I am currently to be found sitting on my settee, as the settee is my friend, watching, for a change, some great telly! It's "Oz & James drink to Britain" - Oz Clarke and James May travelling Britain and Ireland to discover the drinks on offer.
It brings to mind my impending adventure with Lord Elpus. Last Sunday found the pair of us (and Lynnie) sitting in a fine establishment in Grantchester poring over his print-outs of our preliminary route across Scotland for our TGO Challenge.
Due to my current penchant for struggling across the country and back every day to go to work, combined with cooking culinary triumphs for Lynnie (well, one culinary triumph anyway) I have had very little time (okay - no time at all in fact) to do the necessary work required to string a route together with Phil for our walk. The worst of it all is that, as so-say "experienced Challengers," we are expected to get our completed route sheets into Uncle Roger by the end of this month. So Phil has once again taken up the wonderful burden of weaving a golden thread across Scotland from Torridon for us both. He is a wonderful chap.
Now, Phil is a bit of a perfectionist and when I raised a querying eyebrow about the huge ox-bow in the route to the east of Inverness, he smiled Oz Clarke-ishly, explaining that by taking this 'slight detour' our route took in another two distilleries.
"Another two" distilleries.
Reading between the lines here, that must mean that there'll be other distilleries on the route! Looking at the said route, they must be Speysides - which will make a change for us - as we have become rabid, slightly over-focused lovers of the west coast malts - ooh - and the Hebridean ones as well. And we must not forget the really great ones from Ireland either. Or that amazing Thai "Scotch Whisky" I discovered a few years back that was oft confused with diesel.
I'll get my coat.
If that's the Green Man at Grantchester, I know it well.
ReplyDeleteAh Geoff - The Green Man was indeed the pub of our choice but as it was dead as dead can be inside with just the half drunk empties on the table outside from the previous night, we plumped for the rather grander, but less characterful, Red Lion, which did indeed provide fine fettle albeit full of wailing toddlers and the like..
ReplyDeleteI know the struggle Alan with work and not having finished my route yet. This week...honest it will be in.
ReplyDeleteAlso I am meant to write up my 06 walk for Phil. I need time. Precise thing is time.
The deed is done, Alan. Draft route on the way to you. Now then, where to have the cheese & wine party...?
ReplyDeleteOver to you.
Lord E.
What a terrible thing a dead pub is.
ReplyDeleteAny chance of providing a novices guide to the alcholic pitfalls of the crossing eg must do distlleries, malts,pubs,hotel bars with particular focus on Lochailort-Dalwhinnie-Braemar etc? rgds Fred