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Published: August 17th 2012
Day 5: Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit
We're getting delirious.
We started great! Up at 6:00am to Skype our loved ones and start our day. Had a scrumptious breakfast, by far the best we've had in Scotland! Walked downstairs to say goodbye to Sunshine Sheila at the Bracarina B&B at 9:10. Then Travis, the Springer Spaniel comes bounding out the kitchen door, the next thing you know it is 9:45 before we actually left. Walked next door to the only store in town. Frank the owner, (and I think he should be the Mayor) greeted us with a friendly "humph" when we said we were here for our free 5:30am coffee. But he hooked us up with a hearty packed lunch before sending us on our way. All we have left to do is cross the street and start on the trail. But wait! There is a gift store AND they're open! Really? A town with about 100 people, one store, one restaurant and WE find an open gift store.
We officially started walking on our "second to longest" day (yea, right) at 10:45am. What the hell happened we still can't figure out. We
are prepared for a long, hilly day today. Having gotten warnings from walkers going the opposite direction, the Canadian group who have Google mapped everything, and the Europeans who informed us that Jess, Nadu and Eachann (the dogs) will be hitching a ride with Bob due to treacherous roads, hills etc for part of they way, we have mentally prepared ourselves.
Being slightly misinformed, we expected street walking (no, not that kind) for a couple of miles. Turns out those couple of miles were feet and BAM! We are into our first hill. So talking was kept to a minimum so Lady Wheezy and I could still breathe. Meanwhile Energizer Bunny Ginger is so far ahead at points we can't hear the music! (she was the keeper of the tunes today). We Ka-Kawed her so loudly at one point it didn't even sound pretty anymore, it was more like a KA-KAW DAMMIT KA-KAW! She got the point, that's all that mattered. We got our tunes back and she got dragged out of her zone.
Our first pit stop was at the "Stone Bench". So we hike up the detour mountain to find the most
Travis
He wanted to play and didn't want us to leave so he stole my shoe and we played chase the dog!charming bench made of stones with a view that is out of this world. While Ginger and I are snapping away, Lady Wheezy decides a little shut eye is in order. Not to be outdone, I snuggle up as the spoon to her fork and catch a quick little catnap.
We were told ahead of time that there would be nothing between the two cities in our hike today, but as we're hiking along in the forest, we run across a B&B in the middle of nowhere, and they serve tea and snacks all day. It was kind of a creepy place and our story telling began; it probably wasn't a real B&B and if we happened in by taking the bait of the cheesy sign posted by the trail, we would disappear. When they comb the trail to look for us, the B&B would be gone with only a small house left standing. The Sheriff would be in the living room asking about us and we would be downstairs in the basement, gagged, and could hear every word! By that point we had given ourselves the heebie jeebies so we changed the topic. Whew! No more
scary movies for us!
Back to hiking a few more hills, but really, more like mountains. I swear the Great Glen Rangers just zig-zagged this trail, up and down and back up and down and around then up again, just to add distance! We walked forever and ever and ever, just ask our feet! We think we are doing really good on time, until we meet Steve. This guy is hiking and came out of nowhere. He was booking it so fast! We got him to stop and chat for a minute and found out he was doing this whole 6 day walk in 3 days. Really, three days? We shooed him off so our self-esteem could repair itself and ended up stopping for lunch at a cute little bench with a great view of Loch Ness and the wondrous Scotland countryside 50 feet away. Ginger was in charge of our stretching session after lunch, as you can see, that didn't turn out so great for Lady Wheezy and I. Speaking of Ginger, I don't know what Frank put in her sandwich but she was getting her sexy on in our campsite.
Back to
hiking we go! Every now and then we caught the most incredible views of the Loch and Lady Wheezy and I took the liberty of practicing our martial arts together at one of the view points. I won't tell you who our Sensei is because our form is so bad, it wouldn't look good for him! We have some catching up to do when we get home for sure! In our defense, we are tired from hiking so much. That's our story anyway! So with a little more hiking up mountains (we can't even figure out where these mountains are coming from) we run across a beautiful section of farms. We watched one baby sheep crying for his Mum until finally he saw her and took off running, it was so cute!
After all this hiking and some great food, nature started calling. Darned if I couldn't make it to the privacy of my own forest tree! Speaking of trees, Little Ginger, all 4'10" of her, finally found a forest that made her feel like a giant!
Thanks to our Canadian techy friends, I had downloaded this App called "Endomondo". It can track what
you are doing in your exercise. So it keeps track of our mileage via GPS, the time we walk, the time per miles, etc. pretty cool. At the point when the phone tells me we have reached 14 miles, which should be the end of our journey, but we know how that goes, there is no A84 junction in sight! Thinking we are back to a day one situation we try to keep our spirits up until we turn the corner and low and behold, the 14 miles wasn't so far off! A turn here and there and we enter our "street". To say the street of houses is quaint, cute and pleasant would be an understatement. HOWEVER, there was a weird sense of creepy about this street. My comment was "I feel like this is a street that you would see in a Stephen King movie. Then Lady Wheezy chimes in, "yea, where the hikers disappear". Weird recurring theme today!
We find our B&B and are greeted by Smiling Sue. What a pleasant lady! She showed us to our room, engaged us in conversation and recommend the place next door for dinner. Turns out it was
fabulous! We ran in to our English friends, Eileen, Bob, Ian and Roisin at dinner. They invited us back to Scotland, where Eileen and Bob live on the islands, to visit sometime. We exchange emails, loved on their dogs some and headed to our table. This is the best Country ever, every bar we have been in allows dogs! It's so cool.
Tomorrow is our last day. It is bittersweet. What I thought would be a mild walk on trails has turned out to be a life changing experience. I am in a new country, meeting new people, seeing beautiful sights and making some of the best memories with my friends. I am very proud of us. At one point I didn't know if we'd be able to finish this walk, but we overcame our blisters, swollen ankles, stiff knees and kept going. We are actually looking forward to the 20 miles tomorrow. Until then...
Stats:
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
Day 3: 10.5 miles; 40 push ups; 40 sit ups/squats
We left at 10:30am arrived at 5:30pm
Day 4: 9.5 miles; 25 push ups; 25 squats or sit ups
We left at 10:30am and arrived at 3:30pm
Day 5: 14ish miles; 20 push ups; 20 squats
We left at 10:45am and arrived at 6:30pm
New stats thanks to Endomondo App
Calories burned: 2361
Time actually hiking: 6 hours 8 minutes 40 seconds
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Mr Dickwood
Ian Woodley
Hotties
3 Hotties on the rocks please!