Contact — Penelope Janu

Setting the scene:

Our long hike over the moors!

Last night (using my faithful Omega analogue as opposed to Mr Darcy’s fancy-pants Garmin GPS system) I calculated that, at our average walking pace of 4km an hour, we’d need 8 walking hours to get to our destination, and another hour or more for stops along the way. Yikes! Following a 6.30am breakfast (a Goldilocks-style father bear bowl of porridge), we were on the road this morning at 7.15 am and walked two hours to a very pretty hotel at Bridge of Orchy, where (partly to get out of the driving rain) very large cups of coffee were consumed (it being a little too early for whiskey). I was spot on with my calculations, and we arrived at our hotel in time to have a cup of tea and two shortbread biscuits, before relaxing (Mr Darcy watched the Tour de France, possibly in relief that his work was done for the day).

What is best? My old watch or the GPS fancy one? I am reliably informed that Mr Darcy completed 42,450 steps today. He assumes I did more as I am shorter and I was limping. My leg is still dodgy (mostly when going downhill, often when uphill, and sometimes on the flat ) and many of the paths on the West Highland Way are old drover and military roads, some going back to Roman times. They are solid but extremely bumpy like cobbled roads (without the smooth edges) making them hard, rugged and uneven underfoot. Nevertheless, the final 16km of our walk, notwithstanding the rain and tricky terrain, was breathtaking for the magnificent scenery - hills, rivers, streams and misty moors.

Another two hour walk was supposed to end with an early lunch in Inveronan, but the hotel was closed, so we opened the faithful back pack and consumed tea (a thermos is heavy, but worth the weight), cheese, apricots (thank you for your foresight Uncle Sandy) and McVities chocolate wheaten biscuits. By now, we were 16km down!

The good:

Without a doubt, the scenery, and the sheep and birds and the amazing amount of water flowing down from the hills that created puddles the sizes of dams, gushing waterfalls and galloping rivers.

The bad:

Thank you for all your thoughtful enquiries regarding my boots. The latest news is - I did have a spare pair of boots, but 20km into our hike today (in very wet conditions - we were basically walking through shallow streams for kilometres) they started to leak. Weirdly enough, so did Mr Darcy’s boots, so we were squishing and squelching up and down the hills like a couple of sponges at a pool party. I’m not sure that this was terribly good for my big toe (the toenail was already destined to fall off) but on the bright side, my leg was sorer than my toe, so I hardly felt a thing! My toe is all taped up now, and I hope it won’t trouble me too much tomorrow. Mind you, it just goes to show that even though we were quite well prepared with two dedicated sets of worn-in hiking boots, things can go wrong.

The ‘I didn’t know that’:

Many sheep have black spotted legs. And many of the sweet little birds on the moor are very friendly. And, no surprises here, dogs love to hike too, and the UK is very welcoming to well behaved dogs. We were on the lookout for deer, but didn’t spot any. Worryingly, Mr Darcy had venison pie for dinner, which I am determined not to overthink.

Finally, we are staying at the BEST accomodation tonight - the King’s House Hotel. It is the only hotel for miles around, and very happily situated. It also has a dedicated drying room, so our boots will be toasty warm tomorrow morning, and hopefully stay that way as the forecast is brighter. Even though it’s 9.30pm, it’s still night outside, and I have a lovely view of hills from my window. Mr Darcy, exhausted from carrying a double pack (in the hope of saving my leg) is fast asleep, and I’m drying our clothes on the excellent drying rack in the bathroom.

Another update tomorrow - on our penultimate hike!