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The start
Fresh faced and energisedYahoo!!!!! Finally finished this afternoon at 2.30pm after walking 74 miles!!! We all feel very proud of ourselves. Between us all we've got a few blisters and aches and pains, but on the whole we are all in one piece
After we left Alastair in Drumnadroichit, we continued to climb many hills, but the views were spectacular as you will see from the photos. We walked through pine forests and had wonderful views of Loch Ness again. It really is a view that you would not believe unless you see it for yourselves. We can certainly give everyone lots of advise and good B & Bs to stay in on the way. There were lots of wonderful places for us to stop and brew up with views that you have just seen on postcards and in films.
We cannot believe the weather we had on the way, lots of sunshine. We walked all week in shorts and t-shirts and had to put suncream on. After seeing the weather forecast for the rest of the country, we just have to thank our lucky stars as we understand that the rest of you have had awful rain. Sorry.....but we've had temperatures
like you wouldn't believe!
We walked for 9 miles on the Friday when we arrived, 12 miles on Saturday into Drum and then 14 miles to Invermoriston.
When we were approaching Invermoriston, the declines were incredible. Infact most of us just had to jog down as you couldn't stop. Boy, were we glad we walked Inveness to Fort William because we couldn't imagine climbing up that hill. We were glad when we got to Invermoriston and found our B & B. We sat outside the hotel for refreshments in the sunshine for an hour or two. Clive, John and Dave went for a wander down to the river and found an ancient bridge with a waterfall, which was very pretty. Dave found it so enticing that he had an inpromptu dip, much to Clives amusement. We were all looking forward to our beds that night.
Next morning, Clive upset our hostess! There wasn't any HP sauce on the table, so he had a quick look in the cupboard and was caught in the act. She stood with her hands on her hips and asked Clive if she could help him!!! We were like naughty school children. It
Three Musketeers?
Or Comp, Foggy and Clegg? all started when Sally asked if she could have scrambled egg instead of fried and JOhnny asked if he could too. She answered that she was the only one in the kitchen!!! We did find it all very amusing, but were a little surprised at her attitude.
We got on our way and had another hill to climb out of Invermoriston, but once up the top it was fairly flat. Very hot and sunny again and we had to take lots of water stops. The scenery was stunning but kept changing all the time, from forests and lots of trees, to mountains and vast spaces. Al the time we had the water to walk near although we were looking down from a great height. We all enjoyed our picnics that our B & Bs laid on for us, but today we had food we all bought from the local shop and so had individual choices. The only problem was that we probably carried far too much food and certainly more than we needed. This day was our longest day at 18 miles and we were all very dubious about it, but we all did really well. We had covered
Loch Ness
Beautiful sunny skies and blue water 10 miles by lunchtime. We left Loch Ness and continued along the Caledonian Canal, which was really different again and brought lots of different scenes. We finished the day with a drink on a boat parked up on the canal in South Laggan, which we all thoroughly deserved. Feeling very tired and acheing, we all went to our B & Bs. John, Sally, Dave and myself went to Forest Lodge and Clive and NIcky went to LIlac Cottage as we all couldn't get into the same, but it wasn't a real problem and we were all pleased with our rooms. Our hosts drove us to a restaurant where we all enjoyed our food and then the owner of the restaurant took us home. WE have found all the people up here very friendly and welcoming.
When we left South Laggan the following morning, we were really looking forward to arriving with Nick and Heather by the end of the day. We had 12 miles ahead of us and compared to the day before just seemed like a stroll. Again, the scenery we saw was unbelievable and certainly worth all the aches and pains. We phoned Heather and told her
The Caledonian Canal
What a wonderful sight we were on our way and eventually arrived with her by 4.30. It was great to see her and Sarah (her daughter) was staying with them and we hadn't seen her for 17 years. We all had a lot to catch up on, there was a lot of hot air!!!
We all enjoyed a barbeque cooked by NIck that evening and sat around the fire, which was wonderful. It was strange to think that in the morning we were going to finish The Great Glen Way.
After a wonderful breakfast cooked and prepared by Heather and Sarah we all packed up and got walking again. This time accompanied by Heather and Sarah, but all wrapped up in our fleeces and waterproofs because the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. We followed the Canal all the way, but we were very lucky as the rain didn't really start falling until we were about 2 miles away from the finish. We walked around the side of the water and could see our finishing line in the distance. The rain was getting heavier and heavier and we all said that we would have struggled if the weather had
been like this all the way around.
We got to the finish and we were all a little disappointed that it was only a stone by ruins of the castle. It was very strange but we all expected something more, maybe some flags or something. But certainly somebody stood there with medals for all of us.
By the time we had finished, the rain was absolutely hammering down and we all thanked our lucky stars again for the sunshine we had enjoyed for the whole of our journey.
What an adventure!! Well done everyone!!
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Chris g
non-member comment
Scotland goes wild over six!
That sounds like some fantastic walking country. If only we had some time when the weather wa sgood enough to get up there. One of the downsides of being in seasonal theatre I guess. Tell me, when you were round Loch Ness, did anyone point at Dave and start shouting "Monster, there's the monster, It's a lot bigger than I thought!" There, Didn't I promise you some comments. You never specified what sort!