As I wrote the last entry I had already decided not to walk 21 miles to here from Drumnadrochit with a heavy pack on. Instead, I bussed to Inverness, and then walked about 14 miles without the backpack - about a third of the way back along the Great Glen Way route southward, and then back north again. The route led mostly along a strip of land seperating the Caledonian Canal from the river Ness. It was pleasant enough, but not an exciting walk by the standards of previous days. I feel my decision to bail on the longer walk was definitely the right one. I also do not feel at all tired, even though I just walked 14 miles. It is midnight and I cannot sleep, hence the blogging. 

From now on, I do not have to carry every single thing I have in one backpack at any point again. So, I immediately bought a new daypack this morning, which will allow me more rom to buy stuff. I have been golding off on buying presents and souvenirs because I would have had to carry everything with me on my back. Now, finally, I can buy vintage books, obscure whisky, and numerous other things I have been lusting after in the various shops I have seen further south. Tomorrow is my day to do it. 

Inverness is a lovely town, but right now I can't be bothered getting the photos off my camera. Instead, I am going to update my county list for the trip. 

Greater London (including trips to rural Essex and Kent)
West Sussex
Dorset
Hertfordshire
Bedfordshire
Buckinghamshire
Oxfordshire
Wiltshire
Berkshire
Cheshire
Flintshire, Wales
Liverpool in Merseyside (formerly Lancashire)
Anglesey, Wales (Preserved County Gwynedd)
County Dublin
County Clare
County Tipperary
County Antrim
County Down
County Armagh
Dumfries and Galloway (former Wigtownshire)
Glasgow City Council (formerly Lanarkshire)
West Dunbartonshire (for 2 hours)
Argyll and Bute
Highlands (former county Invernesshire, plus Ross and Cromarty)
Western Isles (formerly Ross and Cromarty)
City of Edinburgh (formerly in Midlothian)

I am sleepless, and that kept me entertained for 25 minutes.

I took a day off from my walk today to explore the area around Drumndrochit. I went on a short walk down to the estuary where the twin rivers meet near Loch Ness, and saw The Fairy Log, where tourists are encouraged to jam coinage into a mouldering stump by the path. I can find no evidence this was a real tradition back in the pre-Google days. There is a Hanging Tree in the town, an old Chestnut tree where hangings took place 300 years ago, but theres no public access - it's on the property of a brewery by the same name. I tried the lager and it's very good. 

I decided not to visit Urqhart Castle, having already seen enough Norman castles, and, I was not wanting to be one of the half million people that go there every year, so after a slow start to the day I jumped on a bus to Corrimony, a tiny town about 8 miles to the west, along the route through Glen Affric to the west coast. My target was Corrimony Chambered Cairn, a 4000-year-old tomb surrounded by a stone circle. The tomb was made for a woman of great importance. Chambered cairns (burial mounds made of rocks, not earth or chalk) are not so common in England, but they did them up here. It is the first significant piece of archaeology I have seen since getting to Scotland, and I was glad to get back to that aspect of the trip. I spent about an hour there, and then walked through the old village of Corrimony, now partly abandoned, and on to a bird sanctuary, where I did not see much in the way of birds, although the scenery was great. A taxi got me back to Drumnadrochit, where I drank 3 very rare (and cheap) whiskies from the local bar. The barman explained that the season is ending and they are selling drinks at half price to make sure the bottles are done before winter comes. I was not complaining. The Thompson Brothers whisky from Dornoch ws exceptional, light, peaty, foresty, just what I like. 

I am in bed now and have just decided to bus it to Inverness tomorrow, and then walk as much of the path as I feel like back south again. But, I may change my mind in the morning. It has been pouring with rain all afternoon and I don't want to walk 18 miles tomorrow if it's still coming down. Storm Erin is having her way. 

Yesterday's walk was 13.5 miles long and much of it was quite steep. I now realise that my own lack of planning has done me a favour, in a strange way. If I had properly researched the nature of the walk, and realised that many of the easier sections lower down the hill were closed due to forestry operations, I probably would not have attempted to do it. As it was, I found I had no choice, and so I did it. It was pretty hard work and my back is still a little tender today. But nonetheless, I did make it to Drumnadrochit by 4pm, after setting off at 9. 

The walk climbed up pretty high, leading to several viewpoints, one with a modern structure called the Viewcatcher (which I thought was in the wrong place), and a few others that allow a good view of Loch Ness below. The route down to Drumnadrochit was less inspiring, and when the town came into view I was disappounted when I realised it was still an hour's trudge along some farm roads to finally get to the river Coiltie, and then, another half hour back up some town roads for what felt like forever to get to the river Enrick and my accomodation. Drumnadrochit is quite big. 

So, I did walk 14 miles with a 12 kilo backpack on - despite telling myself that such a thing would be impossible and that I should have a 15k day limit. Oddly, my sciatica behaved will all day, and then returned today, after a 1 mile stroll in the woods near Loch Ness with no backpack on. That's something to talk about with my physio when I get home. 

Deer alert: I've been seeing quite a few, but I think they are all invasive Sika deer, not the proper Red Deer I would like to see. Still very nice to see, though. I have now also seen many red squirrels, and grouse, and got my first sight of a Golden Eagle today, although it was at such height I could get no clear picture. 

I'm at the end of my rest day here in Drumnadrochit, catching up on the past three days. It has been pouring with rain most of the evening so it's a good opportunity to do a bit of stuff inside. 

The walk to Invermoriston from Fort Augustus a few days ago was fairly short, so I decided to take a quick Lech Ness Cruise (50 minutes) before the walk day began, and my walking pal Patrick Davies joined me. The tour guide gave us some believable monster information - i.e. deep sea gigantism causes creature such as pike and eels to grow to unusual sizes at great depth, and these have been seen and caught - and some believable information - i.e. DNA analysis of Loch Ness waters have found a lot of DNA that does not match any known species - and some real twaddle - i.e. it's possible that plesiosaurs may have survived. But everyone around here will also admit that the monster myth os good for business, and so no one is really trying to debunk it nowadays. My own view is that there may be weird deep loch fish species down there is the pitch dark that almost never surface - but not the size of a plesiosaur. 

Then, we got going to Invermoriston, which is the nicest town I have seen so far in the whole trip. It has an excellent Telford Bridge (the engineer Thomas Telford is big up here), and a much less touristy vibe than other towns, like the one I am in now for example. 

The actual walk itself was decent, scenic, and not too tiring, being about half the distance of the walk I did the next day. I had an excellent meal of mussels and a cheese platter at the Glenmoriston Arms, which was a highlight of the trip meal-wise, bested only by my friend Anita's vegetarian extravaganza, back in Tring in July.

The next day was much harder. 

I'm tucked up safely in Fort Augustus at the bottom of Loch Ness. Today's walk was not too strenuous, so I have already have 4 hours to explore the town and eat. It's a much nicer tourist trap that Fort William - I nearly bought a tartan cap, but didn't in the end because it would be just another thing to carry. It's looking increasingly wet over the next four days and I don't want wet wool in my belongings. Such things may have to wait til the tail end of my trip. 

Most of today was spent on a path reclaimed from an old railway line along Loch Oichy and the Caledonian Canal. I ran into several other walkers who have all set out from Fort William at the same time as myself - Patrick the Welshman, Eve the British Girl, Jay and Joe from Australia, and Tim from Worcester. We cross paths on the path and then meet up in the pubs or guesthouses later in the evening. Most of us are going to end up doing the Big Day from Drumnadrochit to Inverness together, the final day, the 31 kilomedter section. I think I can make it. Tomorrow and the next day are not too strenuous by comparison. 

Time to upload some photos now. They'll give a better idea of the situation than my words, for the Great Glen is hard to explain - a canal beside a river that turns into a loch that turns back into a can and two rivers? Check the pictures. 

Oh, in other news - Great Glen lochs names are amusingly silly. The Great Glen Way starts at Fort William on Loch Linnhe (Loch of the Pool of Water), which was formerly called Lochaber (Loch of the Dark Pool). The River Lochy and Loch Lochy are both named after The Dark Reflective Black Goddess, whoever she may be. Loch Oich is next up the Great Glen fault and I can't even find out what that means. Last is Loch Ness, which means the Loch of the Great Water. Take me hence to Inverness, and the mouth of the Loch of the Great Water.

Today's distance was less than yesterday's, and also, the walk was more certain. Once my companion Patrick and I got the bus from our lodging to Gairlochy, it was a straight walk of about 11 miles along the canal / Loch Lochy / the canal again, to get to Lagan, where the Great Glen Hostel was ready to receive me and my new walking pal, and English girl called Eve. Meeting people oin this walk has been much easier than on the Ridgeway. 

I am now almost certain I can make Inverness on foot. Tomorrow's walk to Fort Augustus is only about 11 miles, which I know is doable because I just did it today. I've been relaxing since about 3pm, and I think I will be well rested enough to get that done quite easily. Then, I have an even shorter walk to get to Invermoriston the next night, and a pretty short day to Drumnadrochit after that. I have two nights in Drumnadrochit. The only question that now remains is whether I can walk 19 miles on the final day. I did about 19 miles yesterday, maybe a few less, but the approach to Inverness is hilly.  We shall see. 

It was wet today and my backpack coped OK, but I'll be needing to repack in plastic bags tonight because the weather looks rainy for much of the rest of the week, and the worst day will be the last, and the longest.

I took some OK pictures today, but the scenery was not as nice as yesterday for much of the walk, which was along a forestry road through the Braes of Lochaber. Pics to upload in due course. 

General observations: Long-distance walking suits me. This part of Scotland is very remote, moreso than I thought, and apparently the West Highland Way is actually easier than this walk, and more resourced. However, by the time I get to Fort Augustus tomorrow I wil be back in more civilised parts, and the Loch Ness section has more pubs and shops than the section I am in now. 

The hostel has a bar and restaurant, and I am having venison pie and porter. There's still over an hour to go before I eat at 6.30, when I eat. I can smell the food already. I'm hungry. 

Today was so great, I can barely believe it happened. 

Just as I felt at the start of the Ridgeway, I was uncertain that my 55-year old body could actually walk long-distance with a 12kg pack on. I also didn't know how I was going to get from the trail end-point at Gairlochy on the Caledonian Canal (not a proper town), to my accomodation 4 miles away past Spean Bridge (a proper town), and then, back to the canal again the next morning. 

It all turned out fine. I met an experienced long-distance walker, a 68-year old Welshman called Patrick, who has climbed Kilimanjaro and been to Everest Base Camp, so for him, a stroll up the Caledonian Canal was no big deal. It turned out he is staying at exactly the same place as me, so we shared much of the day and planned things together. The weather was perfect, the canal and river country extraordinary, and we made it to Gairlochy by about 2pm. Again, my physical complaints stopped bothering me after a few miles and I powered through. Along the way I also enjoyed: 

- The Neptune Loch Steps, an incredible piece of canal infrastructure designed to get sailing boats up a very steep hill, and, the Balnavie Swing Bridges in operation to let them through. 
- A red squirrel, my second of the trip
- Domestic goats pestering Patrick and I for food when we stopped for a beer.
- Several new bird species, yet to ID

Perhaps the most fun part came at the end, when we decided to walk to Spean Bridge rather than wait 2.5 hours in Gairloichy, in the hope of getting the school bus to take us to the town. Our walk went some way along a road, but then, we spotted a track along the Spean River, and walked through a forested area in which stands the remains of an old bridge where the first shots of the Jacobite Rebellion were fired in 1745. I had heard of the site, but did not know I would end up walking right past it. We made it to Spean Bridge with about five minutes to spare before the school bus caught up with us, and dropped us about half a mile from our farmhouse lodging. It is really quite remote around here. You miss your bus, and you might be in trouble. 

After we cleaned ourselves up, the farmhouse owner dropped us back in Spean Bridge, where I ate venison terrine and haggis, and we drank Ben Nevis whiskey, and talked walking, and politics. We could see Ben Nevis all day, from various angles, all of them in the sun. Then we shared a taxi back to the farmhouse. 

Total walk time 7.30am til about 5pm, estimated 18 miles. Crazy. Hurricane Erin will influence the weather from now, on so it may not be so sunny going forward to Inverness, but I am still happy. 

Sleep time now, will post pics tomorrow night. 

Yesterday was pretty simple. I left Arrochar on a bus to Fort William in the afternoon after a pretty leisurely start to the day, and then spent the rest of the day on Fort William high street looking for new boots and an antique walking stick. I didn't find new boots, but instead bought insoles for my trainers. I didn't find an antique walking stick. I found a cheap modern walking stick in a pound store, bought it, and then left it in behind in my hotel the next morning. 

I didn't like Fort William. Reasons for this include, but are not limited to: 

A - The only real street in the town is the High Street and it's about a mile long so you spend your whole time walking up and down it. There's an A-Road right next to it so it is really noisy. 
B - My Celtic romanticism leads me to like Gaelic place-names, and not names like 'Fort Imperial' or 'Coloniser Castle', which is basically what Fort William means. 
C - Every shop is called Ye Olde Hearte of Scotlande Whiskeye and Haggise Tartan Shortbreade Bagpipe Tweede Och Aye Souveneire and Gifte Bullshite Shoppe. Honestly I haven't seen this level of Celtic Twee in any place I have been so far. 

On the plus side, the scenery on the bus on the way up was mind-blowing. I went by Glen Etive, where one of my Blue Men stories is set, and by Glen Coe, and saw many famous mountains, and all the way, the view out the window was jaw-dropping. I only took photos on my phone. Maybe I will upload some later. 

I have now consolidated all my gear onto one pack, which will travel with me for the next 6 days as  I walk to inverness. I threw out some laundry in a roadside bin by Loch Lomond, in a town called Tarbert. The Bonny Bonny Banks turned out to be a handy place to throw away the dirty jeans I didn't have room for. 

I'm in Spean Bridge now. I had an epic walk today, I will blog about it soon.  

It's been amusing to read back over my original plan (a word document called the Big Trip) and then see what I actually did on the day. 

Today, for example, was written as Arrochar rest day. Therefore, a day of rest, you'd think. What I actually did was attempt to climb Ben Arthur, an 884-meter high peak near the town. It is more commonly called The Cobbler, as one of the three peaks is supposed to look like a cobbler bending over his 'last' (a bit of shoe-molding equipment). It turns out to be a famous training climb mountain, good for when you are going to do Ben Nevis and want some practice - and there were about 100 other people also climbing it today.

I was draw in in by the Arthurian association. The legendary king as not been connected with any place I have been so far, so it was nice to finally get near a reference to him. However, after hunting about on the internet, I found no actual Arthurian legends to back up the name. The original Gaelic name (Beinn Artairr) meant something like Bear-man Mountain, so maybe there were were-bears up there? 

I did not finish the climb. I got to about 700 meters, and then sense, and my sciatica, and impending bad weather, told me it was to finish before the summit - by which I mean, I missed the really steep bit. My last big climb left me sore for a few days, and besides, this was technically supposed to be a rest and recovery day. Total time walking today was about 8 hours, about 5 of it up the mountain.  

Great views all round here, especially the light on Loch Long, which leads up from the sea to Arrochar. I hope the photos do it justice. Off to Fort William tomorrow. 

Glasgow was pretty fun last night. I had thought of it as being a useful night's stopover en route to the Highlands, but in the end I went out until pretty late, drinking and dancing and being silly in a pub called the Park Bar, where a band from Inverness called Northward were playing. Several Scottish women saw me watching the band and asked me to dance, which I attempted to do. They all knew step dancing, with actual named dances, none of which I knew, but I tried my best, much to the amusement of the crowd. My cheap hotel, booked at random, turned out to be in an area called Finnieston, right near a large park, and, Glasgow University. The pubs were full of uni students and middle class locals, as well as a few tourists. I enjoyed the night out. It made a change from Ireland, where I did not see people dancing to the trad music, but instead sitting with respectful attention. Not so Glasgow, where the band played loud but pretty meaningless dance tunes and everyone swooned about giggling. Including me. 

Also, posting a few shots of birdlife and wildlife I have seen of late, on beaches, ferries, docks, and the like. 

I am in Arrochar now, a Highlands town in Argyll. I'll post about that in a bit in I don't fall asleep. I climbed most of a mountain today so I am a bit shagged.