I planned to leave Plockton as early as possible, after all, I’ve had a long of walking day ahead of me. Yet, after last few nights of not getting enough sleep, I kept hitting the snooze button. I got to Plockton Hotel, signed off, dipped my feet in the sea and waved goodbye promising to see it in two weeks at the east coast. At the outskirts of Plockton I bumped into my first challenger- Elliot, which was a nice surprise considering it was only four of us starting at Plockton that day (it’s not a popular starting point), walked together about 10 minutes and parted our ways.
First part of the day was mainly on roads. A little bit boring but easy to get the miles in those legs. Wait, boring? Surely not for the person who caught me having a pee on a side of the road! Absolutely no cars for a while and as soon as nature called… one has appeared. To make it even worse, woman driving it stopped to check if everything was alright. ‘I’m okay, just having a wee!’ I answered with my pants down. Not sure which one of us was more uncomfortable at that moment.
The drizzle became a light rain that lasted couple of hours, and country lanes turned to a forest track. Soon I was finally headed for the hills. But first I had to cross the little stream. Too wide just to jump it, too deep to walk through it if I wanted to keep my feet dry. I kept walking up and down the stream trying to find the best way to cross it. And I finally decided- took my boots off and just went through it. As I was sitting on the other side drying off my feet another challenger appeared. I quickly caught up with him asking how he managed to find a dry way. He looked at me and laughed ‘There wasn’t a dry way’. It was Iain’s 10th TGO crossing. After few minutes and another stream to cross he told me not to wait for him and go ahead. So I did. Through the pathless bog, deer fence and steep down to yet another another road when I caught up with Elliot again. We walked few miles together, up to Killilan where he was camping. I carried on making a nice progress until I found cattle with calves in the middle of the path. Now, one thing you need to know about me- there are two things I’m really scared of- and cows are one of them. Some of you may laugh but cows actually kill people! And although chances are low, they are never zero. Thankfully I’ve seen someone approaching in the distance- it was Iain again!
Day was coming to an end, Iain found his camping spot but I decided to carry on for couple miles more towards Falls of Glomach. Even before I got to a bridge I’ve spotted a place by the river and I knew straight away that was where I wanted to stop for the night. Watching clouds rolling over the hills I thanked the Universe for such a beautiful place to spend my night and get some rest.
Route taken: Plockton- Creag an Duilisg- Achmore- Gleann Adalain-Sallachy- Killilan- River Elchaig- Falls of Glomach (32km)
Outdoors with Karolina 