Best bits: making good speed along the road, beautiful views, arrival of my extensive support crew.
Worst bits: a few midges along the way.
Distance: 20.7 miles
I had a hard emotional evening yesterday as I was sorting through photographs of Angela for a video that we are making. It’s difficult to smile at the good times and all the memories we made together. There are so many photographs of Angela and I cuddled in together and it’s hard to think that that’s not ever going to happen again. It made me very sad.
It had been raining very heavily all night and was still pouring down when I woke up this morning. I was getting ready for a wet day and a wet start. However, just as I was about to set off it stopped raining and the sun came out.
The views across the sea were bright and crisp and Skye was clearly visible.
There are a few beautiful beaches around Gairloch.
As I passed Gairloch Harbour I was fascinated by the reflection of these sail boats in the now very still water, such a contrast to the white horses created by the strong winds.
I followed the babbling river Kerry for much of the morning. It was flowing quite quickly probably due to the amount of rain that we have had over the last few days. There wasn’t much to see as the road was lined with trees on either side. The river ended in a dam at Loch Bad an Sgalaig. This was about 6 miles into my walk and I stopped here for a cup of tea and a sandwich sitting on a rock in a lay by.
At times blasting through rock has been required to create a path for the road.
My afternoon was spent walking alongside Loch Maree which is quite an extensive freshwater loch.
However, there was still some assents and decents required.
The weather was kind to me and it stayed dry all day. Rhoda and Steve and Penny and Phil drove past me in their vans on the way to Gairloch to collect Priscilla.
Later Rhoda and Penny drove past me on the way to meet me for lunch. However, they overshot the rendezvous point and ended up a further 3 miles down the road. I told them I couldn’t walk that far before lunch as I had already walked 13 miles and so they had to turn round and come back to meet me at the appointed spot.
After a short lunch break, I was back on the road again. I left much of my gear with them so that I could travel lighter. They went on to where they had overshot previously to meet Phil and Steve and Sooty. I made good progress and was there pretty soon afterwards. I sat with them for a short while before making the final push on the last 5 miles to Kinlochewe.
Once in Kinlochewe I popped to the shop to buy a Magnum to celebrate. Steve collected me in Priscilla and took me back to the layby where we would be camping for the evening.
Steve had fixed my gas situation and had bought a replacement carbon monoxide monitor and installed it for me. He’s my Mr. Fixer. What a star.
Rhoda and Penny cooked up an evening meal of fajitas followed by chocolate sponge and custard which we ate outside amongst the midges. Then the rain started and we all jumped into Sooty’s van as his was the largest one.
This is an updated map of my progress to date. The gap at the top is the 50 miles I have missed when I had a week off due to the nasty virus. It’s now only 48 days to complete the circle and the finish!!!
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