Raising money for UNICEF

We set off late after a big breakfast. For the first time we were wandering out into the rain. This was to be the flattest leg of the journey, so we made good time and travelled quicker than expected.

We found a quiet, sheltered spot right next to Loch Oich where we chose to camp. Heley is looking forward to seeing the sun rise over it, but she may be in for a long wait. The loch is to the west of us. That said, she forgot which was her left and which was her right earlier. It has been a long journey.

We are well ahead of schedule again though, only three or four miles away from where we planned to camp tomorrow night.

It’s been an uneventful day, although it has been nice to be moving forward again. It seemed like we were there for much longer than we actually were.

We’ll be doing an injury check after food. I’d be surprised if we didn’t make it to Inverness though.

For such a small girl, Heley can eat a lot. We spent an hour over breakfast this morning. Heley spent it eating. The rest of the day followed suit. 10pm here and she’s now fast asleep in the B&B hoping her stomach doesn’t explode during the night.

There was only one choice available today, to rest and recover as best as possible. We decided to stay in the same B&B again tonight and then set off back into the wilds tomorrow.

We had hoped to climb Ben Nevis on this trip, but, like Glencoe, it has to make way for a more sensible option. It’s disappointing to miss two of the short-distance and beautiful sections of our trip. Especially as much of the distance has been replaced by walking along roads to and from doctors’ surgeries and hospitals.

Such is life though, and we’ve been lucky enough to have already seen so many fantastic views. Glencoe and Ben Nevis will always be there for us to visit. There is no need for us to risk the trip just to be able to say we’ve been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. It’d be nice to think that we’ll come back again to enjoy the hills that we have missed, and we’ve found runners can get up Ben Nevis in under 2 hours, so that might be worth a try next year!

Instead of walking on a sunny day, we rested up today. Actually, we rested, shopped and ate. Our hosts at the B&B lent Heley some slippers, so she didn’t have to walk barefoot while shopping for sandals.

She ended up getting some “shandals”. Shandals are, apparently, a cross between shoes and sandals; they just look like sandals to me. After several iterations we’ve come up with a bodged strap which doesn’t rub against her blister. Hopefully it’ll speed her recovery and allow her to continue on the walk (or at least be able to put a propped pair of footwear back on).

We spent most of the rest of the day shopping for blister supplies and food. I lost track of what we ate over the course of the day, but our evening meal included pizza, chips, deep fried mars bar, ice cream and finally tea and cake. If I had been losing weight while walking I’ve surely gained it back after today.

We are back at the B&B now. Tomorrow we set off on the second leg of the journey. We’ve done Glasgow to Fort William, next up is Inverness. From there the hope is to head to Kingussie and on to Aberdeen.

For now though, it is one step at a time, we’ve walked over 100 miles, and are still on track to complete the walk.

As someone wiser than myself once said:

“… to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”

We awoke early to a tent full of midges. This was not ideal. Needless to say we were packed and off quickly. We expected the day to be slow going, given the state of Heley’s foot, but we still managed to pass four people.

Heley’s magic watch can tell us our speed, so out of curiosity we checked it towards the end of the day. After a short day of only 16 miles we appear to be averaging around 3 mph hobbling.

We took the walk fairly easy. It certainly never looked like being the hardest day, but it was the wettest. Not from rain as such, but I can say that it is strange to be walking through a cloud.

Heley has been banned from running, but even so, 16 miles seemed short. We arrived in Fort William not knowing if we would be able to continue, but at least knowing we would safely be in the luxury of Gowan Brae B&B.

We had aimed to get to the B&B for 6pm. We arrived in Fort William at 2pm, so we hung around for a while and watched the world, and the walkers, go by.

Our B&B was wonderful. A bed had been sorely missed. Due to our need for a laundrette our hosts offered to wash some of our clothes for us. I cannot describe how happy we were to have some clean clothes and to no longer be able to smell ourselves. We probably still stink, just not badly enough to bother ourselves. You really know you smell when you are wandering along wondering “what’s that godawful stench?” then you realise it’s you.

A quick trip from the B&B to the local A&E to get Heley’s foot checked again left us a little less confident about getting to Aberdeen. Inverness is the next target though. It should take us four and a half days along the Great Glen Way.

Heley’s foot isn’t infected, but it is going to require careful management to allow her to continue the walk.

Tomorrow it’ll be a case of resting up and buying sandals. We’ll then make a decision what to do next, but it looks like we may have some hard choices to make.

First of all, thank you to Louise, who helped us with lists of doctors’ surgeries and hospitals within walking distance.

Thank you also to the lady at reception of Red Squirrel Campsite in Glencoe. She kindly gave us a lift to the local GP. It was strange being in a vehicle, and under the circumstances cannot be considered cheating, not least because she was taking us in the opposite direction to the one we were meant to be walking in.

Along the journey she commented on the uses of oatmeal inside shoes to prevent blisters. Apparently oatmeal is very soft underfoot. Of course, in Heley’s case, she concluded that damp feet would only leave her with a severe case of Porridge Foot. A thought that continues to cheer us up even now.

Regarding Heley’s inability to sleep while inside a sleeping bag, she advised us to consider sleeping bags as cosy not confining. We were also told to remember to make sure our arms were easy to move and that we could make a hasty exit from our sleeping bags… just in case we awoke to find a fox licking our face. Camping was clearly a very different affair when she was a young lassie.

We got to the doctor, who looked at us incredulously when Heley said she was there for a blister. He seemed strangely impressed when he saw the gaping open wound that Heley had been quietly carrying around Glencoe the previous day.

This is Heley's definition of a blister.

The advice is to rest up and let it heal, but that’s not really feasible until Fort William, so instead the nurse patched us up. She was clearly experienced at dealing with the walking wounded. They probably have a lot of broken walkers appearing over in Ballachulish.

The nurse was lovely, and even gave us a few supplies for re-dressing the wound. She commented on Heley’s bravery as she cleaned the wound; others have commented on how mad she is. She ingeniously used what was meant to be wound dressing to create a buffer zone between Heley’s “blister” and her shoe. Only time will tell if it works.

All patched up, we picked up some fudge (from a shop not the doctors’ surgery!) to give to the campsite lady, and off we trudged. As we approached the campsite the lady drove past and said hello, asking how it went and what the outcome was. We gave her the fudge and in return she recommended that we take the day slowly and enjoy the views. Well, at least we enjoyed the views.

We never got to go up and around the hills in Glencoe. We’re just relieved to be moving though. We turned today from a 16-mile day with plenty of scenery and climbing hills to 20 miles of stumbling around Scotland and hobbling the hills.

Other than road, we really only had the Devil’s staircase to content with. Given our wandering around Glencose the previous day, and the madness we went through in Wales, we made short work of the climb. We overtook the only two walkers we saw on the hillside, and, despite her injuries, Heley still made it to the top before me.

Onwards we limped to Kinlochleven. Given the circumstances we chose another campsite.  Hopefully I can be forgiven for writing yet another blog post from a bar. Still, it’s another 14 miles to Fort William, and from there we’ll see how it goes.

One day at a time.