Sorry for not getting back before now. They arrived in a taxi being driven by a woman because they had broken down. They told me it had cost them £100 and wondered whether I could go halves with them! I was beginning to look through my purse in a very reluctant way when they started to laugh. Derek was always a joker and apparently he and his wife are both taxi drivers and they arrived in a taxi driven by her.

Derek looked just the same apart from having white hair, it was quite long too. He told me honestly that he had a Friar Tuck on top if he didn't have his hair combed very carefully! Anthony had shorter hair but still quite a lot.

We did have a lovely time reminiscing about things. Some things I remembered and others they remembered. It was like filling in the blanks. I had lots of blanks in my teenage years! I suppose I wouldn't have had such a good time if I didn't have the blanks!

They had been gone out of the door two minutes when Renee said we should have got some photographs! I suppose it's a generation thing but I always forget how easy it is these days to take photographs with a digital camera. They are going to come again when hopefully the weather will be better and we will definitely get a few photographs. When they do come I promise to let you see some photographs.

Charlie

It was the summer of 1976. For anybody who doesn't live in the UK or is too young to remember, 1976 was hot, very hot, and it went on for months. At the time I was living in East Lancashire with a lady who already had three children when I met her, Kevin, Alexander and Victoria and in the March of that year my daughter, Jacqueline, was born.

As the good weather continued a friend, Alan asked us if we fancied going camping in Scotland and he would do the driving. I had a few weeks holiday to come and so it was one glorious July morning we packed up the camping gear and all the tribe set off for Scotland.

Two nights later we found ourselves in a wood close to Drumnadrochit, on the shores of Loch Ness. We spent the next three days trying to make contact with the Monster by the use of extra sensory perception but were unsuccessful in this endeavor, even with the aid of the local beverages!

It was at this time we became acquainted with the kleg. Kleg was the name given to deer fly in those parts. When I first came across them I thought a more apt name for them would be the kamikaze fly because they would land on you, start sucking blood and wouldn't move again until they either fell off, bloated, or you splattered them!

We thought they were nasty little creatures but Alan was really macho and said, "You're all softies, I've been to India and they have real insects there!"

I myself had embarked on the Journey to the East several times but every time had made the mistake of calling in at Amsterdam on the way and invariably got sidetracked!

When we finally came to the conclusion that Nessie didn't want to know us we drove away going nowhere in particular. By the afternoon we arrived at a valley with an isolated pub, right in the middle called The Cluny Inn. We got out of the van to stretch our legs and noticed just how big the hills that surrounded us were. It wasn't as if we came from somewhere flat, we lived in the Pennines, but the biggest thing close to us was Pendle Hill, and if it had been that big they would have called it Mount Pendle, wouldn't they?

This place had everything a weary traveler could possibly need so we decided to stay. We put a tent up in a field adjacent to the pub then excited began to walk up the nearest mountain. At first we could hear the world down below but as we got higher our ears popped and all became silent. I looked down on the valley below and remember thinking, "This place is so beautiful, how come it isn't crowded?"

That evening we went to the pub. It was less than 100 yards away so it would have been unfriendly not to! Just to head off people writing in to the next issue saying how irresponsible we were I'll say that Kevin was fourteen years old and very capable and caring, so he babysat. The clientele were friendly, and soon the conversation got round to the local 'wildlife'. We discovered that the kleg should never be splattered when it's busy feasting on your blood, you should let it drink its fill.? If you splatter them before they've finished they leave a nasty bite but if you let them finish they hardly leave a mark.

In those days the pubs in Scotland closed at 10 PM and when we left it was still light. Walking back to the tent we noticed there were lots of midges about and as we walked along they became more numerous as the word got round that there was blood about. We found ourselves walking faster and faster then broke into a trot. Eventually as things began to reach horror film proportions we ran in panic.

We bundled into the tent trying to close up the entrance before the midges followed us but to no avail and literally thousands got inside. Luckily Jacqueline's basket was draped with a net curtain that acted as a mosquito net.

The next minutes saw three adults and three children frenziedly killing midges it was carnage. We thought they had all been killed many times but when we remained still and listened carefully we would hear a buzzing sound again. This went on until only dead bodies were left on the floor, then exhausted we settled down in our sleeping bags.

We had been lying there for a little while when Alan said, "I don't know how to break this to you folk, but I need a pee". There were several groans as Alan, in just underpants, made his way to the door of the tent then plunged outside. About 10 seconds later when he came back he was just a blur.?The midges were a cloud around him. He was shouting and swearing and the midge killing began again in earnest until eventually they had all buzzed their last. As we settled down again I couldn't resist smugly reminding Alan of how he'd been to India where the insects are real insects!

My smugness didn't last for long because next it was me who felt the pressing need to urinate and my leaving the tent had the same results as when Alan had tried.

At that time of year in Scotland there is perpetual twilight so throughout the night this procedure recurred and we became progressively more agitated.

By the next morning it was like a scene from the day after a battle. We took the tent down, packed everything away, left this 'idyllic' spot and headed for the lowlands, in a hurry. I never went to Scotland again!

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