Roadtrip: Scottish Highlands Part One

My daughter recently went on a 4 day trip to Paris, so @bingbabe and I decided we would do our own trip to Scotland. This is not the first time we have done this road trip to the highlands, the last one being 10 years ago.

After an uneventful four hour drive, we arrived at our first destination of Balloch which is on the south shores of Loch Lomand.

After checking in to what looked like somebody’s house with a B&B sign attached outside (the Arbor Travel Lodge), we went for a stroll to the edge of the Loch to search of something to eat.

Unfortunately I had not listened properly to the B&B owner’s advice and we found nothing but the Loch, a few locals and some nice views. We had to backtrack back to the town before we found what we were looking for.

@bingbabe was eying up the location in terms of scenery with anticipation of her ‘crack of dawn’ run. It looked really picturesque on the Loch and in the surrounding areas.

After being refused at a very busy Italian town centre restaurant, I had a quick look on TripAdvisor and we settled on the Tullie Inn. The reviews were adequate at best but there was nowhere else to eat without waiting in a queue.

We had two choices, sit outside (it was a getting a little chilly in the shade), or boil inside in the conservatory. Yes, it’s tough finding a place to eat in Balloch during the busy periods. I had to run back to my car and grab my jacket for @bingbabe as we chose the shade outside.

There was some live music in the Tullie Inn, so I had to shout to get my order in. I grabbed some Scampi and @bingbabe, the Fish and Chips.

The food was quite boring to say the least. Mine was barely edible and @bingbabe struggled to finish hers. Grey fish is not so appetising. The place looked decent but the food was just frozen junk reheated.

It was not our best introduction to Scottish cuisine, but Balloch was just our starting point, or that’s what I told myself.

Nearing the end of our meal, we heard a commotion in the streets. Maybe 12 lads appeared all having no shirts on, and were seemingly hassling some other lads, who also were shirtless while throwing abuse and generally making a lot of noise.

A couple of them had large sticks and happy slappers, and one had quite a lot of blood on his bare chest. Maybe he was into self harm?

Source

They proceeded up the street right past us, threatening to beat the hell out of the second lot of ‘bare-chests’ and then vanished around the corner where the train station was located.

I thought about taking some shots, but didn’t really want to feel the end of a happy slapper coming toward me.

Next there were a few genuine screams and shouts, followed by a dozen of the thugs running back they way they had original started from. The cops were on the scene shortly after, chasing some of them down, and arresting the lad with the blood-laden chest. An ambulance appeared; it seems the happy slapper had seen some action.

They really weren’t doing them selves any favours by taunting the cops and goading them on. Was that our evening’s entertainment, or was it a regular show in Balloch? I don’t think we will ever know.

The weather was particularly hot and humid for sleeping and we were in an attic room with no A/C, so didn’t get much sleep that night. There was a huge skylight window that I was tempted to leave it open all night, but had this nagging feeling that we were going to be robbed.

It was a question of short-term poverty or to be boiled alive; we chose the latter and fortunately survived without incurring a heat stroke.

After a cold breakfast of meat, cheese, bread and yoghurt (no full English breakfast at this place), we were off heading north again. The proprietor of the Arbor Travel Lodge was such a nice bloke and recommended we took a different route if we wanted some better scenery.

If we were to travel via Arrochar and Inveraray instead of directly up the A82, we would be rewarded with lovely views.

We did take his advice, set our destination to Oban on the North West coast and commenced our travelling. He was quite correct; it was about the get a lot more rugged and picturesque.

To be continued...

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