Tue, 08 Oct 2002

author Tim	location Arden, Luss, Alexandria, Scotland
posted 18:25 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Scotland 1 ( all photos )

Back on the road ( No photos )
We took off this morning after spending two nights in Oban. It's quite a nice place there, and we may end up there again due to it being a fairly major ferry port for the Hebrides, Mull and Skye, etc.
We headed down the Cowan Penninsula in search of a place to stay for the night. This nice trip through the great mountaenous regions took in Inveraray (a wonderful pub lunch stop in a place staffed by Aussies), Strachur, and then the loch-side town of Tighrabruaich. A few little B&Bs around the place were either unstaffed or full, so we decided to head back to the Youth Hostel at Loch Lomond.
This meant driving basically back where we'd come from, then along to the town of Luss. However, contrary to what we have found so far, the guy running the hostel was quite rude, and there was no way to get a room with the three of us together. This is due, and I quote, to "putting boys and girls together is just asking for trouble". That's quite strange, considering that the place offers family rooms, according to the youth hostel book. Oh well.
Not much further down the road, we came upon the Polnaberoch B&B. This nice little house has four dogs and a proprietor who seems to live only to garden. It's quite spectacular actually. Since we got here we have just had some tea before relaxing for the afternoon. Dinner is coming soon.
The not-so-good news today has come from two fronts:

• The AA are not accepting our insurance no-claim-bonus, which means a huge increase in the premiums. We're going to have to head back to Carlisle on Thursday to make some phone calls and get it sorted. Again. We're currently insured until Friday.
• Apparently there are bad fires all around Sydney again. Best of luck to the SES and other personnel involved - we're thinking of you all. Meaghan is eager to get back and re-join the Rural Fire Service. She was hoping for a gentle ease back into it but that may not happen. If you have any news on this let us know via email - Aussie news is hard to come by over here.

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