You Take the High Road

That afternoon we headed off up through the Highlands and were impressed (maybe not really) to see snow still on the mountains, collectively known as the Munroes after the man who surveyed the majority of them. A dedicated mountaineer in the UK today will aim to climb all 30 plus Munroes with such wonderful records as climbing them all in a year, or a month or other crazy ideas.

That night we stayed at the Glen Coe Scottish YHA (£15 each). This allows me to expand on the conundrum of staying in YHAs. They are great places to meet people and in the UK there are large numbers of hikers, bikers and poor aussies enjoying each others company, self catering, sharing showers, etc. But when you find a B&B for £20 that makes you a big breakfast, even if you need to trot down the hall for a shower, well you do wonder if it is worth saving a few pounds.

I was pondering this in the YHA shower with its 6 second timer. “Saving water is one thing I thought, but why only 6 seconds” I pondered as I kept pressing the tap to deliver water to my partly lathered body. Frankly, I was getting annoyed to the extent of cussing when the shower head fell off and dropped unceremoniously onto my scone. This had the dual effect of causing me to stop cussing and be drenched by a solid inch of spurting water that fortunately stopped after six seconds. I thought this to be such a great way to wake up in the morning that I replaced the shower head and ensured that it was set up for the next user to receive around (4 x 6) twenty four seconds of water before they get the “shower head surprise”. If you ever visit Glen Coe, avoid cubicle #2 from the left!