Monday morning I just puttered about after the tree-planters (the only guests) headed out for the day, cleaned what needed cleaning and then wandered around outside, up the hill to the south-side a bit, and then back for lunch.
Shortly after my lunch, a Belgian couple arrived and asked if they could leave their bags at the hostel while they went up the mountain (they were planning to camp later on). I was having cup of tea and chatting to them outside when I heard a motor and then saw a Land Rover coming up over the little hill in the road. Up pulled Dave, with Stephen in the passenger seat and Dave's two dogs (Ash and Cillie) between them.
The first thing Dave said was to joke about leaving me with the place for a few days and having two guests go to hospital. The ice-axe accident guys had stayed in Inverness after being discharged from hospital, and Willie had been in touch with Dave about the broken ankle. The dogs started running around straight away while we unloaded supplies and then loaded up my stuff, the accident-ladies' luggage, and rubbish to take away (all hostel guests have to take away their own rubbish, so what we were taking out was Stephen's and mine).
We were all ready to go, but the dogs couldn't be found and weren't responding to Dave's calls. After much thought, Stephen suggested that maybe they had followed the Belgian couple up the mountain when they set off about 30 minutes earlier. Stephen got out the binoculars, and sure enough he could spot two black shapes bounding up the path ahead of the two people on the moutainside.
So Dave had to race off to catch up with the dogs to the point where they could hear him calling. They were a fair distance away by then so it took some time. When they made it back down, we hopped in the vehicle and left Stephen contentedly back in his little hostel.
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