The scenery here in the District of Stirling is very lovely—green farmland, with sheep and cows everywhere, along with hedgerows and stone walls with capped tops. There is a photograph at every turn along these winding country roads, but the roads have no shoulders and are extremely narrow, so there is never a place to stop and point my camera. I do the best I can and photograph everything in sight every time the car stops and I can get onto my own two feet! Arjan has the tense job of negotiating these tiny byways and avoiding the cars whizzing from the other direction “on the wrong side of the road,” as Americans like to say.
We are also on a fault line, between the rolling fields of the south and the higher mountains of The Trossachs area. In fact, the national park is often called, “The Highlands in Miniature.”
For the record, in case you want to follow along on the map (or I do after we get home), the first day here, we did the mini loop of the Trossachs Trail from Callander, past Loch Venachar to Loch Katrine, and then over Duke’s Pass to Aberfoyle and back home through the little village of Thornhill, our neighboring town.
The second day, we made the big loop around the park, from Callander to Crianlarich, past Loch Lubnaig and Loch Iubhair. Then we turned south, stopping at the Falls of Falloch, and past all the Munros (mountains over 3000 feet), including the imposing Ben More at 1174 metres. At the northern-most point of Loch Lomand, we stopped for a bite at the Hotel Ardlui, and then headed down the full 24-miles of the loch on the western side to Balloch. On the way home, we stopped at the Port of Menteith and back to Thornhill.
Today, we drove directly to Drymen and Balmaha at the southern end of Loch Lomand and drove up the east side of the loch as far as the road can take us to Rowardennan, where the hikers take off for Ben Lomand, the highest peak in the area at 974 metres. We returned to Balmaha for a mini walk of our own, called the Millennium Forest Path, more suitable for people nearing their own millennium.
It has been a real pleasure to be able to experience this part of Scotland in the sunshine every day. Only two more days here and we head north into the Highlands, where it is reasonable to expect more typical gloomy weather.
NOTE: Apologies for the delay in posting photographs, but vacation time is being taken up with vacationing. The accompanying photographs will appear in due time. Know that they are being taken.