This morning at breakfast I met Clive, his daughter Rosie who are also doing the WHW and they introduced me to a Dutch guy they had been meeting up with in the evenings, Richard (or the nearest English equivalent) who is also doing the WHW. Finally, I am not the only person walking the way at this time of year. We had a chat about where we were staying tonight and it turns out we are all staying at the same place tonight and agreed to meet up for dinner.
For the room rate last night, breakfast was included
. I made the mistake of making a bowl of muesli just before the waitress came out with the full menu. The muesli got pushed to one side and a full Scottish breakfast was ordered. Breakfast was great! Just what I needed after such a bad day yesterday.
Today was only going to be 12 miles and I was hoping that it would be an easier day today. Lets hope! I picked up my packed lunch from reception, paid my bill and set off.
As I got going and finally managed to sort out my boots so that my feet were not hurting so much, I had been caught up by Richard and also 2 Belgian girls he had met previously en-route. Richard and myself took the lead and the girls slowly fell back behind us.
I walked the first 6 miles this morning with Richard and it was really nice to have someone to talk to whilst walking. Although Richard is over 6 foot tall and walks quite fast we managed to find a good pace, but I guess it was still a little quick for me
. We got to the halfway mark at the the crossroads where the path splits off to Crainlarich. I didn't want to go there but Richard had arranged to meet Clive and Rosie in the coffee shop there, so we split and went our separate ways.
Not mentioning any names, but this is the point were a few people have started the WHW skipping out the first 47 miles!!!! Just completing the second half of the way.
Being on my own again gave me time to stop for lunch where I was greeted by a nosey Robin who enjoyed sharing my sandwich with me. Although I thought the £6.95 for a packed lunch was very steep, the roast chicken sandwich was packed full of chicken and also lettuce which I discarded very quickly, even the Robin didn't want it! LOL
Guess what? It's raining again and it's not very nice walking around in this weather. The only good thing about it is that I was warm enough and my new gear was proving invaluable
. Thank you Rab!
Did I mention it's raining?
Oh, and my feet are really sore!
Although I only had 12 miles to do today, compared to the marathon I did yesterday, this 12 miles is dragging. At one point I had to get out my map because I was sure that I must have walked 12 miles already and had I missed a turning? Nope, I was still on track and had just over a mile to go :-(
I was so pleased to get to the hostel and although it had seemed like a really long and painful day, l was all checked in by 14:30. I showered, bought an Irn-Bru from the hostel reception and was made a cup of tea by a lady who was playing her penny whistle at the hostel while she was waiting for her husband and daughter to come back from a walk in the mountains. I was very pleased to put my feet up for a while and have a nice warm drink.
Richard turned up after about an hour, he did the usual routine too
. Shower and a quick change of clean (evening) clothes. Then we both headed out to the Green Welly Stop nearby on the A82 to have a look at what was on offer for dinner and also to grab some food for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. I decided on some oatcakes as I could have them with the bock of cheese and chorizo sausage I had been carrying around for the last few days, uneaten.
We also checked out the local pub to see what was on the menu. The deal was done, pub it was going to be. We headed back to the hostel to wait for Clive and Rosie so that we could go and have dinner together.
Whilst waiting for Clive and Rosie to turn up, the 2 Belgian girls also checked in to the hostel, said hi and then we never saw them again that night. Each to their own, I guess they don't want to socialise with anyone else, or that Richard may have upset them previously ;-)
Clive and Rosie turned up just after dark about 4 hours after everyone else, had a quick shower and then we all went over to the pub for some dinner. He had found today the worst day o far, at least it wasn't just me who struggled with today. Whilst chatting at dinner I found out that Clive and Rosie live in a place called "Shudy Camps" which was about 3 miles away from my old house. Small world.
We didn't stay out late as everyone was feeling a bit apprehensive about the 19 mile walk we have to do tomorrow, especially after most of us thought today had been very slow going and we had only done 12 miles.
Day 3 - Inverarnan to Tyndrum (12.4 miles)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom
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