Great Glen Way – Drumnadrochit – Wednesday
Drumnadrochit Wednesday 11 June
Woke at 5 am then slept to 8 am. When I woke my left eyelid was swollen – almost shut.
I figured it was irritated and tried to flush with water. It eased off after lunch time. I phoned my mum and she said, “Buy some carrots or apricots.” The shop only had tinned carrots, so I had some at lunch time. Slept from 1pm to 3.30pm.
I went up to the office to pay fees and found that the whole site was a riding stables with 42 horses. I watched the rides taking of at 4pm and walked round looking at stables. It could have been a scene from the 1700’s with a girl loading hay onto a horse drawn cart. Very efficient and carbon friendly.
I commented to the staff that I could not find the reception the previous night and stayed at the field. The lady said, “It’s ok,” and just asked how many nights I was staying.
I went down to the dressage arena and watched 6-10 year olds learning dressage. My eye started to smart again so concluded it was the horses setting off my eye.
Finished off the carrots in rice soup with beef stock. Bonnie slept most of the day. I plan to walk to Invermoriston Thursday, about 10-11 miles.
Thursday 12 June
Left camp site at 8 am and climbed up the road instead of 1 ½ mile path. Very nice view of Loch Ness as we walked – long broad with track at right hand side on some parts. At halfway mark was a hill fort, but it was not visible. Walked up hill a bit to see if the fort was marked, but the path was taking a route further up the hill. Gave up and walked back to marked GGW path, traversed the cliff and on way met James from Glasgow.
James had been walking from Fort William with a friend whom was 68. His friend had hurt his knee and gave up the walk. James said he would email me to say how his friend was.
I met another lady with a small quiet dog. Very nice views of the electric sub station and Foyers. A poster said it used to be an aluminium smelter and was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1941, so the government rebuilt it as it was making aluminium from alumina for the war planes. The electric sub station now there is fed by water through a 3 metre diameter pipe fed from the loch behind it. During the night it pumps the water back up the pipe to maintain its supply.
On arrival at Invermoriston there was not much to see: a newsagent, hotel, bridge, restaurant and a road leading out. Tried to find a camp site 1 mile ahead, thought I would climb up the GGW path and walk to the camp site at ‘Rubbha Ban.’
I walked down the path after SW plant. When I got to the camp site there was a sign saying ‘no campers,’ even though the sign on the road had shown it as open.
I walked back to the GGW and looked for a place to camp. Met a man from Yorkshire who had been up many times staying at a lodge on Loch Ness.
Found a clearing and saw there was a lot of dried wood, but it was too windy to light a fire.
Bonnie was panicky as the midges were almost totally covering her. I put up the tent and told her to run around to get them and made sure she got in the tent, which had the fly screen in place. I unzipped it and pushed her inside. I did the same and we stayed in the tent until morning. This was after telling the man there weren’t many midges.
Finished rest of cereal for tea.
