Thurs 8 May
distance and ascent: 30 km 900 m
weather: mainly sunny with some nice fluffy clouds dotted around
I wasn’t going to live Blog this year so as to conserve phone battery but I thought to have a little play tonight to see how the voice dictation works so below is a blog post that is not the quality that I would usually write, but I thought that having dictated it and edited it I may as well post it. Sorry, no photos. It’s just too painful to put photos up without an app that will do it.
It was a midgey and ticky start to the day. Of the two people who stayed at Portavadie last night, I was the second away. I dipped my feet in the sea at 0725 and then set out on the Cowal Way. I hadn’t gone very far before I misremembered what my next turn was and I didn’t realise until I got to the next junction so I continued along a track that should’ve got me back on track but that came to a private sign with some cottages. I initially ignored the sign, but when I found myself entering somebody’s front garden and it was clear I was going going to go through somebody’s back garden as well I wasn’t prepared to breach access rights by walking through so instead I found myself scrambling up a very steep bank with mini crags and lots of gorse and low trees, but it did get me back on track.
At Kames, 6k in, I stopped in the first tea shop (which was an iso container with a serving hatch and outdoor benches) because I knew that they opened at 8:30. I hadn't been able to find the other tea shop online, but that would’ve probably been a better choice because the one I went to didn’t have a toilet so I then had to take a detour to the public toilets - and, of course, as I passed the other tea room, it was already open.
There then ensued what felt like a lot of road and tarmac as I made my way through Tighnabruich to reach the path section along Loch Fyne.
That was absolutely glorious. The weather was superb. The views were superb. The path was a lot more technical than I expected it to be and therefore slow. I took some breaks and then I got to Shellfield farm. I’d been able to see for a while the hill that I was going to go up from there. My original intention had been to take my pack up and and come down a different way, but my route vetter suggested that it would be silly not to just drop my pack and go up unladen so that’s what I did - being a bit paranoid about somebody nicking off with my pack I walked a decent distance away from the road before I dropped it, carefully put a flag on my map and went off up my hill which turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, with lots of animal trods on the way.
I got to the submit (superb views!) to learn that Ali, one of the TGO Challenge coordinators, and Heidi, one of the participants this year, we’re on BBC radio Scotland right then, so I paused on the submit to listen to their interview and then headed back down. To my surprise there was now a field of cows in my way. the first few didn’t mind my passing by but the the ones lower down started a bit of a stampede and it was a minor worry that all the gates were open so they could’ve gone down to where my pack was, but all was well. my pack was where I left it and after a lunch break I went back to the road retrace my steps for a few hundred metres and then continued on the Cowal Way. The cowal way takes to the road for quite a distance there, although I was only following it to the next junction before bearing off. I was pleased to realise that the river below me looked rather fordable, so I dropped down a very steep bank, rolled up my trousers and plunged into the water to find that it was above my knees so the trousers got wet anyway. Being such a hot day today with with glorious blue skies, they dried out really quickly and the fording had saved me 2.5km of tarmac at the cost of wet feet and 0.5k of grass. My socks are currently hanging on the tent drying out for tomorrow.
It was almost all road from there but not without drama. I went up a short track to join a section of old road and there was a gated section where lived two overly-friendly, large pigs. I had to guide them with my walking poles to move them out of my way so I could climb over the gate and they then pursued me at some speed to halfway to the next gate before they realised it really was a hot day and running was not the best activity. The final tarmac of the day was all uphill on a single track road with passing places so some cars got a little bit too close for comfort at times, I stepped onto the verge but they didn’t give me any room. Eventually I reached the track that I wanted to take and I soon thought I could see a bench in the distance and sure enough exactly where I said I was going to pitch tonight there was a bench. Unfortunately there wasn’t a pitch. I scouted round a little bit further and I found myself something that’s not the worst place I’ve ever pitched a tent so it will do. There’s a little bit of a breeze here so the midges are being kept down, but when it drops there are a few around so let’s hope that the breeze just gently keeps up to keep those away.
I'm camped right below the hill that I’m going up first thing in the morning I’ve got I think three on the agenda tomorrow but I don’t know whether I’m going to be scuppered by the blowdown is in the forest. The Cowell way has been affected by storm damage, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I find that I can’t get through some of the fire breaks I want to use.
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