Easter Lednathie to Edzell
(22.5 miles/554 metres ascent)
I'd set my watch for 5am, determined to be on the road by 6am, and I woke quite easily when it went off. Little Peewiglet was cold in his sleeping sock, though, and still tired from the day before, and he didn't want to get up when I first called him.
I got up about 10 minutes later, and went outside. It was already a beautiful morning, and I was sorry not to have been up at that time earlier in the trip. There was frost on the ground behind me, and also on the flysheet of the tent.
I was quite determined not to fritter my time away before leaving today. I knew this was going to be a really tough day, but I was determined to get to Edzell in time to look for Jean and other Challengers and enjoy a relaxing evening eating fish and chips, rather than a prolonged and agonised route-march over the last 5 miles. I therefore didn't bother with breakfast or a flask, and simply packed my things away at least twice as quickly as I normally manage to do it.
It was just a couple of minutes after 6am when I climbed back over the little fence, and set off along the road. The sun was already warm and bright, and it was an absolute joy to be about at that time of the day.
The birds were up early, and I was quite facinated to watch them making their way across the sky, some of them in groups and others alone, in a most purposeful fashion. It seemed clear that they all knew exactly where they were going, and I wondered why they hadn't simply slept there the night before.
In the light of that I was particularly sorry to see the remains of a bird which seemed to have been hung on a fence by a local farmer, perhaps on the pretext of trying to scare the others away.
A group of curious little cattle followed me down the hill. They may have thought I was going to feed them, cute little things...
...and a little while afterwards I came across a bull with a ring through the end of its nose.
Before too long Cortachy Castle came into view amongst the trees to my right. I rejoined the road just after the castle, and at last I was back on the route that I'd intended to take before my plan had changed a little earlier that morning.
By now I was on my way towards Memus, which would be more than a quarter of the way to Edzell. I was making great progress, and I wondered whether there was any chance at all of finding a coffee shop or similar there. A pub was marked on the map, but it dind't seem likely that they would be open not long after 9 in the morning.
In due course I arrived in Memus, and was greeted by some frantic barking from a resident dog. The dog was so enthusiastic and fearsome sounding that its owner actually came out to apologise, which was unnecessary but very courteous and friendly :-)
I soon arrived at the Drovers Inn, but it was only 9.30am, and so I wasn't really surprised to find it closed. The garden seemed to be open, though, and so I sat down at the table to rest my feet. A couple of minutes later the door opened, and someone popped out to ask whether I was ok. I explained that I'd simply been hoping to find them open for coffee, and they said they could do that, no problem. Brilliant! So, 5 minutes later a lovely coffee with a home made rum truffle - truly delicious - arrived, and I was in luxury.
I took off my shoes and socks as I sat at the table, and massaged my feet. They weren't hurting yet, but I had no doubt that they'd start complaining a little later in the day. After that I gathered my things together, and 30 minutes after stopping I was on my way again.
The navigational gremlin from the day before turned out still to be lurking around, because on leaving the pub I went straight along the wrong road for a kilometer, and only realised my mistake when I got to a junction and had to consult the map to see which way to go. So, that was an unnecessary 2km added to the day. I was annoyed with myself, as I really couldn't afford that sort of stupid mistake today, and determined not to do it again...
It really was another absolutely glorious day, and the bright sun brought out the best of all the colours around me.
There were fresh daffodils up in the hills, as well as lovely bluebells lower down.
Flowers 
I pressed on and on as quickly as I could, and much earlier that I'd expected I was able to turn my little laminated map over, already more than half way through the day's walk.
I passed an interesting sign on the side of a house, and stopped to take a piccy.
I was probabaly about 4 miles from Edzel before I began to feel very tired, but it was still only early afternoon and I was determined not to waste the great progress I'd made. I'd had to sit down for little mini-stops from time to time, but basically I'd just kept pressing on hard, knowing that tomorrow - the last day! - was going to be much shorter and easier, so that once I'd managed to get this day's walk behind me it would be fun and frolics all the way to the end :-)
When I began to feel really tired I decided the time had come to fall back on the minidisc player to keep me going, and so I chose a disc full of energetic stuff that I could sing along with, turned it up very loud and basically sang my way to the end of the route. I waved at all the passing traffic, and most drivers smiled and waved back. A delivery van passed me several times on its way to and fro, and each time he passed the driver gave me a broad smile and a wave from his window, which really cheered me on :-) Eventually I began to pass a little golf course to the right hand side of the road, and I knew I was almost there. Just after 4pm I drew up outside my B&B, knocked on the door and was finished!
At the Kelvingrove B&B I was given a warm and friendly welcome, and I could hardly believe the luxury of my room and private bathroom! My bedroom contained a large double bed, and also a TV, DVD and video player! There was a library of DVDs and videos in a guest sitting room, and I began to make immediate plans for an evening of total luxury watching DVDs in bed, after I'd been able to track down the other Challengers for dinner. Wow! :-) In addition to that I had exclusive access to one of the most relaxing looking baths I've ever seen, and I decided that in order for my soak to be complete I'd nip out to the shops and see if I could find a small bottle of gin and some tonic, as I've found that there's nothing more relaxing after a long, long walk than a long soak in the bath with G&T and a good book :-)
It turned out that there were two other Challengers staying at the Kelvingrove, but they'd arrived earlier than me and gone out for a walk (um... a walk?!). I hoped I might meet them later on, but in the meantime I set off for the shops and in search of Jean.
I'd not been able to remember the name of Jean's B&B, but I thought it might have 'Glen' in the title. The helpful proprietors at my B&B had rung the Glenesk hotel for me, to see whether Jean was staying there, but she wasn't, and they couldn't think of a B&B with Glen in the name. Nonetheless, I felt sure that Challengers would be foregathering for drinks at some pub or other, and so I decided to pop into the Glenesk to see if I could find word of Jean there.
As soon as I got to the main road it became clear that Edzell was filling up with scruffy looking Challengers carrying unfeasibly large rucksacks and nipping in and out of local shops in search of various treats. As well as G&T, I'd rather hoped to find a shop selling underwear, but my attempts to track one down were unsuccessful, and so I returned to the G&T trail instead. I couldn't find anywhere selling those convenient little tins of ready-mixed G&T - I wouldn't normally drink them, but they'd have been ideal for my bathtime plans this evening - and so in the end I bought a small bottle of gin and a large bottle of tonic, and carried them down to the Glenesk Hotel.
When I went in I found only two blokes sitting at the bar. I thought they were locals, and asked whether this was the equivalent of the local pub. They told me that it was so I sat down and ordered a double G&T. The blokes and I began to chat, and it soon turned out that these were the two Challengers staying at the Kelvingrove with me, David and Andy! They told me there was another hotel - the Panmure Arms - at the other end of the main road, and that most Challengers they'd spoken to seemed to be planning to go there for dinner. I decided to stay for a drink and a chat, and to make my way along to the Panmure Arms for dinner later, once I'd had my bath.
Once I started to talk it was as though I just couldn't stop! It was more or less a week since I'd had the chance to talk properly to anyone else, but it seemed that I was on well on course to make up lost time... About 30 minutes later we shared another round of drinks, and I talked on and on... David and Andy looked slightly bemused, I thought, but they were very patient with the relentless stream of chatter!
By that time it was probably about 5.30pm or so, and soon afterwards I thought I'd better get back to the B&B for my bath and then over to the Panmure Arms for dinner, before I drank anything else! David and Andy were also going back to the Kelvingrove before eating, and so the three of us walked back there together and finally I retired to the bathroom with my book and turned on the lovely bath.
I'd spent so much time chatting in the Glenesk that I wasn't able to spend as long as I'd originally intended soaking in the bath, and I didn't really want the G&T any more in view of the 4 I'd already drunk, so I just soaked happily for about 10 minutes and then got out, dried off (with a real towel!) and got dressed again in my clean trousers and the less grubby of my two baselayers. I heard Andy and David making preparations to leave, and so I asked them to hang on for a few minutes and then all three of us made our way to the Panmure together.
The bar at the Panmure was very busy with Challengers when we went in, and it was facinating to look round the room at all the sunburned faces who'd obviously been trekking across Scotland at the same time as me over the preceding two weeks! As I was standing waiting for my next G&T a familiar looking bloke approached to say hello. I'm absolutely dreadful at names, and I couldn't remember where I'd seen him, but it turned out to be Malcolm, one of the 4 Challengers I'd met at the Alltbeithe YH on the first night of the trip! He told me that the others were also there, and that Jean would be along later. The other 3 blokes soon arrived, and it was really lovely to chat with them again about what they'd been up to since we last met. Barbara also arrived, and I realised that I'd actually met her on the journey up to Scotland, on the platform at Wigan Station almost a fortnight earlier!
A little later we all began to think about getting something to eat, and after some to-ing and fro-ing it became possible to join a few tables together so that we could all sit together. We all sat down, and Lawrence asked whether anyone would like to drink wine. That sounded like a good plan to me, so I joined in. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember what I had for dinner, but I do remember that it was very nice indeed. Jean arrived a little way into the meal, and it was great to see her again. She said she'd texted me earlier in the evening, but I'd not received the messages. I dug out the phone now, though, and there was the little envelope symbol. I must learn to check my mobile...
Much as I'd enjoyed the solitude from time to time over the previous fortnight, meeting up with a bunch of Challengers like this on the penultimate evening just brought the whole Challenge back to life for me. I had the best evening that I'd had for ages, and eventually made my way happily back to the Kelvingrove when the hotel closed for the night and threw us out.
On arrival back at my room I was unwilling to forego the opportunity to watch a DVD in bed - a treat I don't even get at home! - and so I chose an exciting Hornblower story and settled down to watch. I think I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly, though, and at some stage in the middle of the night I woke up lying on top of the duvet, with the television still on in the corner. I switched it off, tucked myself up under the duvet and went back to sleep.
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