Rowardennan to Inverarnan

Izzy, Ivor, and Anchorage Cottage were all much appreciated. The house is new, with all conveniences. Izzy and Ivor were extremely kind and eager to make us comfortable. Breakfast was enormous, with all the usual selection, plus more. I especially liked the interesting cheeses on oatcakes.

They ordered a taxi to take us back to Rowardennan. We arrived at the same time as several other sets of people (including Zoe and Jonathan) who had been brought there from other B&Bs.

The path was a forest track for a while, going uphill and down. We were finally rid of the road, which stops at Rowardennan. After a short time the track became a woods path, very enjoyable. The views were still beautiful, with the lake to our left and a hillside to our right, often with bluebells.

It was cloudy and drizzled a little. The rain felt good, as the day was actually quite warm. We arrived at the Inversnaid Hotel after a few hours. A guidebook comments on how unexpected it is, "a curious intermission in the Way's progress up the wild east shore". The road in to it from the east goes through the only gap in the mountains. We bought glasses of lemonade and sat down by the hotel's dock to eat our packed lunches.

After Inversnaid came more of the enjoyable woods path. There were occasional footbridges over streams or little waterfalls.

At one point we were startled to see a group of feral goats just up the hillside. They were contentedly munching on the hawthorn bushes. After we passed the bothy at Doune (there are several bothies on the route, which are buildings left open for use by anyone), the path became more open.

WHW

Now came the wonderful event that we had been looking forward to with great anticipation: Andy appeared (with his camcorder!), coming down the path! He hadn't been able to leave work to join the rest of us at the start of the walk, but had flown to Glasgow, arriving this morning. He took the train up the west side of Loch Lomond, got off at the station which was closest to where we presumably were, found a ferry (a little motorboat) to take him across the lake, and searched up and down the path till he found us! Was that ever a joyful reunion!

When we came to Beinglas Farm, we stopped for ice cream, and said goodbye to Zoe and Jonathan, who were going on another six miles to Crianlarich for the night. We crossed the river in order to go into Inverarnan, where we were to spend the night at Rose Cottage. I think Inverarnan consists of little more than Rose Cottage, a restaurant called "Stagger Inn", and the eccentric old Drovers Inn. We had read about the inn, so weren't surprised by its entry hall, but we still were delighted. There's a multitude of stuffed animals, including a big "charging" bear. The place was jammed with people, in several rooms. The fellows behind the bar, who also brought the food to the table, were funny looking, dressed in kilts, but very scruffy t-shirts and hiking boots.

Everyone in the bar joined in the jocular, heated discussion when Andy asked for an explanation of the menu item "vegetarian haggis". Someone suggested that the sheep must have eaten vegetables. We had some as an appetizer, at our funny table (the veneer was curling up so badly it was hard to get a plate to sit level) under the crazy painting on the wall (enormous black background, with the head of Mary, Queen of Scots in the upper right corner and a beheaded head in the lower left), next to the table that kept collapsing. Interesting place, the Drovers!