A very early start this morning: alarm set for 0420 to ensure that am at a friend's house for the 0500 minibus to take us off to Luton Airport (cue references to Leonard Rossiter and Lorraine Chase). We have a flight to Inverness booked and it is a joy to see both the traffic-free M25 and the empty EasyJet check-in desks, which make the journey very easy. And the plane was on time, so all good... but what is that fresh snow doing on the hills around the airport?
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| Alternative transport |
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| Wind blowing...hard! |
We collect our hire car, avoiding the temptation to take one of the vintage vehicles on show, and head off to our next port of call, the Glenmorangie House hotel (thanks, Ronnie, for the pronunciation guide - that's GlenMORangie, not GlenmoRANgie...). This is a charming country house hotel with only 6 rooms: all very comfortable with a very well stocked whisky bar on offer as well. And just as importantly, a working WiFi as the mobile phone coverage in the area is dire!
Our first round of the Tour is at Tain, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. It is a classic Old Tom Morris links, which very much plays as two halves: one downwind and one right into the howling gale that was there to greet us. During the round, we appeared to have every sort of weather: hail, rain, wind and sun. This combination did for most of the party who managed a meagre 24-26 points, though one of us shone through with a stunning 38 Stableford points, giving him a healthy lead after Day 1.
'One of us'?
ReplyDeleteAnd is the car pictured a Tesla?