Scotnatrail 24-27. Kinguissie to Fort Augustus (& Fort William). High hills, heat and hostel time

Day 24. Beyond Kingussie to Sprey reservoir. Very Hot.

Nice quiet night, sun warming my tent in the morning and porridge - I may eat it cold but it’s still a treat. A farmer drives by to investigate my tent.

Set off 8:30. It’s going to be Wonderful but it’s going to be hot. But for now the sun is the perfect warmth for a cold night md clouds still lie in the valleys. Geese flying over to the Loch. Red grouse fly from the heather. Little birds. By 9 it’s getting hot and my bag feels excessively heavy. I rest in a cute constructed bench/shelter made of a curved drystone wall, absorbing the sun and checking messages.

I am walking the ‘wildcat trail’. I wonder if any wildcats were about last night?

Walking on. Tarmaced road the sun feels uncomfortably hot. A dog Walker tells me of the ‘best, Best, wild camping spot in the world’

A sign talks of the work being done in Glen Banchor to mitigate the impact of climate change here.

The ruin of a cottage hints at the lost township here.

I take a long elevenses break, feeling like it aught to be lunchtime. Wash my socks in the river and sit with my feet cooling in the water while I eat pretzels. Fill up water too.

Walking up into beautiful Glenn Banchor it is so maddeningly hot. And I go at snail pace.

Heat shimmers over the moor. How can it go from those wet sun less days to this - I suppose this is why you have to love Britain

I cross the river early to save two extra crossings.

I make my way - slowly, my body really struggling in this heat to Dalnashallag bothy for my lunch - ThiS is much more what I expected of a bothy: tiny hut, stove and two sofas, but people have left food which is so lovely and I record my stay in the little book. Here I make up my pad Thai noodles - it’s tonight’s ‘dinner’ but I thought would be a bit tough with midges and all so having it for lunch. Might not have prawns or bean sproutsto add but pretty fancy meal for clearance sale. I am so thankful for the cool shade. Again it’s a long stop. Too long really but so nice to spend time in the calm. And I haven’t actually done as bad as I thought - pretty much half way.

Feeling refreshed and back on a track I March on across this stunning expense of the glen under the baking sun.

The stones on the track glitter brightly as the sun shines off crystal jewels - faces of plagioclase, a lot of mica, and pyrite perhaps- something gold with flat faces . My compass has a great hand lens for this sort of thing. Geology is fun because it’s like carrying round a little puzzle book- you’ve got a fun mystery to solve wherever you go

Scotnatrail (not me this time) decides it’s sensible to trail blaze across a km of moor. But by very good luck I manage to cross the path someone - or something - else has made before making life easier.

A cool dark stream over rocks. I want to bathe but must on.

I am on the East Highland Way here.

I finally descend to the road, then speed walk. Determined to get to a cafe recommended In The bothy logbook before it closes. It’s 4

I get they’re at exactly 4:22. The ‘coffee bothy is lovely as I expected - great carrot cake and Kara the increadible parrot ‘what are you doing’ it says ‘can I have a kiss’. She has her own gin brand

And I learn Halifax man was here two days before! I’m amazed he’s not further ahead

I leave 5, I’m pretty early on my schedule in no particular rush if I want to stay at the bothy tommorrow night, as I can’t really get ahead for the next day. The walk is easy on a tarmaced road. A I’ve no dinner to be cooked and they’ll be loads of camp spots. So I walk slowly, checking my phone, calling mum, and absorbing the warmth of the afternoon sun. Butterflies and bees flit In The flowers beside the road. Going to myself; do I put my headphones on or not - I’m proud I have not once these last few days - the experience is so much more intense that way but it is hot and thoughts unwelcome creep into my head. I decide to allow it, this is road walking and lowland scenery even if the weather is fantastic. I laugh! If THIS is not that good scenery, how lucky am I for the things I’ve seen!

I climb over the dam and reach the Spey reservoir, shining as blindingly as the sun. Campervanmed fisherman park on the lake side watching the sunset I manage to set up my tent on the top of a big striated rock at the end of the reservoir- high enough for the breeze to keep away midges. I go to wash in the steam but sadly have to decide against it as the waters at this end of the reservoir are too marshy. The sweaty day has made me stink and I long for a clear cool hill stream. Copious wet wipes will have to do

Then dinner - that is today’s lunch. Pita gauacamole peparami and cheese string.

And I can inform you that coop Mexican style guacamole is not very pleasant to try and eat 100g of, so you don’t have to (the salsa on the other hand was really good)

Going back through photos to make some space on my phone I’m suddenly like oh shooot, this is a long trip. The photo of me sitting up on the Maidens grave feels unbelievably long ago.

Day 25 Spey reservoir to before Fort Augustus as on the Corrieyraiack pass

The morning wakes grey - teach me to moan about glorious sun. There is thick low cloud- almost fog all about. My tent disguises well into the mist.

Our experience of what is ‘reality’ of the world is just a model, built on a best guess inferred from the datasets of our sensory inputs and memory. So when I say reality shifts out here I do not mean it completely metaphorically. In dazed tiredness and long days you touch on different sorts of perception, different ways to construct that model, different kinds of ‘real’. Time is different here, sounds too, and memory building.

We are all scientists; adjusting our models fraction by fraction to best fit the growing dataset. And so it is worthwhile mixing up the experiment, changing how you collect that data, looking from a different view. Obviously the change that can be made are only limited; our instruments of the senses remain the same , changing only with the shifts of generations, though we add aid of devices, whether a simple pair of glasses, or the LIGO gravitational waves observatories. There is so much more out there that we can never access, lights and sounds we have not the ability to comprehend. But yet change is still worthwhile, for you learn so much about the limits of our perception of reality, and returning, see with Broader thoughts. It is worth seeing from another view- upside down like Nan Shepard with head between legs, or walking so long that time becomes a tangled thread, thick here, thin and stretched there.

My period has started. That is good because it means I am healthy- I have not been pushing my body too hard that it can’t cope, like I have before, but bad because I have not sufficient supplies and also … period.

It is strange walking into the mist. But I like it. It is not damp or cold and the midges are no problem once I leave camp. Just sheep and dog calls from muffled distance and the clear road raised on an embankment, disappearing into white, pale green fields either side. An old bridge appears from the mist, without any river under it. Perhaps this was the path of the river before diversion for the reservoir. The river disappears straight into the sky, and the sun reflects in it as a perfect circle of grey. This is a very surreal experience; the muffled sounds, yet the fair temperature, the strange light, the disappearing road.

The grass is full of spider silk.

By quarter to ten the mist had nearly burnt off, with the remainder producing a strange scene of faint blue above, white between, shrouding the pylon tops, then bright green hill below. The power lines follow the pass, removing the sense of remotness, but I have learnt to find pylons increadibly fascinating - beautiful - structures, in their sturdy sure symmetry. A symbol of the twentieth century and completely of contrast to the spider web dappled world they cross. And a reminder, that though the land may appear beautiful and wild, nothing here is unaltered by human impact.

By ten it is hot.

I rech Garva Bridge. The route is back on General Wade’s military road- I feel a memory tug on the connection to his military road by Hadrian’s wall. The rocks in the river are bedded with steep dip.

By 11 it is incredibly hot.

But even shade is not a blessing because it brings attack by flies. The hills are epic craggy boulders and before me I can see the pass -the pylons- climbing and climbing high into the distance

My body struggles with the double whammy of heat and period.

I have a quick wash in the river, planning a second longer wash at lunch.

With wet wipes I always feel sticky after , but cold water; you feel so Clean

Above in the hot air, three birds of prey - kestrel? Eagle? I know not which. The brightness of the sky is increadible. as always I am so thankful for my broad hat - when it rains I praise it for sheltering me, when it’s hot for the shade.

Pass some friendly bike packers (that really does seem the thing out here), and see a good example of onion skin weathering to reach the bothy at Melgave but it’s ‘closed until further notice’ for COVID. Ahh

I walk on to Alt a’Mhuill Ghairbh where I collect water then take the most wonderful wash - bathing in a little pool of rock formed as the river rushes past. I then sit drying and eat lunch, evaporating in the warm sun with the bridge for shelter.

My skin is so clean and wonderful … but I can’t sit forget. suncream is necessary , and soon I will be sweaty again but for this short time the warmth of the sun, is a wonderful treat on my skin, cooled by a gentle breeze.

I’m there for over an hour. But the beautiful freedom of this is there is no constraint. if I decide to take lots of swimming breaks and arrive at camp late in a warm evening. No one here to say be on Your way. And swimming breaks are worth it.

I feel jolly again as I head on up into the Corrie Yairack that names the pass , carved into a perfect amphitheatre by ancient ice. Except, things are big here, and it takes a VERY long time to reach the huge Corrie that dwarfs the pylons.

In the distance a view of the hairpin ascent up the corrie’s side comes into sight- a long way still bit up there is the top of the pass.

Finally I reach them and up and up they climb. I count the turns as I go. After hairpin turn number six I take a breather- no use pushing my body in this heat and condition. 11. Eleven hair pin turns. Then the steep track continues to curl up the slope. I continue counting. 14th 15th sixteen bends. Then climbing with slowly decreasing gradient. Two cyclists come by, returning. They said they didn’t manage the climb - id love to see if someone could.

Then I reach it. The hut at the top of Corrieyairack Pass. Wooo hooo!

It’s a great one: all up then sudden view of the other side spread out below. Exactly 4pm. 780m high. Distant grey mountains . Wind farms. I rest a good while on a concrete step. The rock is interesting - fine lineations.

Then on a little to the highest point. As I reach it an incredible view of shadowed pointy hills opens up, including Ben Tee, and the snaking waters of the Great Glen.

I start to seriously struggle on the descent. I think it’s heart burn I stop to get out my first aid kit which is stupidly over the top yet somehow can’t find a rennie in there/ I’m almost certain I remember seeing one in my bedroom when I packed. Oh and the midges find me despite the heat. . I take a paracetamol but feel awful, what with the bouncing down hill. Period diarrhoea’s and indigestion- sound Like my bodies sending a message to give it a rest.

Finally descend to a Wade bridge (with stalactites underneath). I’m now on the map with the bothy in. Waves of pain. I take another quick stream dip at the alt Lagan a bhairne. This would be a lovely spot to camp but better to be on. Interesting metemphosis ‘wiggles’ in the rock. Well we’re right at the edge of the Dalradian about to reach the Great Glen fault, what would one expect but interesting geology. Track runs over moorland. Peparami break

The sound of wind in my ears makes me strongly recall a video we used to watch, mountaineers, tubular bell, frostbite, wind. The soundtrack and presentator firmly embedded in my memory.

I make it to Blackburn bothy. The burn is definitely black though the bothy is hidden away. It is simple but spacious, no one here and it’s such a nice evening but I can’t be bothered with midges so want to cook indoors.

I have the ‘vegetable hotpot’ mash potato dehydrated meal my friends from Glen Feshie bothy gave me - thankful to them again for their kindness

Three bikepakers arrive to spend the night at the bothy. Heading up the pass tommorrow

I finish dinner and leave at 8. Too wonderful an evening to stop early. Mountains rose tinted by the sunset. In my head sings the haunting sea shanty : my mother told me , someday when you die .:……. comes form distant shore.Behind me the pylons lead back to the far pass lit pink. What words could I use to show just how beautiful this evening is. The hills lying at an angle controlled by their rock - like a shelf of books tipped to it’s side then rounded off, and split by outcrops. Pink beneath a baby blue sky.

Over a rise and the view down to fort Augustus opens. The sun has set but pink light still fills the sky, silhotteing wind turbines in the other side of the great Glen. I get my first glimpse of Loch Ness - I do recall a faint (possibly fake) memory of stopping to view it on a rainy car journey from somewhere.m but I do not know when that could have been.

I eat from my my big fruit and nut chocolate bar as I walk. A cloud looks just like an ichthyosaur. And over the pointy hills to the west I saw earlier, clouds curl thickly, perfectly mirroring the shape of the mountain cap. I want a good view of Loch Ness for my camp spot though. Round a bend and suddenly there it is behind: stretching away into the valley, somber against the still pale pink sky. This’ll do.

Once my tent is up I realise, gosh this really is the most beautiful place to camp imaginable. Vibrant skys, the dark Loch, fort Augustus glittering as lights are turned on for the evening, heather bobbing about, breeze to keep midges at bay .

Another 27km day - said I’m good at them!

Day 26. To fort Augustus. Bus to Fort William

Like yesterday the morning breaks cold and wet, buried deep within the cloud that fills the Glen. But by 8:49 fort Augustus is visable below. And I set off on the final leg of this part of the adventure.

I pass the strange pink mock caste of Calach house. Very similar to our pink but faded, with even a ‘old’ bridge made to look so. An old hand painted sign at the end of the path says Wades road - that I have followed over Corrieyariack pass is a scheduled monument …. And damage will be prosecute by the Secretary of State.

Past oaks fluffy with a lichen coat. Through an old burial ground, a sign informs of the grave of a fried o Robert burns. Someone ‘who was lost in the comet off Gourack Point’. I always find it striking, to see among the ornate graves, simple headstones of war graves.

I make it to fort Augustus- sign selfie. So strange to be in a tourist spot after seeing so few people in three days Big crowd waiting for there boat tour to see Nessie. I go to find breakfast though - at cCobbs cafe get a gf bacon sandwich Cappuccino and local gf Dundee cake, charge, and finally a proper lav- all very nice. The sun is back too.

A women in the cafe is hiking the Great Glen Way - swimming in the lochs sounds wonderful.

I don’t like the bus driver - makes me put my bag in the hold which I am not comfortable with and the bus costs £10.50 which is extortionate for an hours journey

Fort William seems roady and unwelcoming from the bus station but I walk to my hostel and it really is lovely. It’s far too early to check in but I sit on a sofa with views across the Glen, phone my parents then consider what to do. I look at the maps and they terrify me. Day on day on day of absolute remotness, how could I ever resupply?

I read the amazing ‘aimless travels’ - lady from train- blog for here on, it terrifies me. I read Oldie Outdoors, I am still confused. Perhaps I could carry a huge load of food.

I sit till 5 then check in and spread my stuff on my bed which is unfortunately m just by the door. I have a quick shower but don’t wash my things and haven’t clean clothes to put on yet (I did wash them, just never dry properly). Then head to pick up my Indian takeaway. The sun is pretty this evening- walking to dinner at 6;30 like any other evening on the trail.

Eating my takeaway in the hostel kitchen (big curry / v lovely ), I meet a great guy who’s just finished the great Glen way and about to start the Cape Wrath Trail, it makes me so much happier knowning some one else is also mad enough to try it- I won’t be alone out there, at least not in spirit.

I stay up very late - past midnight to edit th text of the blog.

Day 27. Fort William ‘rest day’

I try to sleep in, hang around the hostel then finally head out. First to Ellis Bingham then down the lovely high street

I happen to be in town The day of Lochabar Gathering- a bag piping contest

Sadly the Lochabar geo park geology center is closed for COVID. But I can read some of the fascinating information and diagrams- the caldera into which Ben Nevis formed by erosion.

The lovely Highland Bookshop has a great map section.

I find a church that has been converted into a climbing wall

The bag piping contest is well underway in the central square, the kilted judges looking in seriously and viewers sitting around.

I get a gf toasty at Cobbs coffee then make it to the huge Morrison’s. So happy how big it is everything I could ever need and a fraction the price of Coop. Just so so wish I could have one of these half way along to Ullapool.

Leaving, I see a very cool steam train at the station

I return to the hostel around 4, then collect my drying which has actually dried! Long time since everything hasn’t smelt. Then try to wipe dry midges off my tent.

My second phone cable decides to die. Thanks a million gods I am in fort William for this.

I go to the Crofter pub for dinner- great place with lively atmosphere and really good big portions of food, a shame I was snacking before as I can’t finish it.

Returning to the hostel I Still have a stupid amount to do. Cleaning more clothes, cleaning my water filter, waxing boots, sorting the huge food shop I did, still hours more work for the blog and I want to update Instagram. Let alone actually planning what I am about to walk which Ive sort of given up on in confusion and uncertainty and just hoping it will work out. So much for a rest day (I knew I needed a second one but just stress that the longer I lose on the trail the less recovery I have after) I’ve desperately been trying not to let the stress build up, and it has not felt as stressful as Edinburgh but I still REALLY do not feel ‘rested’ indeed I feel less so. All I want is long free hours to read by. I’m so tired

I am very thankful for the safe familiarity of my podcasts as I go through tasks.

Attempt to sleep earlier failed. Another midnight finish