A wonderful day of walking through mixed terrain and challenges.
It was the coldest night yet last night, requiring me to pull a thermal top and socks out of my bag. Today though, sunshine greets me again with a wide smile. I smile back.
Whilst everybody on the TGO is walking east, I’m headed west. I follow along old car tracks, the familiar rocky creek always by my side.
After lunch, it’s a bit of a climb on a single path. The track notes tell me it should be very boggy. No bog. Sad for the environment, good for me I suppose. The track takes me to one of the highlights of the trip so far…a beautiful secret waterfall that seems to spring out of a desert type landscape. There is a little suspension bridge over the falls, and down below, crystal clear water sliding over sandstone rocks. It looks just like a tropical oasis with its deep, blue green pools and tree lined banks. It is lovely to sit in the sun and enjoy the flow of this water.
Afterwards, I am happy to see a forest of trees. An easy woodland path takes me onto another water table and back to another gurgling creek. I come across a river crossing which I can’t actually cross without getting my feet wet! Unusually so it seems, it’s the first of the trip. Shoes off, cross, sit in the sun, dry. It works out well.
I reach the Ruigh Aiteachain bothy, a very plush affair which boasts both upstairs and downstairs bedrooms, famous artworks and a fully stocked kitchen and fire set up. I had half decided to push on when I got talking to a teacher out the front. He told me a group of Duke of Edinburgh students were staying the night. That decided me. After my last long distance hiking experience in which I spent several days with the students, no thanks.
I decide to push on another 5-6km and get myself a little closer for the walk in to town tomorrow. I end up near a bridge with the same cool, clear water running underneath. It’s windy, but I’ll stay. Tent up, I huddle inside and enjoy a few hours reading my book serenaded by the occasional splash and squeal when somebody decides to jump from the bridge into the icy waters below. There are some brave souls here in Scotland.
This article was originally published on The Trek which can be found here
Sounds like a great day’s walking. Good decisions to avoid the school kids I think, and to avoid jumping into the near freezing water!