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Whilst we were outside, the man from Londis came out. He came out of the shop, I
mean. He didn't announce to us that he was gay. That would have been very random.
'Here you go. I found these for you. Two tuna pasta bake ready meals, and two spag bol
ready meals. They are all past their best-before date, but I'm sure they'll be fine,' he said.
'Fantastic. You are a star. Thank you,' I said.
They were microwave meals. All we needed was a microwave.
The Ben More Lodge is a single-storey long white building, surrounded by a few
wooden chalets. The place had a lovely cosy feel to it, with a roaring log fire. One of the
white walls of the bar area had been completely covered in graffiti. Not an act of mind-
less vandalism, but hundreds of tiny little messages written in pen from visitors to the Ben
More Lodge. Most were from fellow cyclists or hikers who had passed through on their
journeys. Phrases such as '
Pain is just weakness leaving the body
,' '
Scotland Rules
,' and
'
Ease the chaffing
,' were scrawled all over the wall and it was fascinating to think of all
of the different groups of people who had undertaken challenges of their own and shared
similar moments of pleasure reading the tales of others.
We decided to add our own message. After spending several minutes trying to think of
something witty ormotivating towrite, wesettled for
'LEJOG - with no money. George &
Ben.'
Truly inspirational.
The manager walked over to us after ten minutes. His name was Graham and he was in
his early thirties, stocky with spiky black hair.
'I understand you are looking for free accommodation tonight as part of some chal-
lenge,' he said, in a barely noticeable Scottish accent.
'Yes, that's right,' said Ben.
'Wellthat'snotsomethingIcanauthorisemyself.Iwouldneedtocheckwiththeowner.
Is that ok with you both?'
'Yes, of course. Thank you.'
'She's not working today so I will have to give her a call at home, but she may not be
back for another hour or so. I'll bring you over a free beer in the meantime.'
'An hour?' whispered Ben, when the manager had left, 'We can't wait for an hour.'
'Whynot?We'vegotnothingelsetodo,andhe'sbringingusabeer.Whatcouldbebet-
ter?'
'What happens if he speaks to the manager and she says no. It'll be gone 10pm by then
and we'll be in the middle of the Scottish mountains with nowhere to stay.'
'I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess we'll worry about that if it happens. Let's hope
she says yes.'
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