Today we head for Inversnaid.
It is only 7 miles away. The first part should be pretty easy going but the second half is described as challenging. What does that mean? You can’t say challenging in a book without a because…..
We ate another good breakfast. We were the last to leave. Our bunkhouse companions were two English youngsters, 18 and 20, who are running the trail in chunks of 25 miles a day. How on earth they do it I will never know, a dutch girl, a german chap and a Scottish truck driver who was told to get fit by his doctor. He looked pretty damn fit to me.
We set of into another calm and humid morning. It was overcast. Rain was forecast for later in the day but it was going to be light rain.
We passed a house the owners of which had built a little honesty kiosk full of goodies. There was home baking, drinks, crisps and snacks and all on a honesty basis. You took what you wanted and put your money in a tin. A sign on their gates reminded us of the distance still to go. As if we needed reminding.
The easy going path snaked its way in more ancient forests. These appear to be the oldest so far. It was totally silent and gloomy. Nothing stirred. We often stopped and just looked around us and into the depths of the forest. It was like a filmset from Lord of the Rings but this was real. Damp mosses and lichens carpeted the forest floor. Fungi grew on rotting tree stumps. Water dripped and gurgled its way down to the loch way below. Our view of the loch was totally obscured. This was full on sensory immersion.
I came across a leaf hanging in mid air right in from of my face . It was hanging on an invisible spiders silk thread. It looked like the leaf was suspended in mid air. I had to pretend to do a little magicians trick. If you look carefully at the photo you can spot the leaf.
We sat. We walked.
Then we hit the challenging bit. It was just as described. We scrambled the last few kilometres over tree roots, along thin ledges, up and around outcrops of rock, up and down steep gradients. We had to watch each footfall. Debbie cursed. Then cursed some more. Our progress slowed to a crawl in places.
The reward at the end was crossing a footbridge over the Inversnaid water fall and our arrival at the Inversnaid hotel. Whilst this was not our accommodation, we did take lunch and cups of tea to pass time as we were too early to check into our own accommodation a mile up the valley at the Garrison of Inversnaid. It also aided in the recovery of sore muscles.
Whilst in the hotel we noticed some people coming in with rain gear on. We thought we were going to get wet. Fortunately when the time came for us to leave the rain had stopped. We set off on the climb up the road to our accommodation. Then it was like somebody had turned a tap on. The heavens opened and before we managed to get our rain gear on we were soaked. Debbie cursed again. We trudged in wet boots and clothes to our accommodation which is an old 1718 ex British Army garrison but following the Jacobite uprising. A hot shower awaits. Tomorrow we head to Inverarnan. We have a bit more of the ‘challenging’ path to do first thing.
Woodend Wanderer 