Creevale Bed And Breakfast Inverness

... closely followed by many more, one of whom said to me "You must have got up there before breakfast to be up and down so soon"... nope, I just wake up at stupid o'clock still on work time! I wanted to crack on with the climbing so hit the road again straight away, over the scenic Dukes Pass to Aberfoyle. Again, it was cloudy so I'm sure ...

Today, I was planning to go to the youth hostel at the castle, but the Land Rover had other plans!!!

Oh dear, game over! I popped out to start the Land Rover this morning at around 9am and the engine was smoking like a trooper and sounding a lot worse than it normally does. I called the AA at around 10:00 and they turned up at at around 10:45 from a local garage. He told me that the engine is fairly terminal (piston problem ...

... home town and one of whom lives in our village! Another "small world" moment... I also meet two women from California, Lia and Laura, and Lia tells me about "Trail Angels". This is an American term for people who help walkers out on the long-distance trails e.g. The Appalachian Trail. I like this term as I've definitely met several so far and it's always heartwarming to know that there are people out there ...

... from the American and Canadian embassies in South-East of England. He very kindly shares his bottle of wine with me and we have a lovely supper. He's off to join his wife in the US until January when he gets back and I'm very envious that he will be in glorious sunshine soon!

What makes me smile today:

The thought that whatever the weather I have a bag of warm, dry clothes
Hugh's generous sponsorship and sharing of red wine. Thank you Hugh!

... night tonight!

Tyndrum is disappointingly a glorified layby but the hostel is lovely with plenty of space, a great drying room and I'm looking forward to my day off!

Things that made me smile today:

The sun coming out at Loch Tulla
The gate with the "Please Close the Gate" sign. It was stood all alone with no supporting fence, hedge or wall for miles!
Getting to Tyndrum - I was pretty tired after 64 miles in three days!

... It's well over an hour to the next bus to Glencoe so I settle in at the walkers' bar and meet some of the campers and other walkers of the WHW. Everyone is really friendly, there are some cute dogs (a chocolate Lab, Dylan, and Moss, a collie) and it is great to hear other people's tales and reasons for doing the walk, as well as their tips for further on.

I head out for the 7.20pm bus and disaster strikes - it's five minutes early! It sails ...

... have a massive knowledge of the Orkney families and who best to contact for information.

The upshot of this being spending a couple of days on Westray where my family comes from,
we did a tour of the island with Westraak Tours. Our guide was Graeme Maben and he was excellent. We where probably very lucky in that we where the only ones on the tour the day we did it which meant that we had much more personal input than if the tour was full. The island of Westray ...

June 6th - woke up looking forward to our last day on Skye with a hike up to the Old Man of Storr. However, it was not to be; as I put my shoes on - my back went out. It was very bad right away. I was so upset. Steve filled me with drugs, put me to bed with a lot of pillows under my knees and told me to "get over it". Ha, ha....I will when I've had a good cry first! Thus ended our trip. Apex (car lease) phoned ...

Because of Scotland's northern latitude, it gets light out at 4am and the sun was up by 5am. I woke up shortly after 5am, feeling rested. I showered, packed up and set out on the road towards Inverness. At this time of the day there was no one on the road. It was fantastic... no traffic, and best of all, no scary trucks coming at me on the narrow roads. My route today took me over Skye Bridge ...

... in the sun... I'd say it was worth every penny! It was a relatively small tour group with only 15 of us. Our tour guide cum coach driver's name was Fred, who not surprisingly was wearing a Scottish Kilt! He spoke with a strong Scottish accent... maybe that's why Fred said he doesn't speak English... only Scottish!! haha!( at least it's better than the Glaswegian accent... tink Alex Ferguson!). We left Edinburgh's Old town & drove towards the New town. I passed Murrayfield ...