Bagels and Lox for breakfast, along with the usual cereals, porridge and fruit, while we cruised back up the loch to rejoin our path. There is always the option to stay on the boat, but we all want to be able to say we walked across Scotland. 😁
Today was the hardest day of walking for us. We had two hills to climb, each with a low route or high route option. Obviously, the low route would be the easier route, but the high route has much better views. The entire group opted for the high route in the morning and we definitely enjoyed the views. Just as we began our descent, we came upon the “Viewcatcher”. This structure is made from local wood and stone and was a good place for a rest stop and lots of photos.
We continued our descent into the small village of Invermoriston. We popped into a small cafe for some tea and coffee (and to use the facilities), and visited the Clog & Craft Shop, with lots of nice leather products. Our lunch stop was a local park in the village, where we devoured our yummy lunches from Darren.
Now the decision had to be made as to who was hiking the high and low routes. A few local folks we met all said the high route is the one to do, but a few walkers felt it would be too much. Cam armed them with a map and we split into two groups. Yes, the high route was high and hard! It was quite steep and every time we thought we were at the top, another rise would appear. We took our time and took many short rests for water and view appreciation. The views were spectacular! We were pretty sure Nessie was following us along our walk – there was a long line of ripples in the water that moved along as we did. One of the walkers was pretty sure he saw her tail just before it went under the water!
As long as the route was up, it was long going down as well. My legs were getting shaky and achy, but there was no choice but to keep going. Two of us ended up ahead of the group and helped keep each other going. We did pass through some beautiful forests and mossy areas, and the changing scenery made for a pleasant walk. Once we starting hearing cars, we knew we were near the finish line – for today.
As always, fresh baked sweets and hot beverages were waiting for us on the barge. Today was gingerbread and shortbread cookies.
Dinner was a delicious fish pie – salmon, cod and smoked haddock in a cream sauce, topped with piped mashed potatoes – almost too pretty to cut into, but we did! We also had minty peas, and leeks. Dessert was croissant bread and butter pudding with whiskey custard!
Fingal had moved to the other side of the locks in Fort Augustus, and we spent another night in this little village. There are a few pubs and shops here, but we really have no reason to leave the boat.
