The 2012 Challenge, Day 8: Down Glen Errochty (1)

Saturday 19 May. I woke up to an unfamiliar sensation. Something was different. Very different. But what? It wasn't inside the room ... so something outside the room, then. I crossed to the window, and drew back the curtains. Sunlight came streaming into the room. I looked out. What was different? It all looked much the same as it had last night. Except ... except ... there had been no sunlight! That was it! It was bright and sunny, and scarcely a cloud in the sky!

I hurried out and took a photo of the hotel, and then I went to see how my clothes and tent were doing. Somebody had turned the electric heaters off - presumably because they couldn't leave them on and unattended all night - and most of my gear was still a bit damp. So I turned the heaters back on and went to breakfast. And what a marvellous breakfast it was! Smoked haddock and poached egg. Lovely!

By the time I had packed everything that wasn't in the drying room, the electric heaters had done their bit. I went down and gathered all my gear, which was finally dry, and turned the heaters off. Then I finished packing and went to pay my bill. This was supposed to be the Austerity Challenge - which was why I hadn't booked all that many hotel rooms for myself. I always knew that a night at the Dunalastair was going to make a bit of a hole in my budget, and by the time I'd had a room and dinner and wine with dinner and a Springbank before dinner and an Isle of Arran after dinner ... well, it all added up to about £165, which I was more than happy to pay because I'd NEEDED a little pampering. And the Dunalastair was JUST the place to provide it.