch Lomond. (In case you haven’t heard it before!)

“O ye’ll tak’the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road

And I’ll get to Scotland afore ye;

Fir me and my true love will never meet agin

On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.”

The song is supposed to be about the Jacobite rebellion of the 1700s and a soldier who is sentenced to die.