A visit

It's rare that holiday friendships extend beyond the promise to keep up - perhaps that first email to send a photo, or the address in your inbox that puzzles you because you never did learn their surname - but we benefited today from the relationship we struck up a year ago as we walked through the vineyards of Piemonte and consolidated over food and wine in the Italian evenings. Friends from Canada, fresh from another walking holiday, in England this time, are taking a week to tour Scotland and began with us!

Mercifully the rain stopped threatening our afternoon and we were able to go one of our favourite walks along Loch Striven before I cooked dinner. We talked non-stop for the best part of 10 hours - and we're seeing them tomorrow again before they head north. There's a lot more to these guided walking holidays than sore feet and aching legs ...