Today marked two important milestones for us; firstly, at
some point shortly after leaving Alness, we had walked 111 Miles, which means
that we now have less than 1,000 Miles to go and secondly, having now reached Inverness,
we leave behind the A9 for good. I have
to admit that of all the days that we have planned, today was the one that I
really was not looking forward to. The
reason being that it is on the A9 all the way and having walked so far on it
already, I really just wanted to get it over with. Even the landlady in the B&B said “ooh
you’re not heading down the A9 are you?
All the cyclists and walkers say that its terrible!”, well we were,
because the only alternative was a 10 Mile detour on other A roads that looked
busy as well and had no verge. As it
turned out, the entire 21 Miles of the A9 between Alness and Inverness have a
wide grassy verge that had been closely mowed, which meant that it was actually
rather like walking down the fairway of a golf course, with a motorway running
next to you. The day’s walk therefore
passed by very easily and by the time we reached the seemingly enormous
Inverness, it was only 2pm and we had plenty of time to grab a pint in the
first pub we saw. Before entering the
“Phoenix from the Flames”, we removed the socks and underwear hanging to dry
from the back of our packs, but quite honestly I don’t think anyone would have
minded. Then it was time for something
to eat before checking straight into one of the plentiful B&Bs’.
After putting my feet up for a few minutes, I am pleased to
say that they are still in good condition and no sign of blisters. The Leukotape that I packed as a possible
repair measure has not been needed on my feet yet, but I have had to use some
on my hips and shoulders where the rucksack rubs. This has worked perfectly for my hips, but
one of my shoulders has developed a slightly painful blister. In order to reduce the weight of my backpack,
I have been removing surplus items almost daily. Today it was the turn of £25 worth of energy
gels to get binned. I have also thrown
away surplus clips, a pencil and Andy McCloys’s route book. We haven’t had to use a map once so far, so I
figured that the book is just surplus weight to contribute to my shoulder
pains. Tim’s feet are still painful, but
he is intent on continuing and giving them regular treatment. Hopefully they will get better and when he
gets home I think he should take his “guaranteed blister proof” 1000 Mile socks
back to the store for a big refund!
Statistics
Distance: 20.8 Miles
Moving Time: 6 Hours 22 Mins
Cumulative Distance: 125.94 Miles
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