To The Drovers!

Day 3 – Tuesday 12 May - Rowardennan to Inverarnan - 14 miles

While the rest of the country was having cold, windy, wet weather, our luck continued with blue skies again. All the usual suspects were there at breakfast – Jeff from Worksop, Jim & Moira, and the three girls. The three amigos were hopefully enjoying a Youth Hostel breakfast, but we wouldn’t see them for a while as today they were doing a long stint to Crianlarich – in order to stay at another Youth Hostel, the prospect of which was no doubt thrilling the two reluctant hostellers!

As we set off a minibus arrived from Drymen with several of yesterday’s walkers, and we joined company with Alan and Liz Dick from Lancaster, staying with them all day with few pauses in the conversation! Soon after the start was the superb Rowardennan War Memorial – a ring of polished grey granite with a pyramid set in the base, overlooking Loch Lomond – quite special. The RAF was due to perform a second fly-past but when it happened we were in a wooded section and could only hear the plane without seeing it. This first section was along easy forest tracks before dropping down nearer the loch shore on narrower paths, and just like yesterday the woods were alive with birdsong.

By lunch we arrived at the Inversnaid Hotel, which most people get to by coach or via a ferry across the Loch. Nice setting next to a waterfall; miserable bar steward from Yorkshire sounded like Jimmy Savile on a really bad day. He told me the beer and sandwiches were going to be expensive before I even ordered, then proceeded to give a dire weather forecast for Thursday, purely on the basis that Thursday was his next day off!

The afternoon section was hard going, scrambling up and down rocks, weaving in and out of tree roots; we encountered some of the feral goats which you are told if you can’t see them you’ll be able to smell them. Must be something wrong with my nose. At Doune Bothy (a bothy is usually a stone building, often an old cottage or shepherds’ shelter, with only the most basic of facilities – a roof, fireplace, raised floor for sleeping, no water or toilets) we encountered a guy who said he’d been walking from Crianlarich when his back went, so he was taking time out. He had a fire going and I was a bit suspicious – even more so when he asked if he had any food. He just didn’t seem genuine, and talking to other people later it appeared that he’d been there for quite a while, on the scrounge the whole time. We didn’t give him anything apart from a cheery ‘Goodbye’.

Finally we arrived at The Drovers, which is on the main Crianlarich road just north of Loch Lomond. It looks a complete wreck, with unpointed walls and paint flaking off the windows. Inside the dust lies in layers inches deep and there are stuffed animals and birds everywhere – including a bear in the hall. We had a beer with Alan & Liz, Jim & Moira and the three girls before going to our room, which was….

Really nice, clean with a spotless en suite shower room and whiter than white bed linen. Oh, and haunted, according to the girl at reception. I bet she tells everybody their room is haunted. We met up for supper again with our daytime walking companions, and I had the Famous Guinness & Ale Pie (every dish is ‘FAMOUS’, and we met the two Canadians – Peter & Kristin Thor, and their English friends (parents of the flying instructor) Steve & Jane Williams. They had met on the Coast to Coast walk a year or two ago and struck up a good friendship. Hands across the water… The girls were beginning to live dangerously, sampling cask-strength whiskies.

Went to bed, waited some time for the ghost to show up, but he (or she) let me down, so I finally gave in to sleep.

Photos: 1. The Rowardennan War Memorial; 2. View of The Cobbler (Ben Arthur) in the Arrochar Alps; 3. The waterfalls at Inversnaid; 4. Loch Lomond; 5. Doune Bothy; 6. The Drovers; 7. A ferocious animal. And a stuffed bear.