The bunkhouse was cold but I slept well enough and soon joined the others hanging around the front door of the hotel, waiting to be allowed in for breakfast. The owner and his team seemed uncertain as to how to cope with a full dining room; this morning wouldn't allow for a quick getaway. There were a number of other Challengers in the hotel and I had breakfast with Tim and Kate Wood, a lovely couple of seventy year olds who were on their eighth crossing.
After breakfast the owner rather redeemed himself. He is one of those old school, English, public school educated hoteliers - lots of bonhomie and insulting of the regulars. As I was leaving the dining room and collecting my food parcel, he pulled me to one side. There was a Challenger in the hotel who worried him, a man in his seventies who seemed to be struggling. The evening before he'd put much of his load in a taxi and had sent it on ahead to Kingussie (probably three days further on). I was asked to hang around until he came down for breakfast so that I could check he was OK. I'd not seen this Challenger the night before but others had noticed him eating alone. Someone remembered that he had pretty bad veins on his legs. I hung around and waited. After a while the owner went up to the Challenger's room and found he was still dozing. I decided to push off but I was relived that the owner was looking out for walkers like that. He told me that, a couple of times each summer, they had someone passing through who looked I difficulties. He always made sure that he knew where the next stay was and would always ring and check that they had arrived safely. The Highlands is a place were people take walkers seriously.
Crossing Lochgarry
I didn't start walking until 11. I walked along the road a little and then crossed over the river to walk through the Glengarry Forest. As I was entering the forest I met Rick, Lindsey and Sue sitting down, stove out and making a brew. They invited me to join them for coffee but I protested that I was only just getting into my stride; I hoped they didn't think me too serious!
Today the sun had gone and the walk through the forest was something of a trudge. It was given some added interest by a sign that announced that - as an experiment - local cattle were being re-introduced into the forest as an attempt to see whether they could survive within it. A few hundred yards on I came across some very contented looking, highland cattle. This was a reminder that many of our grazing animals once lived happily in woodlands and open forest. Deer, for example, are a woodland animal. Scottish deer are far smaller than they should be, as a result of being fenced out of forestry land and having to live off an inadequate diet, one of the reasons why deer numbers need to be restricted by culling. These cattle seemed to be happy enough in these surroundings; I wondered whether we would ever see deer back in their rightful abode.
Highland cattle happily living in the forest
Eventually I came across a diversion which took me further east than I had planned, dropping me just outside Invergarry. I had planed to cross over White Bridge and then climb up and enter Fort Augustus from the forest to its South East; but somehow it never seems right to backtrack when you are trekking. The sign for Invergarry announced that the village had a shop, a café and a petrol station; they were all the same business. I felt quite decadent as I tucked into a ham and cheese slice and a bottle of fresh orange juice. From Invergarry I took the rather glum bike track up to the Bridge of Orchy, where I crossed onto the other side of the canal that links Loch Lochy and Loch Ness and took the Great Glen Way towards Fort Augustus.
I hadn't planned to come this way but the route was certainly different. The grassy dikes were well trimmed, a number of rather exotic boats came down the canal and every now and then I came across a rather pretty lock house. One lock house proudly proclaimed that it had been voted the tidiest lock cottage in Britain. Next to this was a plaque announcing that "The Queen, Prince Philip and Princess Ann disembarked here in 1963".
Loch Cottages
While the canal was pretty the walking was quite tough as this stretch of the Great Glen way is along metalled road. I had the canal all to myself but the weather was cold and the skies turning dark. The trek up to Fort Augustus was longer than I wanted and I was pretty relieved to enter this lovely little highland village. The campsite here is fantastic, "A sight for sore feet", as I exclaimed when registering. I'd also met up with a number of other Challengers. There were four or five Aktos on the site, a Jetpacker tent and a couple of Solars. As I unloaded my pack I saw a big feller waving at me. He was standing by two tunnel tents and a car. There were definite sounds, and smells, of something being cooked in a frying pan; he obviously wasn't a Challenger. But after I had put up the tent the big lad strolled over and I discovered I was wrong.
This was my first encounter with Bernie Marshall. I asked how many crossings he had done. This was his twentieth! When I told him this was my first, Bernie looked very confused as if he couldn't understand why I hadn't done, at least, five or six. Bernie introduced me to Pauline, his wife, who he had met on a Challenge (indeed they were married half way across one year). Pauline found that, after an operation, the Challenge was just too much. But the Challenge was in Pauline blood and this year she was helping in Challenge Control for a week; before that she was meeting Bernie and his mate Keith at campsites in the evening. Bernie, Keith and Pauline were great fun as was their lovely - and lively - spaniel, McGregor.
The site facilities were excellent. I had a good shower, washed through some clothes and settled down for a comfortable night in my warm and cosy tent.