The 630 mile, 13 hour drive to Scotland to inspect my estate and start my sporting holiday deer stalking, fishing and rough shooting over Sam.
Catching up with Ian at The Forss House Hotel and visiting my plantation and loch later.
I undertook the 630 mile journey after a call at 4.00am, started at 4.30am and ended at 5.00pm, some 13 hours after. This did involve some lengthy stopovers for Sam for his food and exercise, but was a tiring journey nevertheless. On arrival, I was put in one of the ground floor annexes that provided self-contained accommodation and in which I could keep the dog if I had to.
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Ian McGregor, the hotelier, now had his own Labrador using the run during the day and his son Peter had two more - all dogs rather than bitches - so that there was a right throng of dogs for Sam to get on with. I tried Sam in the run with the others but ended up by accommodating him in the back of the car both overnight and also when not being used and active and he was very good. He had also been very good on the journey.
After settling in and before dinner, I drove over to Broubster and found plenty of grouse and geese around to shoot at later but was also upset to find the boat had been left out of order and to learn that some boys had been found poaching at the loch. A large and fine dinner and then chat with Ian over drinks and coffee before still managing to turn in for an early night. The weather on the way up had been of cold wind and rain in the south of the nation but very fine, sunny and mild in the north and so I had come to the right place.