Walking 1000 miles from Lands end to John O'Groats in aid of The Air Ambulance (starts april 7th 2024)

Saturday 9 August 2014

Cheers!

Wow
Callum the same chap who said I could pitch here tonight, just turned up on his way to a party up the road with this for us!
What a great guy!

Day-8 what a day!!!!

Today looked in planning to be a short non discript day with an amorphous finish!
Couldn't be more wrong,Here's my best description of it!
We didn't leave the camp site (Dunroaming!) till 10.30 to complete the full days rest we both needed, the site has its own restaurant so we took advantage of a full fried breakfast at a very reasonable £4.95!
Then back to the pet shop from which I'd bought the treats Alfie didn't like, my idea being to buy more and give these to the lady (in the pic! sorry forgot your name!) who runs the place as she'd mentioned she has dogs, but no she was really kind and not only swapped the treats for ones he liked but also gave him some paw wax to protect him! One of those very special moments! Thank you again!
Back to the main road and the loch where we saw a cute 6 foot long house with its own wind turbine! Duck house presumably?!
Over the river shin to pick up the B road cyclists use along Achany Glen and the environment changes completely! From the boggy moorland we've walked through for the last seven days we now enter lush a wooded valley, I'd really missed this level of greenery and trees! of which we've seen so few.
Lots of pretty houses here and we discovered an old ruined mill house with the gearing still partially in place.
All along this Glen we had people waving to us.... Like minor celebrities! Ha!
Along the shin is a nice waterfall which would normally have had facilities but these apparently burnt down.
Leaving the B road we walk along the A836 (just for a change! It's the road from jog!) much wider here busier which Alfie found excessively boring, he slows down when he's bored so just to add a little extra weight and to increase speed I carried him... Much to the amusement of the traffic!
Eventually I got bored of his scheme and let him walk the rest of the way to Bonnar bridge passing a lady unloading peat from a trailer,who's husband Kenny Campbell is famous for carrying a piano up Ben Nevis! And he also walked lejog too!
Walking lejog seems to be a common occupation here as in town I got chatting to a lady outside the grocers named Norma Roche who has also walked it!
I walked on a little to the pub and supper of pan fried duck! Yummy and also cheap!
Over the bridge out of Bonner to Ardgay and past Gledfield house where a groundsman Calum allowed us to pitch by an unoccupied house that Gledfield own.

Day-7 to Lairg and rest!

Waking up to the sound of the midges was concerning! So a cold breakfast was eaten inside the tent and everything packed into the pack before braving the swarm!
Glad I bought my midge head net with me very much needed as I took the tent down even with smidge!
As ever once the packs on and your ten yards down the road you leave them behind, relief!
No rain this morning but it is overcast, so once again good walking weather, the road we're following eventually joins with the road to Durness bringing back memories of last year's trip to Cape Wrath. With that road behind we head on into Lairg with its hydro electric dam, seen in the distance in the pic, which also shows the town war memorial.
Up to the campsite for our first 24 hours rest, with some reprovisioning and lots of sleep being the order of the day!