Cairnbaan to Ardfern

Once we were securely moored Julian and I headed for the hotel for an overdue lunch, then headed up the hill to look at the neolithic rock Cairnbaarn is famous for. It was a lovely walk on a fine October afternoon, and made a fitting climax to our day. However the day was not over yet! We needed to get back to Ardfern to pick up the car.

Julian had checked the buses before we left home, and thought we might have to walk to Lochgilphead to catch one. We checked with the hotel, who told us that there were no buses at all that Saturday! For some reason this years bus timetable had nothing on the first two Saturdays in October. Not to worry, we could get a taxi! I thought that was a better idea anyway as my ribs were starting to hurt again as the Ibuprofin wore off. The hotel gave us a taxi number and we called it, but there was no reply.

Our final resort was hitchhiking, or failing that, walking the 12 miles to Ardfern. It was 4pm by this time, so it would be dark before we got there if we had to walk the whole way, but we decided to set off anyway. We had walked about 3 miles when a lovely lady stopped and gave us a lift. She was going all the way to Ardfern, which was perfect! She dropped us just outside the shop, so we went in and bought food for breakfast before picking up the car and heading back to Robinetta for a much needed early night!