Day 63 - Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit
The waif and stray was looked after again this morning with yet more food donations! Another dry but overcast day was in prospect. Back in the forest, the trail had a bit of a sting in the tail first thing in the morning as it was a relentless uphill for the first couple of miles : zigs and zags and steepness thrown in, however the treat was the fantastic views back down the loch towards Fort Augustus which were fabulous and the higher I climbed the more spectacular they were. I could even see the hills beyond the sides of the loch. This is just the moment I was waiting for to impress you all with my gaelic knowledge : Tha seo alainn (Ha sho aa-layne) which means 'this is beautiful' and never a truer word said. But what goes up, must come down (BJs will know this is my 'glass half full' attitude phrase!) and the trail descended gradually through lush green pine trees : a much softer, smaller and lighter green variety (sitka spruce) than the huge trees of the last couple of days (Scots pine).
The track got narrower and the trees changed to birch before I followed the route around the remains of a fort and out onto a lane dotted with the occasional house. The one farm that I passed was a bit run down and the poor cows had to share their field with abandoned tractors, rusty feeders and discarded plastic buckets. I can't understand why farmers allow their land to become such an eyesore and an accident waiting to happen for their own animals : to me it's just downright lazy. Anyway, enough of my ranting! The lane continued across a gorseclad moor dotted with my favourite cottongrass which only means one thing - bog! A mini disaster happened in that my map case decided to self-destruct (one of the strap fasteners had started to pull away from the case itself about a week ago but I'd hoped that it would last until the John O'Groats). I spent several minutes trying different ways of tying it but none worked without bashing my legs so I'll have to get a safety pin to try to fix it in Drumnadrochit.
I'd decided to take a slight detour to see the spectacular ruins of Urquhart Castle which stands right on the edge of craggy rocks jutting into the loch, so instead of following the lane in Drumnadrochit, side-tracked into the woods to follow a well-worn trail through the heath and down through the woods. It emerged overlooking the castle with superb views over the loch. In case you're interested, Loch Ness is the biggest stretch of inland water in Britain holding more H2O that all the other lakes put together. The Post Office Tower in London would be submerged at its' deepest point and apparantely the world's population could be fitted 3x into the area it covers! Pretty impressive stats huh!?
After stopping my GPS at my backpacker lodgings I walked into 'town' for a soup and coffee after which I learnt all my fascinating stat stuff in the Loch Ness Experience. By the way, there is still no proof that anything large exists in the loch but it's nice to have an unsolved mystery. Two nights ago they created a lazer image of 'Nessie' below Urquhart Castle to promote the new 'River Horse' film - the pictures were in the paper today and it looked really good.
Mike Best from Poole Runners sent me a text today : he's in the middle of walking The Cotswold Way and had just seen my entry in the Dyrham Wood comment book. It seem's so long ago and unbelievable that it was on this trip.
To round off a fab day I had dinner in the Loch Ness Inn which had only opened 3 weeks earlier and it was a fab place. I've certainly gained a lot of confidence during this trip as I once again asked the landlord if I could do a collection (I even had my response line ready if he said no ie would his answer have been the same if it had been Ian Botham asking the same question? I think not!!). Anyway, didn't have to use the back-up question as he was all in favour and also 'pre-warned' all the restaurant eaters.....fantastic donations totalling £119.20 - WOW!! In response to Clare's question, I've now received £1,615 in donations since leaving Lands End plus my justgiving site is now up to £2,800 as there's been several people that I've met on my journey who've directly donated. Plus I've got further sponsor promises that I've got to collect when I get back home that bring the total up to around £7,200 I think, which is phenominal. I really want to get at least £7,500 and more if I can so keep it coming!
Mileage today was only 11.19 and time 2.21