I woke up in a nice, soft bed after a great night's sleep. I quickly showered and dressed before packing up my bag and leaving Sybil with the TV on, I headed down to the breakfast room. I was staying at the Kettle House B&B and the breakfast was delicious with veggie sausages amongst all the usual breakfast items. The owner, Natalie, also gave Sybil a treat and one for the road as we bid our goodbyes and started off on our walk again.
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| Lush forest |
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| Woman of the woods again |
The Way left Fort Augustus by threading through several more B&Bs before turning off onto a forest track. The rain was only coming down lightly, so I left just my fleece on as the temperature was quite warm and I didn't want to swelter inside my waterproof.
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| Loch Ness |
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| Looking over Loch Ness |
After climbing through the lovely trees we finally gained a great view of Loch Ness. The Loch is huge and we would never see the whole of it in one go; in fact the next two and a half days would be spent walking mostly alongside it.
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| Sybil likes the view |
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| Loch Ness |
The path wound round the loch just above the road, with trees sometimes blocking the view of the loch but nonetheless still making it an enjoyable day's walk. As I was standing reading an information panel, I heard voices to our left and Sybil cocked her head then came and sat at the side of me as I have trained her to do when someone is passing, but impressively this time without me asking her to. I took hold of her harness in case a dog was coming, but instead it turned out to be a group of horse riders. Sybil is fine passing horses in a field, but for some reason she usually freaks out if someone is riding one. This time however she sat quietly if a little tense.
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| There were some lovely waterfalls |
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| Watching the boat |
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| Towards Invermoriston |
Praising her enthusiastically when the riders had trotted off, we carried on with our walk, passing several beautiful waterfalls. Suddenly out of the trees a man appeared with his dog. Sybil greeted her cautiously and they had a little play while us grown-ups chatted about our walk. The lucky man had moved to the area from near Manchester a few years ago and now ran a B&B. He wished us luck with our walk, also warning us about the wild board that lived in the area. Apparently they are more shy than aggressive and unfortunately we didn't see any, which may have been just as well for Sybil's sake.
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| Sorry Sybil, no squirrels here |
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| Plenty of these though |
The rest of the walk was peppered with diversions as forestry work was being carried out. We followed the first sign down a rather steep, slippery path and back up again before carrying on along the main path. As the path turned inwards away from Loch Ness we had to follow two more diversions, both of which again were muddy and pretty steep.
The last diversion met with a path which then took us down to Invermoriston where the rain once again decided to soak us. For some reason this was starting to become a pattern; just as we reached the outskirts of a village, the rain would come down hard. I wasn't complaining, as long as we stayed dry for most of the walk.
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| Slow worm |
I spotted something lying still on the road and crouched down for a closer look. It was a slow worm. I gently picked it up and moved it to the grass verge, where it slithered away to safety. I was pretty excited as I have never seen one before.They are not a species of snake but rather a legless lizard, and perfectly harmless.
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| Packhorse bridge |
We had a quick hot drink and snack stop before heading out of the village to find somewhere to spend the night. The shop claimed it sold hot pies and pasties, including delicious cheese and onion. Lies, all lies. There was nothing hot save the drinks, so I settled for a hot chocolate and a sausage roll for Sybil.
Just as the Way climbed steeply into the woods, a B&B sign beckoned to me, claiming that it was dog friendly and had vacancies. I hovered for a bit, extremely tempted to go and ring the doorbell. I eventually decided not to as I was probably just spoilt after last night's luxury.
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| View from the Stone Seat |
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| View from the Stone Seat |
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| Amazing view from the Stone Seat |
As we were walking along I noticed a sign pointing slightly off-route to the Stone Seat. Slightly curious, I decided to go and have a look. It was a short but steep climb up a heather-clad path and the views from the top were amazing. I sat there for a good while and decided this was where we would spend the night, as just behind the seat was a tent-sized cleared area and the remains of a campfire. It was still pretty early, only half past two, so I waited a while before pitching the tent and instead aired my sleeping bag and waterproof things as the rain had finally stopped.
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| Thank you, Kettle House, for the chew |
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| Guess I'm sleeping alone in the tent, then |
The cuckoo was calling constantly and provided a nice soundtrack as I set the tent up. I opened both the entrances up to let the flysheet and groundsheet dry inside. I sat on the bench and just relaxed, enjoying the fantastic views and listening to pure nature around me. From this spot you could only see forest, Loch Ness and the mountains beyond, no signs of civilisation at all save the tiny boats that kept appearing on the loch from time to time.
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| Ready for bed |
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| Stranger in the night |
Turns out it wasn't such an idyllic spot after all, as when stroking Sybil whilst sat drinking in all the nature I found a tick buried in her flesh. Luckily I had come prepared and used a special tick remover to get the little beast off. I hate killing things but I really had no choice as I didn't want it to make Sybil or myself poorly. Tucking my trousers firmly into my socks we eventually retired to the tent, where I found two more ticks climbing on Sybil's fur. I removed these as well and we watched the night draw in. Two large black beetles wandered towards the tent but I'm afraid there was no room at the inn.
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