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]

Wednesday 15 May 2019

TGO Challenge Day 4 - NE of Loch Aslaich to Ault-na-Goire

Monday 13 May (0820-1100, 1500-1535, 1625-1710 ish)
Distance: 11 miles
Weather: early high level cloud clearing to sunshine.

Last night's pitch was surprisingly comfortable. Or we were very tired. Or a bit of both. But although it didn't look good, we've certainly had less comfortable camps.

Unfortunately, somewhere in amongst the good night's sleep I developed a migraine and thus spent the morning feeling rather poorly. I'm sure the surroundings through which we passed (at least until the motorway of a track that has been newly laid through the forest) were lovely, but after about half an hour of having an intercranial pity-fest, I decided that distraction was required. Apologising to Mick that he wasn't going to have any conversation this morning, I plugged myself into an audio book and walked most of the rest of the way to Drumnadrochit staring at my feet rather than looking at the landscape through which we were passing.

We were in Drum at 11am, and after a quick shopping trip to the Co-op, we set about killing several hours drinking tea and eating. The former was done on a comfy sofa in a cafe, the latter at the cafe/bar next door alongside several other Challengers. By the time we set out to walk to Temple Pier for the boat over to Inverfarigaig I was feeling considerably more well.

There was uncertainty, based on various correspondence with Gordon the ferryman, as to which ferry we were booked on, so we optimistically arrived in time for the 4pm one. That was a good move as our names were down for it. We thus arrived at Ault-na-Goire nice and early. 


At Ault-na-Goire is the Sutherland family's house, where for many years they have invited TGO Challengers to camp in their field (free) and offering home-cooked three-course evening meals (for a reasonable price). It's years since I was last here, but the welcome was just as fabulous, with tea and cake on arrival. Janet even managed to squeeze Mick in for dinner at the last minute when we realised that our recollection of what was in the resupply parcel we had sent here was wrong and we were dinnerless tonight*.


(*the spare dinners I thought we had sent here I now realise went in the Mar Lodge parcel. However, I'd bought bread in Drum because I couldn't remember whether I'd put oatcakes in this parcel. Turned out I had, so as I'd already had a cooked lunch I opted for banana sandwiches for my tea, saving us from having to either carry extra stuff or throw away perfectly good food. This is the only place where our parcel occurs after the shopping opportunity - a situation that wouldn't have been a problem if we'd brought with us a copy (either electronic or hard) of the food plan spreadsheet.))

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