Day 44 - Saturday 23rd May 2009

Beauly to Alness - 28.5 miles

Left Beauly's pretty lanes and views over to the estuary as we climbed, rucksacks making their prescence known immediately! What appeared to be a short woodland trek on our map ended up as a gorse and fir tree endurance test. Trek path eventually discovered and made our way through. A local lady said the trek had not been used for years and was amazed we had managed to navigate our way through - "that's end to end explorers for you!"

The day felt tough and long with our sacks; the climb close to Strathpepper, along a ridge gave us glorious views all around and our spirit and energies were revived. (tea and scones in Dingwall helped too!)

Looking forward to Chris, Linda, Barbara (Linda's mum) and Harry joining us tomorrow!

Day 43 - Friday 22nd May

Alltsigh to Beauly,

29 miles today, most of it uphill, or so it seemed (2000 feet ascent). Thought we had to carry all our kit, which would have been very hard work, but Lo! A fairy godmother (called Carolyn) appeared out of the blue. We had met Carolyn very briefly at the end of one of our days in Yorkshire and she had told us that she lived in Drumnadrochit, which was on todays route, and that she would look out for us. Better than that however, she came and collected our bags from Alltsigh and delivered them to Beauly for us. What an angel!

First half of the day was still on the Great Glen way, we left it and headed north on a route we had devised ourselves. This included going through the grounds of Deaufort Castle, which we weren't sure was a public right of way. Sure enough, it wasn't. We had to wade through a river, but we made it and were very pleased with ourselves.

Pretty good weather all day with glorious sunny evening, warmest we've been on whole trip.

Day 42, Thursday 21st May

South Laggan to Alltsigh ( Loch Ness)
Our second day on the Great Glen Way with the last 12 miles along Loch Ness. All our fair- weather supporters have now deserted us so we have to carry all our kit on our backs for the next 4 days. Came across a sheep on the Caledonian Canal which panicked and charged at Aly, catching her on the hand with it's horn - it was a bit like a Scottish version of bullfighting! Staying tonight right on the shore of Loch Ness with fantastic views along the loch in both directions.

Day 41, Wednesday 20th May

Fort William to South Laggan - 24 miles.
A new experience today, breakfast at "Morrisons"! Super route today up the Great Glen towards Inverness. The Great Glen contains 4 lochs ( including Loch Ness) which are linked together by the Caledonian Canal (built by Thomas Telford) which allows fairly large ocean - going boats to get right across Scotland. There are a number of flights of locks on the canal and some swing bridges, one of which Aly was allowed to wind open, to her great delight ( little things...) Wonderful scenery all day, with a mixture of sunshine and the odd shower. Went past 1000 miles in mid-morning - blimey!

Day 40, Tuesday 19th May

Kinlochleven to Fort William.
Hurray! - a rest day! Only 16 miles today after 113 miles in the last 4 days. Jessica and Matt went back to Barwell. Nephew Chris ran 7 miles from Fort William to meet us and then 7 miles back to Fort William with us. Ben Nevis was cloud capped but still looked awesome. Had to decide this afternoon between climbing Ben Nevis or drinking tea in a cafe. It was a close run thing but the cafe just shaded it.

Day 39 - Monday 18th May

Tyndrum to Kinlochleven - 29 miles. (973 in total). Our third day on the West Highland Way, but after being completely shattered yesterday, for some reason we both felt good today and cruised the 29 mile route. The main difference today was that the underfoot conditions were good and we were able to keep running without having to stop to pick our way over boulders. Went through the magnificent but eerie Glen Coe and over the Devil's Staircase.

Malcolm's trainers, nearly new when setting off from Lands End got binned and replaced by sparkling new white ones (the original pair started as white but were seriously brown when they hit the bin.)

Day 38 - Sunday 17th May

Rowardennan to Tyndrum - 27 miles. Beautiful weather yet again, wonderful scenery yet again - this trip is so boring! Lunch was provided by Jessica and Matt, who had to set off from Barwell at 5.30 am to be with us, but to be fair, we're worth it.