Today we left Hamilton and headed for Drymen
Today we had no-one walking with us with Graeme picking up our bags and taking them up to Drymen. The hotel we were in is owned by Hamilton Park Racecourse which racecourse is a flat racing venue, with a season which runs from May to October. Racing has been staged in Hamilton since 1782 and it is now part of Scotland’s great sporting heritage. More than two centuries worth of punters have visited the course wanting to place a bet or simply just enjoy a grand day out at the races.
We started out from Hamilton bright and early – so early it was only about 8c, coldest start of the day so far. It took a while to warm up as we crossed the Clyde (again) and passed through the town of Bothwell.
As we walked into Uddingson, we passed the rather grandiose entrance to Bothwell Castle Golf Club and then the Tunnocks factory and original baker’s shop. Tunnock’s was formed by Thomas Tunnock (b. 1865) as Tunnock’s in 1890, when he purchased a baker’s shop in Lorne Place, Uddingston. The company expanded in the 1950s, and it was at this time that the core products were introduced to the lines, when sugar and fat rationing meant that products with longer shelf-lives than cakes had to be produced. It is the 20th oldest family firm in Scotland.
On the way into Glasgow city centre we passed an impressive avenue of town houses in Tollcross and walked past Celtic Park – with a capacity of 60,411, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also known as Parkhead or Paradise.
We then passed through the centre of Glasgow and reached our 600 mile milestone.
Finally we moved on from urban areas with footpaths / pavements and got ready to spend 3 hours negotiating traffic on the A809. And this is where today’s blog title originates. The vast majority of traffic is considerate, slows down, moves out and the passengers even wave back at us. In the main, most of drivers who have driven at us, cursed us for having the temerity to be walking on a road and driven at very excessive speeds have been Audi drivers.
At this stage, when not looking out for the Ingolsdtat demons, the scenery was evolving into something quite spectacular while threatening rain. A few drops but thankfully nothing materialised. We spotted a new breed of yellow sheep but these are Blackface Sheep and are apparantly either dyed by farmers in advance of showing or it is the after effect of a sheep dip to prevent sheep scab. Finally we crossed Kendrick Water and came to our hotel for the evening.
Tomorrow we leave Drymen and head to Inversnaid on the shores of Loch Lomond.
I’m missing all the hsbc branch shots this year…