Tomdoun hotel to Fort Augustus
(18 miles)
I still felt pretty sore, and twisting, sudden movements and deep breaths were painful, but by now I'd taken a lot of Neurofen and Panadol Extra, and so it was manageable. Getting dressed was more painful than undressing had been the night before, shored up as I'd been at that stage by about half a bottle of gin and tonic... but I got it done - noting the remains of something in my left forearm, which could only really have been the head of a tick... - and went down to see what was on offer in the breakfast line.
Breakfast is not quite as impressive as dinner at the Tomdoun. When I said I didn't want the full breakfast, and asked instead for mushrooms and tomatoes with a potato cake, I didn't actually mean that I only wanted 1 carefully quartered small mushroom and the smaller half of a tomato! Still, I was so fazed by the sight of such a microscopic portion of breakfast struggling for visibility on an enormous plate that I didn't object, and I made a couple of slices of toast and had some cereal to go with it :)
I had a chat with Bob and Rose before setting off, and congratulated them on their wedding anniversary. They offered to walk with me to Fort Augustus, but I wasn't sure how the day might pan out and therefore I preferred to go on my own along the roads, so in the end they set off to walk via the forest paths on the south of Loch Garry.
I went back to my room to pack, and finally left at about 8.30am.
It was a damp, drizzly morning, and not long after I set off I saw Gerry from the pub at Inverie, and then Gavin and Graham. After that I settled down to the road, and on such a wet, miserable morning it felt like a bit of an endless plod.
The road down to the junction for the turning towards Invergarry is about 6 miles long, and it felt every yard of that. Unfortunately I was struggling with a cigarette relapse on the Challenge, which is bad enough, but I'd run out of cigarettes the night before, and that was even worse! I did have some tobacco and a packet of Rizzlas, just in case, but I can't really roll a ciggy without mechanical assistance even at the best of times. From time to time I sat down at the side of the road and tried to make something, but between my ineptitude and the constant drizzle the flimsy little papers kept disintegrating in my fingers, and I didn't get very far.
There were two moments of light relief, though, first of all when to my surprise but considerable admiration I saw a woman in running gear dashing towards me pushing a baby in a buggy, and then about an hour later when she ran back again in the other direction! I'd have liked to take a photo, but I wasn't sure whether she'd mind (and besides, she was moving so fast!). The junction did eventually arrive, though, and I sat down for a rest on a bollard and watched the traffic whizzing past.
I was hoping for succour in the form of a warm, dry place to rest, and maybe even something to eat and drink, in Invergarry, but I wasn't sure what I minght find. The map showed a hotel, though, so I was fairly sure I'd be able to go in and get a drink, and possibly some soup, on the off-chance that there turned out not to be a fantastic cream cake and coffee shop just sitting there waiting for me. Eventually Invergarry arrived...
...but the long anticipated pub turned out to be something of a disappointment, because when I got there the bar was closed for re-plumbing... Not to worry, though. They told me that there was a petrol station round the corner, so I pushed on there in the hope of a sandwich and the imminent expectation of a fag.
When I got to the petrol station I found Gavin and Graham sitting at a table in the drizzle, consuming cakes and biscuits. Apparently a large coach party had just been in and entirely cleared out the stock of sandwiches, pasties, pies and other such desirable, Challenger-friendly lunchtime delicacies. Cakes and biscuits sounded better to me than yet another helping of trail mix and pistachios, though, and so I put down my rucksack and went in. In fact, I was lucky and found a packet of fig rolls - yummy! - so I bought those, and a packet of ciggies, took them outside and sat down at the table to relax with nicotine and sugar. Lovely :-)
In my initial hurry I'd failed to notice that Graham and Gavin were washing down their biscuits with beer! It turned out that the garage also sold cans of various drinks, and so I made a further visit and invested in a welcome can of cider, just to keep me warm and raise morale :)
After a while Gavin and Graham set off, and a short cigarette later I got back into my pack and followed them. The plan now was to walk along the road to the point at which it crossed the Caledonian Canal, and then follow that up into Fort Augustus. I think that was a few miles further on, and by now I was getting tired. Still, my spirits were lifted by the sight of a wonderful dandelion clock and some beautiful algae at the side of the road, and so I stopped for a couple of photos.
Soon after walking down to the canal I passed Graham and Gavin sitting at another table in the rain, but I decided to press on to the next one rather than descend on them again. In the event that turned out to be a mistake, because there wasn't another one along the entire stretch into Fort Augustus :( It was difficult to get down to sit on the floor, so I just kept plodding on, on, on and on until eventually, to my enormous relief, I came to a little seat on the path just after Kytra Lock.
There I sat down for a cigarette, and got out my mobile to phone a friend for a bit of moral support. I stayed for about 20 minutes, but I've noticed in the past that walks don't get finished if the necessary steps aren't taken and so reluctantly I got back into my rucksack and ploughed on.
Eventually Fort Augustus hoved into sight, and a very welcome sight it was too :)
I'd never been there before, and it was much smaller and prettier than I'd somehow expected it to be. As I made my way down to the crossroads I noticed a chippy on the other side of the canal, and decided that was where I was going for supper that evening.
I'd been making plans for re-supply in Fort Augustus, and although it was 6pm by the time I got there I was lucky enough to find a shop still open, where I managed to buy a tube of Primula (a tip picked up earlier in the trip for easy and sustaining walking lunches), a packet of naan breads and a packet of oatcakes. I'd been hoping they might just have some tortilla wraps, but I was happy to make do with the things I found. I also re-stocked on Neurofen and Panadol, and bought another illicit packet of cigarettes...
After that I set off round the corner for the Caledonian Hotel, which had been specially recommended by Slowman on the Challenge message board. The hotel turned out to be everything he'd promised, and more, and I was greeted at reception by a friendly and welcoming young man who signed me in, offered to carry my pack upstairs and even carried up for me the gin and tonic that I'd been planning to drink in the bath there ever since I booked the hotel some months earlier... :) On the way up I told him I'd been fantasising about that gin and tonic all day, but he told me he didn't need to know about my fantasies. Lol! :) He made me feel better even before I'd sat down :)
When I got to the room it occurred to me that it might make more sense to go out and get something to eat before retiring to the bath for a soak, as that way I could go straight to bed if I didn't feel like doing anything afterwards, so I slugged back the G&T (medicinal), extracted my pennies from my pack and set off back to the chip shop. It was a truly lovely chippy, where they cooked my fish and chips freshly for me and provided me with a large tub of very yummy looking mushy peas. I bought a bottle of water to go with it all, and went outside to sit at a table in the rain (clearly it's habit forming) and eat them.
It was an emormous relief to actually be there, but it turned out that I wasn't actually as hungry as I'd expected to be, and I left quite a lot of the fish and chips. I finished the peas, though, and the whole thing was delicious. Highly recommended! While I was eating I texted Bob to let him know I was there safely, and we swapped a few messages. He and Rose were at a luxurious place not far from my own, and we made a tentative arrangement to meet up for a quick drink later when he and Rose went out for dinner.
I made my way back to the hotel then, and finally lowered myself gingerly into the long anticipated bath with a book. In no time at all the warmth of the water lulled me to sleep, and for a moment I was quite disorientated when I awoke some time later to the sound of my mobile ringing. It was Bob arranging to meet in about an hour's time, so I had a wash, got out of the bath and sat on the bed to watch the final of University Challenge. It was very nice :-)
In due course I pulled on a few clothes and popped round the corner to raise a glass in celebration of Bob and Rose's anniversary. They'd had a lovely meal at the Lock Inn - I'm definitely going there for dinner the time after next in Fort Augustus (as next time I'll be eating at the Caledonian Hotel) - and were clearly planning a night of well earned sybaritic self-indulgence back at their place. We made a provisional plan to meet up in the morning, as I'd had to cancel my Monadhliath plans and now we were all aiming for Kingussie via the Corrieyairick Pass.
I was virtually falling asleep at the table, and to be honest it was a bit of a relief when Rose noticed and proposed bed. We gathered our things together and set off into the dusky, drizzly evening to make our way back to our respective hotels.
I got back to mine to find Phyll and Lou eating soup and a roll at a table just inside the door. They'd had a long day, and were enjoying a rest with something to eat. Just at that moment a friend rang, and so I went to sit out on the step for a chat and a ciggy. I was too utterly knackered to speak for long, though, and shortly afterwards I made my way back in and up to my room, where it didn't take me long to get into bed and drop off.
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