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Published: August 3rd 2022
Sunday, 24 July 2022, Day 7 Great Glen Way. Drumnadrochit to Inverness starting at Blackfold meadow again. by All Trails app: 11.6 miles, 4:39 hours, 344 feet elevation gain. By Garmin: 11.64 miles, 4:38 hours, 234 feet elevation gain
The morning looked very clear after some heavy rains during the night. Our transfer van picked us up at 0930 for the ride back up to the hill to Blackfold. We started at the same spot as yesterday but went in the opposite direction towards Inverness instead of back to Drumnadrochit. Yesterday was supposed to be 12 miles but it was only 8. Today is supposed to be 9 miles but was actually 11.6. So much for the guidance from the tour operators. Loch Ness Travel provided our shuttle and also was providing our luggage transfer. At dinner last night Jo mentioned that we were in two different places. Karen and I will be in the Dionard Guest House and Jo and Sandy in the Glenmoriston Inn. The latter right on the GGW, the former over half a mile from the end point at Inverness Castle.
Our first 2.4 miles and 50 minutes of walking was along the paved road
upon which we had been dropped off. We could have elected to be driven this distance by the car but I insisted we NOT miss a step of the GGW. Jo acquiesced. This is along farm land on both sides of the road. When we turned off the road we were on a beautiful soft sandy path partially in trees and partially in rough pasture land. We met a couple of walkers and many bikers coming from Inverness. At about 3.5 miles we came across two young women who were on a bench. Jo inquired if they were OK. They had run out of water, were walking or running and had 6 more miles to go. They had already come about 8 miles with a cup and half of water for the two of them. She gave them two refills from her bladder. They drank the first down instantly.
We then were on a wooded path that gradually descended. This pretty much took us into the suburbs of Inverness. We could see a small loch to the north and west in the distance through the trees. The first identifiable landmark provided by our walking guide were the power lines.
Then we could see the former mental hospital, now only a housing area. At mile 9 of this walk, we were once again united with the Caledonian Canal. From here the walk was splendid, past a botanical garden, across a cable bridge to an island in the river and along the river bank until we reached the streets. We passed The Glenmoriston Inn and saw Sandy at a picnic bench with her glass of wine. We continued on to find that the castle is all closed off and the detour to the end point was almost 180 degrees back near where we had come and difficult to find. We settled for the directions to find the end point at the castle construction barrier for our final photo.
I then tried to use google maps to find the Dionard GH. My phone app for google maps went goofy and I could not get it to recenter. I did walk in the right direction and found the current endpoint for the GGW. Fortunately, as I started up the street in the general direction of the guest house, I met Karen coming the other way to guide me to our lodging.
After a shower we then walked down to the river and to see parts of the town. We saw several old churches and visited the informative plaque at the Old High Church of Scotland. History of the executions of the Jacobite revolutionaries was throughout this graveyard.
We found the bus and train station and then the rain started. I darted into a gelataria to escape some of it. Then we walked back as we had dinner reservations across the street at Michaels recommended by Anne the host at the Dionard Guest House. It was Sunday roast and very good.
Silvertoes Day 7 notes:
This is it!! The end of the two Ways! It is always a bittersweet day when one comes to the end of a long walk. One is always reminded of Wainwright’s comment, “You never really know a country until you walk it.” He should know as he was the creator of the Coast to Coast trail in northern England.
Sandy and I are taking our time this morning. We leave Hotel Benleva. I have asked ‘drifty lady’ how old the house is. I have asked the resident non-manager how old
the house is. I have noted the big billboard advertising the hotel, that is on the main highway, and it gives a date. There is a range of 200 to 300 years old, depending on the source at that moment! When you are trodding the ground of a country that has histories that go back hundreds of years—what is a hundred years or so! And if you have the oldest—OR—is it really the second oldest chestnut tree in the country, does it really make any difference!
Today the lemon meringues are in the tea shop—and oh, are they delicious! I am about to join Sandy when the lady who runs the shop sees some postcards in my hand. She asks if she could take them and mail them for me. More than a little confused (my normal state when I travel) I hesitate. Then she says she has the post office. My first thought is, “Where is this mysterious post office that is also the site of the bus stop.” Sandy is laughing and points to a little red and white sign that is attached flat against the wall on the outside of the building. It is almost impossible
to see as it is between two signs that come out perpendicular from the wall, leaving it in the shadows. Now I do not know if the woman is the post mistress when she puts on a certain official apron or when she is standing behind a certain counter in the goodie shop or when she asks some unwitting tourist to her fair village if she can mail some post cards for her!
Inverness, our terminus point, lies on the North Sea. It is one of the fastest growing regions in Scotland. It has a requisite castle and some beautiful old buildings along the Ness River. Sandy and I are dropped on the opposite side of the river from our lodgings. We walk along the river, crossing a bridge with the most outstanding, hanging flower baskets. Sandy and Jo are in a beautiful hotel right on the river. A most accommodating young receptionist looks up the location of my lodging, prints out a map and marks a short-cut to my lodging. Of course it is up-hill over rather rough streets as they are doing a lot of construction in the area. I find my lodging, enter the front gate
and face a sign, “No Check-in Before 4:00 p.m.” It is 1:00 p.m. I am tired (hard work eating a lemon meringue tart so early in the morning!) and rain is threatening. I go in the outer front door and find myself in a miniscule vestibule and ring the bell and knock heartily on the inner door. No answer-no sign of life. There is a small window and one can see into the front hallway. There are our bags: one, two, three. Ummm—there are some other bags and I think I recognize them to be those of Jo and Sandy. The proprietor hears my intermittent knocking and lets me in. She next takes pity and calls upstairs to see if our room is ready. The reply is that it can be in a few minutes. Anne insists on carrying our three heavy bags upstairs, while telling me the luggage delivery service did not have a hotel address for Jo and Sandy so he just plopped them down where we were staying. We had two different lodgings as we could not get what we needed for four people in one location. I unlocked our bags, got things ‘cozy’ in a ‘very
cozy’ room (translate to a very small room with an alley view.) It is amazing how rooms can be made to seem very spacious depending on camera angle. That is one of the joys of traveling—the surprise of the lodging awaiting you at the end of the day! Also called Sandy and told her where their bags had been deposited!
I am on my way down to the castle and run into Harlan as he climbs another hill for the day. We turn around and make our way to an area being developed around the castle proper. There is a big stone monument saying that is the terminus for The Great Glen Way. We take a picture commemorating the fact that as we enter our “older and wiser” years we can still, thankfully, walk.
Harlan wants a Sunday roast Scottish dinner. The roast is traditionally beef but it can also be pork or chicken. The proprietor suggests a restaurant across the street. The roast is usually accompanied by roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. We find a couple there who were checking in as we were leaving for what else—for a little walk! They are biking here
and there doing a little geneology work. They are from Calgary, the home of Cam and Marie, good friends we met on the French Camino.
I end jotting down a few thoughts from this walk——
always know the emergency number for the country you are in!!!!!! I seem to test the health care systems of countries we visit and now, after my Loch Lomond incident, I will have memorized the appropriate number for wherever we are.put in an old pair of glasses. I have always had a current prescription in case I needed it but now I realize how wonderful an actual pair can be to put on and see again.when one is traveling always accept help thankfully and graciously. We have heard from
Sara and Nicholas from Germany, who came upon us after I had fallen. Sara had antiseptic spray to clean up my bloody face—we now have some in our travel medicine kit. This couple are forever etched in my mind as they would not leave us until we could see the ferry landing, even though that meant they were then traveling in the dusk to get to their camp.prepare well ahead for the physical aspects of the trip. I was—and was not—prepared for the trip. I had not even planned on making the trip but when a potential member of the group could not make it, I somewhat scuttled into the group through the back door. After multiple shots in the knee, and written agreement from the baggage company that I could ride with them if I needed a rest day, and looking at pictures and reading about the Highlands I did not want to miss out!<li style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre;" dir="ltr">and the last thought is, “chose your travel companions wisely!” We have all made long distance trips together over the years and know the eccentricities of each other—our strengths and weaknesses that are exascerbated under the stress of long walking days. Lee was the ‘new factor’ and he proved to be a gem, taking us as he found us and being a good ‘baby’ of the group.
So long until our next walking endeavor. Happy trails and Buen Camino
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Congratulations on finishing the GGW!!
I arrive in Edinburgh on 23 Aug. I have a question. Will Google Maps on my AT&T cell phone work in Scotland just using WiFi at the beginning of each day? I plan on using Skype to contact my wife each day also using WiFi on my laptop of cell phone. Plan B would be to buy a cell phone with minutes and data when I arrive at EDI. Any suggestion? Thanks for your help!