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Published: July 31st 2022
Full Scottish breakfast
Served at Glenmoriston ArmsFriday, 22 July 2022, Day 5 on Great Glen Way, Glenmoriston Arms Hotel at Invermoriston to Benleva Hotel in Drumnadrochit. 14.7 miles by Garmin, 6 hours 5 minutes, 1805 elevation gain.
With an indoor send off from the Glenmoriston Arms Hotel, Jo and I are off, out the front door and into the first long climb. This one is 200 meters in less than a kilometer. Almost 590 feet in less than half a mile. We are soon where we decide on the low route or the high route. The high route is shorter but with many more steep climbs and descents. We elect the low route. Along this road we do not have many views of the loch through the pines and other thick forest of trees.
Invermoriston is to the northwest of Loch Ness so we follow the mountains on the northwest side of the loch until we are closer and well above Loch Ness. We have a cool overcast day but no rain. We are comfortable as the activity of walking keeps us warm even though temperatures are only in the upper 50s. We note that most of the burns (streams) we cross are dry. At
the top of our initial climb we have a very good view of our path that we used on our walk into Invermoriston yesterday afternoon before crossing the Telford built stone bridge.
We met about 7 bikers for the entire walk and passed three guys and four gals but other than that had the walk to ourselves. However, at about the 2 mile point we met a young man who had started from Drumnadrochit that morning and was already this far. He was going on to Fort Augustus today. At mile 4 we began a stretch of 2 miles all uphill. At the top of this run, the upper GGW trail joined the lower and the two paths are now the same.
At 7.5 miles we found a nice v shaped bench and sat and ate our sandwiches from the Hotel. Our stop was at about 11:40 and we were on the trail again before 12:00 From here it was off the road and on a path down hill. We had a couple of breaks in the trees and got a glimpse of Loch Ness both behind us and ahead of us.As we approached Drumnadrochit (meaning ridge of
the bridge in gaelic) we see our first home garden and a sign about cats. This down part is as long as our 2 miles up previously had been.
We pass a family of five out walking who asked us how long to get to Loch Ness. I tell them more than 4 miles and then only a glancing view.
On the streets now in the town we get a note that Karen and Sandy are at a Deli not our hotel so we walk there. It is kind of a square and a piper is playing. Karen and Sandy came by bus and Norma continued on to Inverness to catch the train on to Edinburgh and the airport. She is returning to attend a relatives wedding in Milwaukie.
Some soup and a drink and we are good until dinner tonight at the Hotel Benleva.
Silvertoes notes: Where is the help!? — from steller accomodations to ‘interesting’ accomodations
Glenmoriston Arms is a charming lodging with a staff that was superb. The lady in charge was so accommodating. And to illustrate that fact she endured and then joined in the ‘comedy and challenge’ of taking Harlan’s
complex request for his ‘on the trail’ sandwich. Usually you just take what they come up with for a sandwich but she was going to meet all his requests as to kind of bread, which side to spread the mayo (the cheese side), which side to spread the mustard (yes, they did have spicey mustard) and it went on the ham side, thinly sliced tomato, lots of lettuce, and avocado etc. She thought she could round up a dill pickle. He said it was the best sandwich he has had the whole trip!
The manager also rounded up several blankets so we would not have the nightly dance with the duvets. Then she apologized because they were a smaller size!
This line of thought brings up the subject of service. If one is going to travel these days one must have PATIENCE. One innkeeper was telling us they could not get their usual supply of seasonal workers—for many reasons. The transportation cost of a worker coming from the EU, concern of many prospective workers concerning lingering covid related issues, isolated location of many sites in the Highlands, cost of housing if not provided, etc. As a result most
view of trail we took yesterday,
we walked down and across this valley, to the bridge to go to Glenmoriston Arms businesses are short on staff. Many times the staff was obviously in the middle of their training. We had a very young girl at lunch the other day and it was painfully obvious she was a new hire. She appeared to be in her mid-teens and was trying so hard. You felt like taking her hand and saying, “Let’s go back to the kitchen together and see what the soup of the day is!” We might have just as well ordered “soup of the day” as there would be a 50% chance it would be a variation of lentil soup. Fortunately we both love lentil soup!
In the morning the trio who opted for the bus wended their way down to the beautiful old bridge and the purple capsule (bus stop.) It is a sad day as Norma departs our little band and heads off to Milwaukee, WI for a wedding. I cannot believe anyone would give up the pleasures of our company, the pleasures of meeting midges, and undependable weather for wedding festivities. Again, Sandy watches the bus stops and declares it is time to get off. I do so, but all the time I am saying, “—-
but where is the post office, that is where we are supposed to get off!.” We blow kisses to Norma and off she goes in her coach, a CityLinks bus, to Inverness.
We figure we have about a half mile walk so start to backtrack through the lovely little village of Drumnadrochit. This is a name I never even attempted to say correctly. The accents are in crazy positions. We have determined, thank you Google Maps, where the hotel is located. Well, we wind up making a semi-circle through a residential area and back to our main road. So, we ask a middle age couple out for a walk, and they say to continue down the road. At this point we can see the big, old white hotel, peeking through the branches of massive old trees. At last we see the little road leading up to a three story hotel. Benleva. I think of the old t.v. series, the Addams Family, and their interesting house. Reception is miniscule and no one appears when our musical voices ring out. Finally we find our way to the bar and across the room a man is counting money and a lady is
busy cleaning glass in a door. She comes over and we say we would like to check in. She bustles around and disappears. A couple comes in and asks about lunch—the man counting money gets up and reluctantly comes over. They ask about a soup and he says it has not been started yet as the chef has not come in—in fact he is short a chef. Sandy and I look at each other, knowing we will be going back into the village for lunch. The lady returns and escorts us back to the reception area. She is saying the rooms are not ready. She opens the door to a room and says we can put our backpacks in there if we do not want to carry them with us. We are a little hesitant as the room looks like a staging area for a move and you fear you will not be able to find them again. She is telling us our rooms are not ready when a young man comes dashing by and says the rooms are ready. I make a little joke about not knowing how efficient her staff is. She looks at his disappearing back and
says, “Well, it depends on the day of the week!” Sandy asks for a fan for the room and the lady looks at her strangely and says, “A fan?”—as if she has never heard of the word, much less what it might do! She tells me the gigantic tree outside our window is the oldest chestnut tree in Scotland. I feel we are part of one of the old English comedies (think Monty Python). We all know our lines, well, sort of, but we are all on different pages. We retrieve our backpacks from the storage room, deposit them in our rooms and beat it back to town.
Will be continued the next entry. We are in Drumnadrochit two nights.
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