I slept rather well in the tent, despite being on quite an angle. I slept so well in fact that I didn’t get up
until 6am, rather than the usual 5am that is required in order to pack
everything away and make an early start on the trail. Tim’s tent made it through the night somehow
without collapsing on him as it was precariously pitched and held up mainly by
the weight of his rucksack and a few twigs where the pegs wouldn’t stay
put. As we readied ourselves for the
off, clouds of midges descended from the surrounding forest getting into our
eyes, mouth nose etc. and being a real pain.
It was time to put to the test the Baby Oil/Detol homebrew (as advised
by Mark Moxon – End to End guru). In theory the mixture traps midges in the
Baby Oil, then they die in the Detol. I
can confirm that it does indeed do this and you end up with a Baby Oil/Detol/dead midge thin slime on your body.
However, it does not appear to do anything to prevent the clouds of
midges following you up and down the trail, so for me the jury is still out on
this particular concoction.
The route today was thankfully pretty easy going, following
the Great Glen Way (marked with blue posts and a thistle symbol) along the edge
of the Caledonian Canal, all the way to Fort William, taking in some amazing
lakeside views and equally impressive residences. The biggest problem was that there is not a
single shop along the entire 21 Miles between Clunes and Fort William where we
could get any food or water. This meant
that the small provisions that we collected at Fort Augustus had to last us for
the whole days walk. By the time we
reached Fort William, we were both right out of food, Tim had finished all his
water and I was on my last swig. With
hindsight, we could have filled up at one of the mountain springs that were
labelled as drinking water supply.
Instead, we just about made it and hit the first café we came to for a
“Belly Buster Breakfast”, which was true to its word and exactly what we needed.
Fort William sitting in the shadow of Ben Nevis is an
outdoor sports magnet, so after finding a B&B, we headed into town to visit
the outdoor shops. Tim bought a new pair
of boots that are a size bigger than his current pair because he thinks that he
is getting “trench foot”, despite the regular stops during the days to apply
copious amounts of foot powder and bandage.
He has found (similar to myself before in the week before we set off)
that his feet have expanded and are touching the end of the boot. To be safe, he’s going to carry the old ones
for a couple of days in case the new ones are even more painful.
Imagine having a view like this from your house!
Statistics
Distance: 20.6 Miles
Moving Time: 7 Hours 07 Mins
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