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Journal: |
I had a good night's sleep and things went to plan in the morning
when I went across to the store/Post Office at 9am after breakfast
and picked up my last set of maps for the trip and bought some food
to see me through the next week on the days I am not booked into
hotels/inns. I returned to the hotel, marked up my maps for
the day and packed the food before checking out at 10am and hitting
the trail. According to the guide book I was in for a tough
day, even without a late start, so I was a little apprehensive about
how close I would get to the target of Inverlael, 40km away, by
day's end. I was expecting to be camping, so I could stop
short, but needed to be within range of Oykel Bridge the next day,
where I was booked into an inn.
The walking started well with a long gradual climb up a valley
out of Kinlochewe to Lochan Fada, a loch high in the mountains.
I walked for three hours straight with a fully-loaded pack, but did
it comfortably, which was a relief after the fatigue and headaches
of yesterday. I took a break there on a hill overlooking the
loch with its grand backdrop of mountains. I then had a few
kilometres of cross-country walking to a pass and once again thanked
the gods for the good visibility which had helped my journey across
the Highlands. I could clearly see the pass in the distance I
was aiming for, so was able to make a bee-line for it, though had to
deal with the usual peat bogs and steep-sided side valleys which
made for slow progress. A couple of hikers appeared ahead from
my left, hiking cross-country and followed my course to the pass
some distance in front of me, then suddenly disappeared from sight
at a time I wasn't looking and I was on my own again.
From the pass I picked up a narrow trail and followed it down a
long valley past a picturesque loch with the vast rocky bare-sided
Sgurr Ban mountain to the west, ending at a pretty valley with some
trees and heather at Achneigie. By this time it was late in
the afternoon, but I was happy with my progress and enjoying
listening to the agonies of the commentators previewing, describing
and later analysing the England v Germany World Cup game, whilst
traversing the spectacular wilderness.
I then had another long climb followed by a crossing of a high
plain dotted with small lochs before descending to a green valley
with a few houses and a road. However, this contact with
civilisation was brief and I was soon climbing up to another pass
through some forest. It took some time to cross the pass and
it was after 8pm, so I began looking for somewhere to camp, since I
was only four or five kilometres from Inverlael. I found an
exposed spot near a creek and set up the tent just as the first of
several showers passed through. I thankfully crawled into the
tent, hoping I'm not too exposed to the brisk wind, and had my
dinner and did my diary. I had planned to have a wash in the
stream, but it was too late and cold, so I went to bed dirty.
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