Simon in the Scottish Highlands - Sleeper Train to Inverness, 3 day hike from Cannich to Marvic and relaxing before kayaking and hiking in Isle Skye

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I'd been looking forward to this morning all week to say the least. It's been an action packed week finishing up my time in London. I've caught up with lots of mates and have been able to appreciate how much I will miss London. I never thought I'd say that, but it is one hell of a city.Experiencing this Scottish Rail Sleeper train I would recommend to anyone. Not the cheapest form of transport but it's like nothing I've done before. When I 1st boarded I was shown to my cabin with a bed and I then enjoyed some food in the 1st class lounge. After going back to my cabin I woke up 9 hours later and looking out the window i was surrounded by mountains, mostly snow capped, and rivers and rolling valleys all around. It's good to be back! I'm meeting up with mate Michael in Inverness. He has decided to join after turning up at my house 4 days ago on his bike after soloing around Europe for three months. My other mate Scotty unfortunately has been holed in by work, my normal travel companion up in this part of the world.The plan now is an open slather - I have no obligations for 10 days.Eventually found the hostel where Shearer (friend from Adelaide) was after visiting 4 of them. We grabbed somewhere Maccas breakfast, a double bacon mcmuffin meal and a bagel sausage egg cheese meal to be precise, amazin!We were quite amused by the appearance of many of the locals, with a large proportion looking very similar to each other or like the local sheep breed. We got some local tips from the outdoor shop 'expert', bought some maps and boarded the bus to Crannic at 2pm. Was a really scenic bus ride, heading south from Inverness next to Loch Ness. No Loch Ness monster was spotted we were a bit worried about the fly fishermen we saw at one end of the loch. We reached Crannic, and needed to stock up on more food as we would not be able to for 3 days. The sun was well and truly out now and we eventually set off at about 4pm with our 'not so light' packs! It's an art (and spending $$$) we say to getting light packs. You are always thinking how could you make this thing lighter. We walked along the road heading south till we turned off to follow the river into Glen Affric where we walked alongside Loch .....After about 4-5 hours and about 10 or a bit more km's travelled we found a good spot to camp for the night. We were hoping to camp next to the Loch but there was thick forest between the trail and Loch so we realised that was unlikely. I was more than happy to get rid of that pack off my back, I was knackered! & im sure Shearer was too. He had blusters almost straight away after testing out the new hiking boots. We put up our tents and Shearer put together a fire, and it burned on/off which was great for a while. After using the new cooker I bought which does its job in no time, it was already about 10.30pm and we were basically ready for bed. The sun had still not completely set at this time too.The next AM we had a big sleep in and eventually set off at midday. We had a couple of options for routes depending on how we felt. We soon realised tackling the hills with our big packs may not be the smartest idea at this point of the trip! We enjoyed some amazing views and once again the weather was perfect. We stopped for lunch at a really cool spot in the shade next to a little waterfall and cooked ourselves a hot lunch. We were in no rush and relaxed for an hour or so, including resting our blistered feet in the water to ease the aches. After lunch we continued on, enjoying the amazing views through the valley as we walked alongside Loch ..... This time. We had to cross a couple of creeks so Shearer decided to show off his way of doing it - in his local Vans shoes racing across the rocks with his pack on, rock wallaby style; while I decided to cross the creek with the sexy army coloured gaiters on, proving a little less successful! Our plan was to sleep the night at a hostel (and hope for pay TV Sky to watch the Champions League Final..) and when we reached here at 7pm we were told it was booked out. We were happy to camp anyway but we were hoping to stock up on snacks, no luck. We were told there was a bothy a 40 minute hike further along with at least 7 Scottish there with a lot of alcohol.We arrived at the bothy and was welcomed by two barking bordie collie dogs. There was 10 ppl staying at the bothy already and with us made it 12! There was two rooms and we had a large wooden top bunk each which was perfect and with the fire going it kept us nice and warm. We were staying in a room with three others, including a completely random bloke by the name of Ben who was telling us tales of his excess drinking, metho consumption, psychiatry visits and concoctions of medications he was on. We were treated to a Hot Toddie by these lovely Scottish folk which was great - rum mixed with hot water, lemon and honey. Recommend.We enjoyed talking to the other fellows, tasting their freshly caught fish from the loch that day, which they kept cool in a plastic bag under a rock in the stream next to the bothy. We were very impressed with one of the blokes rucksack - a 200L bag fitted with everything camping related but also a paragliding kit. We were shown a video of him launching off the top of one of the munroe's they summited that day. The next AM I was woken by Ben's strange snorting sounds as he prepared the fire and breakfast. Thought it was his dog at first.We lazed around the bothy, enjoyed the morning mist covering the mountains and cooking up the food we had left. We left the bothy at 2pm and headed towards Marvic which was about 10km away. The packs for the first time felt slightly lighter today. The terrain was the rockiest we had walked yet and quite a lot of descending, so it was a good workout. We saw some great views as we made our way down. It wasn't long before my body felt a little old, and I was limping along.We were both happy to make it back and we luckily bumped into two other hikers in the car park at Marvic who gave us a lift into Kintail saving us a little extra walking. We were hungry and very happy to arrive at the local hotel, getting stuck into a big meal and a couple of beers. The locals were quite keen on a chit chat, the Scottish way. I think they all are just fascinated by Shearers brilliant beard to be honest. We then had to find the local campsite which didn't take too long, and after turning up and putting our tents up, we basically just crashed out. The campsite was amazing, surrounded by mountains and water. We were thankful tomorrow was a rest day, both of us deconditioned walkers needed some rest.The night was wet and windy throughout and it was nice to be in the tent while the weather was like that. Today was spent relaxing, cooking up a storm on the cooker and drinking beer and Scottish whiskey down at the Kintail Lodge. Tough 😉

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