After a day at home cutting the grass and catching up on mail, I set off refreshed, heading for Strathyre. No need to look at the book for directions as I headed out the River Leven to Balloch and on to Drymen where I met up with my friend Bill Dickie who had arranged to join me for this stage.

It was another lovely day and it was great to have company as we made our way up the steep hill out of Drymen towards Gartmore and then on to Aberfoyle where we had lunch sitting at a table outside a café on the main street. If the climb out of Drymen was bad, the climb out of Aberfoyle is much worse. It rises relentlessly through the Queen Elizabeth forest passing the zip wire site with the sound of hysterical screams echoing out and then eventually drops down to Loch Drunkie and then Loch Venacher.

The path along the loch to Callander is very pleasant, threading its way along the lochside through woodland and then joining with a very quiet minor road into Callander. We had a coffee in the town before I said goodbye to Bill and carried on along Loch Lubnaig to Strathyre where I was booked into The Ben Sheann Hotel. The Ben Sheann is a place that I used to frequent half a century ago after climbing trips, when too many pints of heavy were consumed. I settled for a couple of pints of lager and a steak pie on this visit.

The distance was 51 miles with an ascent of 3,100 feet.