Gairlochy to South Laggan

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Day two. Hmm. What was supposed to be 13 miles finished off at 17! But let me start at the beginning.



I need to apologize to particularly pleasant Peter, owner of the Distant Hill B&B, because I called him Paul in my blog yesterday. We woke up kind of late and headed down for an amazing breakfast of homemade porridge, sausage, fresh eggs, eggs with smoked salmon and homemade jams. So good! Then back to the rooms to finish packing and head out. Particularly pleasant Peter gave us a ride for the 3.7 miles into Gairlochy.



With Wheezy's blisters covered in moleskin, we think we're ready. I am braving the weather in shorts and a double layer of thin shirts as it has been crazy good weather. Our first two days in Scotland were in the 70's but today looks, feels and is supposed to have some rain. I'm still taking my chances.



Off we go and we're starting a whole hour earlier than yesterday. We start with some stretching and take our first steps of day two. A "13" mile journey to South Laggan. Just a few steps into the journey we run across a cool, broken up shored boat. Of course we move in to explore! There is an amazing view of the lighthouse from the stern but the highlight was when Alida and I recreated our favorite scene from Titanic!



The next stop was this amazing forest fairy area hidden in the woods. If you weren't looking you'd walk right past. I'd like to think that only special "fairy believers" can actually see it. It was crazy though. At the edge of the forest next to the road there was a little fairy shrine welcoming you, then as you walked deeper into the woods there were all these different areas that housed different types of fairies. From really far away you could hear these wind chimes. The farther into the forest you got the louder it got and finally you were upon the most amazing wind chime fairy haven. I swear I thought maybe I was tripping and had fallen into the Alice in Wonderland hole. The fairy forest was very trippy, kind of surreal, amazing but in a weird way, it was very comfortable being there.



Today's walk took us along the shore of the Loch Laggan. It was beautiful with lots of moss covered trees, clover ground cover and Ginger found what she thought was a small cannabis plant. Then we came across a WWII boat launch pad, before hitting the turning point at Clunes. Here we met a group of English folks that had three dogs with them. "Jess" (a mix of about everything) and I played catch before she sent me off but not before giving me a little puppy loving! We left there, went a few meters and found a picnic table to have our lunch, sat down and ate a great meal compliments to Peter and his wife!



After lunch, we did some assisted stretching and then took off again. The rest of the day was just walking and taking in the scenery. We had to convert to good old fashioned talking as the music box didn't charge last night and ran out if juice. Lady Wheezy's right knee started hurting her, not to mention the blisters she had patched up, so we slowed our pace then all of a sudden, I got a sharp pain in my left ankle and couldn't even walk. Each step I took, it shot right through my leg and was unbelievably painful! I took off my boot and it was instant relief. Tried putting my sock back on and the pressure from the sock shot the pain through again! Luckily for me, Ginger had a pair of flip flops in her bag. Only problem is, she wears a size 2 children's and I wear an 8 adult! It was quite funny to see but much, much better. I would not have been able to make the rest of the day which ended up being at least 7 more miles. Poor Ginger's flip flops will never be the same.



We finally get to our B&B, Forest Hills, and are greeted by Rambling Robert and his two 4 month old Springer Spaniel puppies! OMG! I have officially found my favorite place in Scotland! They were absolutely adorable and Rambling Robert was as sweet as a sticky toffee pudding! (which we had for dessert by the way). Once inside his wife, phenomenal Phoebe was super, super sweet and accommodating. She had already made us dinner reservations down the street and had arranged a ride to and from. She politely informed us that our walk had been a total of 17 miles, including what it took to walk to the B&B from the Great Glen Way. Wow, what a great place



Dinner was scheduled at the Laggan Water Park, which sounds weird, but was really, really good. Ginger and I both had steak pie which ended up being a perfectly cooked pot roast in a creamy brown sauce with veggies, all wrapped around a flaky puff pastry topped with a side of hand cut fries. Lady Wheezy went all out Scottish on us with a burger and fries. Of course we started the dinner with sticky toffee pudding and hot chocolate custard both with a sweet cream sauce. To wash it all down we went local with a few more whiskeys, and a couple of Gaelic coffees. So good!



Lady Wheezy has some nasty big blisters on both her feet, Ginger is sporting a few blisters on her right foot and I have some crazy weird bruises on both of the outsides of my ankles. Should prove to be an interesting journey...



Tomorrow is "supposedly" 10.5 miles. We'll see. Here are our stats so far:



Day 1: 14 miles; 30 push ups; 30 squats or sit ups (depended on the terrain).

We left at 11:10am arrived at 6:30pm



Day 2: 17.5 miles; 25 push ups; 25 sit ups, squats or tricep dips (depending on terrain)

We left at 10:05am arrived at 6:00pm

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