A “relaxing 2 days”
We had made plans to meet up with an old friend of Tim’s who lived in Edinburgh but we first had a day and an evening to ourselves. Actually, it was Daz and Emma’s pictures on Facebook that had inspired us to do the WHW. We thought a nice day by the sea might be most pleasant.
As we had no idea as to where to go, we just looked at the map and picked coastal areas with “beach” on the map—Largs seemed as good a place as any. Off we headed!
Largs was unfortunately not as we had expected—it was a town for the blue rinse brigade—there were no nice pubs or café’s and the beach wasn’t that great either. This place wasn’t for us so we decided to continue down the coast a little bit more. We ended up in Ayr. This place seemed so much better.
We found a nice pub with internet access and trawled the Late Rooms website looking for a room. We were in luck and found a nice B&B just a street off from the promenade—Bythesea guest house. The guest house was lovely and the owner was extremely helpful. She recommended us a chinese restaurant which wasn’t too far away.
The Chinese restaurant was actually only “OK” but admittedly it did make a nice change from the relatively random food (most of it junk and pub food) that we had been eating.
The next morning, Keeley’s foot was very inflamed and red and she could hardly put any weight on it. The blister looked as though it had got infected—we then decided a trip to the hospital was necessary.
We want to live in Scotland—Ayr hospital was fantastic—no queues for the triage nurse or to be seen and although the nurse was full of doom and gloom (“you’ll have to be admitted if the infection and swelling don’t clear up!”), the service was very fast and efficient. Several phials of strong antibiotics, painkillers, bandages up to the knee and other spare dressings not to mention a pair of crutches, later we were on our way to Edinburgh.
We parked up and decided to have a little walk around (well, as far as you can on crutches!) as well as find somewhere to get internet access so that we could find some accommodation.
Without too much trouble (in other words it took us about ½ hour on LateRooms to book and turn up!) we found that Stuart House had a vacancy. Although the parking was a bit tight on the front, the room was really large, very modern and very large.
In the evening we had arranged to meet Daz and Emma for a Mexican meal. Fortunately they picked us up so not too much walking was needed. A good night was had by all with Tim and Daz especially enjoying the reminiscing and catching up. We also found out that Daz and Emma had actually taken 8 days to do the WHW… damn you and your competitiveness Tim Mounfield! 😉
After a good night the night before and a good night’s sleep, it was time to leave Scotland and head back home. On the way down, we broke the journey up by stopping off in Kirkby Lonsdale. We called in at the Sun Inn for something to eat. After a lovely lunch, we made the final leg of our journey back home to Glossop.
Despite the injuries and pain, we absolutely loved walking the WHW! We’d definitely recommend it to anyone!
……now, where shall we go next year?????
Day 1 (Milngavie – Balmaha) click here
Day 2 (Balmaha – Inversnaid) click here
Day 3 (Inversnaid – Auchtertyre) click here
Day 4 (Auchtertyre – Rannoch Moor) click here
Day 5 (Rannoch Moor – Kinlochleven) click here
Day 6 (Kinlochleven – Fort William) click here
A relaxing 2 days click here
Keels 