Challenge travel day

Train last evening from Banbury to Birmingham International, much delayed arrival in Banbury by another train just out of Oxford having hit 15 cows on the line at Tackley. It seemed that the timetable was all over the place as a result.

On arrival, I used the shuttle across to the airport terminal and then experienced a long night of airport life. There was nowhere comfortable to lie down. I lay across some hard chairs and slept for about one and a half hours. There were no flights and the only people around were a few travellers like me and airport cleaning and security staff. A café was open all night but that's all.

Travellers started to arrive en mass from about 3 am for flights leaving from 6 am onwards. There were a couple of hen parties and male parties ready with straw hats and shorts to hit the beach somewhere. Further sleep was not possible. I had a good black coffee and read for a while. Later, after freshening up, a full English was a welcome treat at Wetherspoons.

The flight to Glasgow was on time and uneventful and arrived just before 10 am. I met Frank and Bert (we are a team of three this year, Gill having had to drop out) at Buchanan Bus Station. We're now at Lochgilphead, camped on a site in the rain.

Out for a stroll through Lochgilphead in the evening, we came across The "Comm", seen above. It seemed, from the outside, to be so 1960s or earlier. Either side of the name, it says "TV lounge and smokeroom". We didn't go in. Maybe we should have done. Although it looked a bit of a dive, I later found out that the unspoilt interior has earned it a place in CAMRA's National Inventory of Unspoilt Interiors, of which I'd never heard.

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