As I only had 22k to travel today I had a leisurely breakfast, probably the best of the trip so far, and left at 8.50.

The hotel was just next to the Strathblane Railway Trail, so it was easy to rejoin the route.  Once again most of the day followed the Blane Valley Railway and the walking was easy but not inspiring.

Around Lennoxtown someone, presumably the parish council, had placed green bags for dog waste every 100m or so.  This seemed to work, as the omnipresent black and green poop bags were no longer decorating the trail.  Dog walkers must be the most forgetful people: “I’m leaving it but will pick it up on the way back”.  End of grumpy old man’s rant.

One bright spot was seeing a dipper in the nearby Glazert Water.  Dunglass Hill caught the eye just before Strathblane.  I stopped near the church for a short break and arranged to meet my friends, Nigel and Sue, for dinner this evening.  We were all at Swansea University together in the far-distant past.

Back on the Blane Valley Railway it was more of the same, until I reached Dumgoyach Farm and joined the West Highland Way. Over to the north the twin summits of Dumgoyne Hill were striking, as was Duntreath Castle, pretending to be a French chateau.

Onto the West Highland Way (WHW) and guess what?  It followed the railway.  The only difference was that I kept tripping over other walkers who were on the path in droves.

Four miles later I finally left the railway and immediately got onto a road, which did little to add to the excitement of the day.  The road led me to Drymen where I arrived at 2.10 to make it effectively a half-day.

The past few days have been a classic example of “Be careful what you wish for”.  Last year when I was spending days in Cornwall and Devon going up over headlands, and then down to the beach, and repeating this ad nauseam, I would have given almost anything for a few kilometres of flat level footpath.  But you can have too much of a good thing, and now I am looking forward to some variety and the superb scenery which I know awaits me over the next few days.