Day 80 - Bag Pipes Balti
Trip Start
May 01, 2010
1
85
101
Trip End
Jul 31, 2010
Fort William, Scotland, United Kingdom
Friday, July 30, 2010
After asking me in English if this a dish we Brits ate every day, they then went on prodding and inspecting their food, in particular the waffle. I did not mention I could speak Spanish at the beginning of the meal and therefore had to try and keep my face straight, when Paco described the fry up as a cholesterol bomb. Gloria then passed her waffle to Paco, who guessed it may be of potatoe origin and promptly ate it.
Nearly dropped my guard Dickie Attenborough / Great Escape style, when Gloria asked Paco where the milk for the coffee was, which I then pointed out for her. Ooops.
Having reviewed the new new maps yesterday, I toyed with the idea of buying a new tent, as I still had 3 nights wild camping before finishing the trip and my confidence in the old tent, had fallen to say the least. If I could find something with two layers, a bigger 'front door' and that weighed less, then I would trip the light fan-plastic!
Wandered into town wearing the new boots, which based on them starting to bruise my feet again, would soon be heading south without me. Found a tent that fitted the bill and made the purchase, leaving my old tent with the store.
Moved on to the library and updated the blog, which was easier said than done since though access was free of charge, you are only given two 15 minute slots. It took 5 minutes just to log onto the 2 websites I needed.
Job done I then popped into one of the outdoor equipment stores to buy some freeze dried camping food, for the 3 days in the wilderness, which as menus go for non meat eaters, is a little limited - veg curry more or less.
It was by now lunch time and Andy from North Wales was due to arrive soonish. Popped in to the only trendy coffee bar in town and did a little bit of surfing, while sipping the old double expresso and chomping on some carrot cake. Shoot me now!
As luck would have it, just before I evolved a ponytail, the 2 Belgium guys from Tyndrum then turned up. Seems they had been hitching and ended up on the Isle of Mull. They had never heard of it before arriving there, and only decided to go because the guy who they had hitched with, happened to be going there. The weather had been great (has it's own micro climate) and they had walked, mountain biked and generally enjoyed themselves. Lovely little venture it seems. Maybe they had brought the good weather with them, as Fort William was now basking in Sunshine.
After a mammoth 8 hour drive Andy arrived and i met him back at HQ. We then parked his gear with Mrs.M and hit the curry house on the high street. Maybe it was changing back to my old boots, but after 2 pints and a curry, topped off with an ill advised Irish Coffee, we wandered down the high street and I was a little tipsy and a touch green around the gills.
A band of pipers trooped past us and in a rush of celtic brotherhood, we headed for another couple of beers in one rough-ish locals bar and then into a tourist hang out. Back at the digs, for the first time in about 15 years, when I closed my eyes, it was all the fun of the fair.
I used to jog, but the ice cubes kept falling out of my glass.
David Lee Roth-gers
