Dear Everyone, when
I left you on Thursday morning we were planning a walk to Killiecrankie, site of a famous battle won by King James II, and
walk it we did. It had rained overnight, but the sun was out as we set off on
what was to be a 3 mile walk. We think we walked 6 miles in total, and
certainly it took us 2¼ hours to find the Visitor Centre, passing Soldier’s Leap, a burial spot and an old
viaduct on the way. We met quite a few people on this walk, but most only said
hello and went on their way. Although we had planned to walk back to Pitlochry,
we had to abandon that idea and ring for a taxi, as there wasn’t enough time to
get us back to our 2pm Matinee of Mr
Bolfry.
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White swans, such a treat, on the
way from the Golf Course
We popped into
home, Claymore B&B, to change clothes, down a cuppa & biscuit and relax
very briefly before walking back to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre along the
dam and by the fish ladder. The play was quite different from the others we
have seen, and although it seemed somewhat dated to begin with, we felt that
its premise – it’s as easy to follow the Devil as it is to follow God, is quite
relevant in today’s world. Dougal Lee, the actor playing the Devil, Mr Bolfry, is the most accomplished of
the troupe here and he played this role with aplomb. When we came outside at
the end, it was raining heavily, so we rang for a taxi again, and discovered a
94-year-old man waiting for one as well. We persuaded our driver to take him
with us and deliver him to the Green
Hotel, and were thrilled when the driver not only opened the cab door for
him, but escorted him to the front of the hotel and opened that door as well.
Our driver then
took us to the Pitlochry Golf Club, where
we settled down to a lovely two course meal of tomato & lentil soup,
followed by grilled Shetland salmon, both accompanied by our waiter’s favourite
wine, a French cabernet sauvignon, which was very smooth, not quite as
flavoursome as our Australian palates crave, but enjoyable. We watched golfers
carrying their bags up and down dale and decided this was a much prettier golf
course than the famous St Andrew’s and probably much more affordable.
Claymore – we were in the bay
window room
We walked home in
the mist afterwards and spent a quiet evening reading with cups of tea and
biscuits to keep us going. Our room here is very spacious and comfortable with
an excellent bed and a pair of very inviting chairs in the bay window. Like
most places, it doesn’t offer nearly enough hanging space or drawers and
nowhere near enough power points. Our guest bedroom at home has 14 power points;
there are 4 in the bathroom, and 2 in the passage outside the room, which
should be enough for the most electronic minded guest. Here we have 4 power
points in total and are forever plugging and unplugging things to charge our
phones or the laptop or to use the hairdryer or iron. The bathroom is the size
of 1.5 toilets and has been inserted into this lovely old room, as is often the
case. The shower is right-angled in design and quite tiny, and it takes forever
for the water to heat up. We still fill buckets at home with the cold water
while we wait for our shower to get warm, and here we could easily fill three
bucket loads each morning. The light switch which activates the tiny exhaust
fan is outside the room and there is a small fluorescent light over the mirror
once you are inside. We do have heated towel racks, which are operated from a
switch on the floor outside the bathroom and quite tricky to work, but a
godsend for drying underwear and socks. All this we can cope with, but we are
very frustrated with the inadequate reading lights, which are dull, too low and
too shaded to offer much in the way of illumination.
However, our hosts,
Graeme & Dianne, are excellent and rarely could you stay in a B&B for
eight days straight and not get sick of the breakfasts. We wanted to book a
self-contained cottage, but could only have one for 7 days – Saturday to
Saturday and we needed the extra Friday beforehand, which no-one was prepared
to do for us. The Claymore is voted no 1 on Trip Advisor, so I think we have
done well.
Wes had planned for
us to walk Ben-y-Vrackie on Friday, and I had gone along with that, not really
knowing what we were letting ourselves in for. We had our usually yummy
breakfast and set off to walk along the West Moulin Road in search of the start
of the walk, which was at a little car park, about 20 minutes from our B&B.
Now that it is over,
we think it is probably the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives –
climbing the rock at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, in 1979 & again in 2011, is the
most dangerous thing we have ever done, but climbing a Munro that reaches 841
metres at its summit is pretty hairy. Most of the path is rocks in haphazard
fashion, with very occasional straight patches. It wasn’t easy and we were
tempted to give up but Wes really wanted to do it, so we soldiered on. I took
Cliff Young as my hero and adapted my walk to his shuffle. By halving the size
of my steps I conserved energy and was never breathless. Wes preferred to walk
100 steps then rest, so we were always close to each other on the path. Getting
there was such a thrill!
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A Canadian couple took this photo
in return for us taking theirs
Getting down again
was not so good – we decided to come down the path on the other side, which we
had trouble finding, but it didn’t have any rocks and I wasn’t sure that we
would be able to negotiate the rocks as neither of us had sticks to help us. So
off we trotted and eventually realised we were going further and further away
from Pitlochry, so plunged into the heather, down the side of the outcrops and
eventually found a 4-wheel drive path, and even more eventually ended up at Killiecrankie Visitor Centre. I rang a
taxi but they were all doing the school run, as were the buses, so we walked
the 4 miles home to Pitlochry and arrived back at 4.45pm, 7 hours after we set
out that morning.
We were exhausted
but exhilarated, and after a short rest and showers and a change of clothing
from top to toe, we set off for the Festival Theatre for our final play – The Yellow on the Broom. We had decided
to grab a sandwich and drink at the café there rather than try and eat a full
meal, and that was perfect, as we managed to chat with two of the actors on
their way past the bar. They were thrilled with our compliments, delighted we
had come all the way from Australia and were looking forward to short breaks
after the season finishes at the end of next weekend.
We didn’t much
enjoy the play, which is about Scottish travellers, so at interval we decided
to go home as we felt an extra hour’s sleep was more necessary than seeing the
end of the show. We fell into bed and slept soundly, before waking yesterday
morning in plenty of time for breakfast, packing, and a walk to the Catholic
Church, a final check on the Fish Ladder, and then the two hour train trip to
Edinburgh. We were lucky enough to get seats with a table attached and not too
many other travellers fighting over it.
We booked into the
Princes Street Suites, which are in Princes Street within walking distance of
absolutely everything. First thing we did was unpack, and then while I mastered
the washing machine/dryer combination, Wes made the wifi work and then went
foraging for food. We had already decided we would spend the afternoon and
evening relaxing as our tired limbs didn’t need any more walking.
Wes climbing a ladder over a dry
stone wall
Beautiful views of
Pitlochry that we will miss – the Loch with the trees turning colour and the stunning
vine growing up over the house
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