Day 18 - Whisky tastings and llama farms - Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain - page 223

'Can ah help ye?' he said with an angry glare. Being confronted in the middle of
nowhere by a man with a gun, and a dog with an apparent lust for blood, was not the most
welcoming of greetings I had ever had.
'I'm really sorry to bother you,' I said. 'We've travelled the length of Great Britain
without spending a single penny. Everything we own has been acquired along the way in-
cludingallofourfoodandaccommodation.Tonightisourlastnight,andwesawthisplace
and thought it would be fitting to end our journey somewhere really special.'
The man's face remained as stern as before, and he still held on tight to the shotgun.
'Yes,' continued Ben. 'Would there be any chance at all of us sleeping here tonight?
We're happy to do some work in return.'
He paused.
'Nae. That willnae be possible.'
'Oh, ok,' said Ben. 'Are you the owner?'
'Nae, aam th' gamekeeper.'
'Would it be possible to speak to the owner?'
'Nae. That willnae be possible.'
'We're kind of a bit stranded,' added Ben. 'It's almost dark and we're in the middle of
nowhere and we've got nowhere to stay.'
'Ah cannae help ye,' said the man.
'Would it not be possible to have a quick chat with the owner? Maybe they have an out-
house we could sleep in?' I said, beginning to sound a bit desperate.
'Nae. i'm gonnae hae tae ask ye tae leave now.'With that, we got back onourbikes and
followed the long driveway back to Berriedale. The gamekeeper appeared behind us onhis
quad for the last section, and shadowed us to make sure that we left the property.
Berriedale was nowhere near as big as I had promised Ben. In fact, the term 'village'
would be very generous. It was 8.30pm and completely dark. We knocked on the door of
the house with lights on. Despite a car being parked outside and the flickering of a TV vis-
ible through the curtains there was no answer.
'Should we knock again?' asked Ben.
'I don't think so. It's a bit late and they obviously don't want to answer.'
'Let's try the next house then.'
'I think we should keep going.'
'What?'
'I don't like knocking on people's doors late in the evening like this. It feels wrong.'
'Yes, it's not bloody ideal, but we don't really have much choice, do we? If you had
stopped being so stubborn and looked for somewhere in that last place then we wouldn't
have this problem.'
'Well hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?'
'So is foresight, and it was pretty obvious this was going to happen.'