The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Thursday 13 October 2011

East to West Photos: Day 40

Friday 6 May (0810-1715; 1835-1915) (Kinlochleven to Glen Gour)
Distance: 16.5 (Tot: 704 miles)
Weather: Dry! Sunny intervals

The rain that had (apparently) persisted throughout the night magically let up as we crawled out of the tent in the morning and although the sky was still heavy, it didn’t leak on us. Having gained a bit of height, a good view was to be had down to Glen Coe…

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…and up Loch Leven. Once again, my snaps completely fail to do it justice. It was absolutely stunning.

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Then we left all trace of trodden paths and were intending to head down through the forest you can see in the photo below to the bottom of the valley. It was during this yomp that we met a chap called Mick, wearing running vest and tights, who had just come up through the forest and was out for a round of four Marilyns. Of all the places to meet another person, this pathless hillside wasn’t where I would have expected.

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The walk through the forest was ‘interesting’ and a little bit too steep in places.

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Thankfully a great swathe had been felled, so we didn’t have to battle through branches (which is always the vision Mick gets when he notices that I’ve plotted a route through a conifer plantation; he’s still scarred from the experience on Day 62 of LEJOG)

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We came out exactly where we wanted to, next to this remote house (with not even a track for access)

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I’d thought we would have to wade the river, but Mick (no, not my Mick, the Mick we’d met on the hillside) told us there was a bridge, and so there was. Two, in fact. We opted to use the new one.

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A stroll through the forest brought us down to Loch Linnhe, although first we had to cross the A82 where someone had parked in an less-than-conventional manner:

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Considering that I’m on a ferry, I look reasonably relaxed about the experience:

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Perhaps it was the view that distracted me from the mode of transport. Talking of views, here’s what it looked like looking up Loch Linnhe as we made our way to Glen Gour.

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The bottom of Glen Gour used to be dammed, but the dam is now in disrepair:

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Which meant that the old boat house looked a bit out of place as we passed along the track on the water-ward side of it:

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This was the day of ants, ticks and three different pitches for the tent. I’m not sure whether this was the first or the second pitch, but it’s certainly not where we spent the night:

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This is where we spent the night:

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No ants, no ticks, just a rotting dead deer in the stream, just in front of that tree…

If you fancy reading my original thoughts on this day, you’ll find them here.

1 comment:

  1. I feel like i want to pack up my bags and go walking, no where in particular to go, just keep walking till i cant no more.

    I love reading your journal. Thank you

    ReplyDelete