Day 13 - Thursday 16th October 2014 Heard more military action in the skies above my tent last night. Were just 50 odd KM from Cape Wrath now where a huge multi nation NATO exercise is in full swing. Strong winds again this morning but clear and blue. I get occasional smells of the sea confirming we are closing in on our coastal finale. Guy leading the way we made good time on an initial pretty hard 500 meter climb. Today, I hope, is the final killer day of a succession that has has been quite testing. We were promised long sections of bog and very rough terrain and thats what we got. Mat and I discussed starting a rock band. We do this often. Well get round to it eventually Im sure but for now it was just fun discussing potential covers wed play as we hammered up the incline past Loch an Leathiad Bhuain and then left towards the summit of Ben Dreavie. Ive heavily coffeed this morning so Im feeling pretty good and am getting into the vigorous momentum. Our end destination today is Rhiconich some 30km from where we started. This would be our last night of civilisation - in the Rhiconich hotel before our final two days pushing on to Sandwood Bay and finally the Cape on Saturday. What followed was eight hours of hard cross country trekking across barren unforgiving land. Tricky climbs were followed by even trickier descents. Punishing on the knees with high levels of concentration required to avoid breaking ankles. Holes. Outcrops. Random mounds of mud hidden by thick vegetation that caused you to continuously trip, slip and stumble. I cant count the number of times I ended up on my area today. Frustrating. Eventually we can down into a valley with Ben Stack to our right at 720 meters. Crossing a river we paused for a brew and then hammered on at pace for the remaining four hours of marshland bog and loch side wild walking following deer trails. Eventually we saw a glimpse of a house in the distance - the first sign of civilisation and a hint that the end of the day was close. Elated to arrive at Rhiconich we were checked in by a friendly hotel owner with a front tooth missing and no doubt a story behind it. He has a thick Northern Irish accent and once established in the bar he soon joined us for a drink, as did several other local characters. Much merriment was had. A perfect ending to an epic pilgrimage across Scotland. We tried Guga (I think thats what it was called). A young gannet bird that gets cooked in a particular way. It tastes exactly of strong salty fish - on the account of its fish diet. One of the characters we were taking to said he would bring me a present the following morning - something special to put on my mantle piece when I got home. When I inquired what it would be he said a bag of peat. And thats exactly what he did. Funny night. Went to bed really happy that although we still have two days to go that certainly shouldnt be underestimated - wed dealt with the worst of the physical challenge. I cant wait for tomorrow which Guy informed us could give our first glimpse of the lighthouse we are heading for at the Cape. Donations are now up passed 6k which is amazing. IOU a slice of nudity. Dont worry its coming...
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 11:38:50 +0000
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