Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
man in the wheelchair continue to the other side of the road without even an acknowledge-
ment.
I gave him the benefit of the doubt, assuming that he had some form of mental impair-
ment, as well as physical, but then watched as he engaged in a loud conversation with a
friend once he reached the other side.
We followed the busy (by Scotland's standards) A713 to Patna, which was another
strange looking town. Patna is basically a big housing estate plonked right in the middle of
some beautiful Scottish countryside. The town was built in 1802 to provide houses for the
workers of the nearby coal-fields.
Patnadidattracttouristsforawhilewhenanearbymanorturneditsgroundsintoacara-
vanpark.Thiseventuallyclosedinthelate1990s,andthecaravanparkbecamevandalised,
eventually resulting in the manor house being burnt down and left as a ruin.
WecalledintoCostcuttertotryandgetsomethingelsetoeat.Thegirlbehindthecounter
was in her teens, and she smiled when we told her our story, as though it was the most ex-
citing thing that she had ever heard. She had lived in Patna all of her life, so the chances
are it probably was.
'Aight,that'sbloodywicked,guys,'shesaid.'I'llgetyerssomefood.Ishouldprobably
checkwithmamanagerfirstbutacannaebebotheredandshe'llnevernoticeanyway.Yous
wait there.' She picked up a shopping basket from the doorway and began scouring the
shelves, aisle by aisle, looking for things to donate to us. She filled the basket with bread
rolls, a packet of ham, a block of cheese, tomatoes, a tin of baked beans, some digestive
biscuits, two steak pies, apples, pears and two drinks.
'Willthiskeepyougoing?'sheasked,handingthebasketover.Westoodopen-mouthed.
'Un-be-lieve-able,' said Ben. 'Thank you so much. Are you sure you're able to give us
all of that?'
'Yeah, sod it. It's probably all past its best-before date anyways,' she said, knowing full
well that it wasn't.
We always seemed to stumble upon generosity in the most unlikely of places. It was
moments such as this that our faith in human kindness was given its biggest boost. Patna,
as it turned out, was a damn fine place.
We ate the steak pies and an apple each, and stuffed the rest into our bags to have for
dinner.
The roadclimbed after leaving Patna, andthen descended forabout eight glorious miles
through lush farmland. We reached the town of Drongan and stopped for a quick break. I
tookamomenttocheckourprogressintheroutebook.Therewasalittlebitofinformation
about Drongan. It said:
'…another mining community whose fortunes suffered when the local pit closed in 1986.
The town's youth reportedly have a strong local rivalry with neighbouring Coylton.'
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