Journal:
I took my time having breakfast and getting ready to
leave the hotel, knowing that I had a short day and
that there was no point in getting to the Crask Inn,
my target for the day, too early. I had
finished my fourth book for the trip and the owner
agreed to let me swap my finished book for one of
theirs from the lounge bookshelf, provided that it
wasn't one of their better ones. They had some
good ones that appealed to me, but I decided on a
non-controversial Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) which
I suspected they wouldn't miss, and I was right.
I started walking at 10am
and, rather than follow the guide-book suggestion
for the first section, which required backtracking a
kilometre and then following a forestry road, I just
walked down the narrow main road for the first hour
or so and saved myself a couple of kilometres, only
saw half a dozen cars and had great views over Loch
Shin. I was startled at one point when an RAF
Tornado flew up the Loch from behind me at a very
low altitude. I was suddenly aware of a
rapidly approaching loud noise from behind and
jumped off the road.
After the initial road
walk, I had short stretch on a gravel side road and
then seven or eight kilometres of cross-country
work. The guidebook described it as trackless
peat bog and it was correct. To avoid the
worst of the bog the route zig-zagged across the
moorland by going via the summit of two low hills,
both of which provided great views on a very clear
day in all directions. I could see mountains
in the near and far distance and the large Loch Shin
as well as a number of small lochs. For the
first time in a week, I had a reasonably strong
mobile phone signal and spent quite some time on the
first summit eating my lunch and trying to connect
to the internet. Unfortunately, there was a
problem with my prepaid wireless and two calls to
the help centre, both of which were cut short when I
lost the signal, couldn't resolve it. Pretty
much a wasted hour, but I had the time and it was
worth a try.
The very isolated Crask
Inn was visible in the far distance from the first
summit and I could see it for most of the rest of
the day as I walked slowly towards it via the second
summit. While climbing the second hill, I
disturbed a largish herd of deer, and also saw what
could have been a small snake. In Australia,
slogging cross-country across this kind of country,
I would have expected to have encountered many
snakes.
I finally reached the
Crask Inn at 3:45pm, feeling particularly lazy after
my low kilometre day. The manageress said my
room wasn't ready, but offered me a cup of coffee if
I didn't mind waiting in the lounge, which was no
problem at all. She also brought me today's
Glasgow Herald and I enjoyed sitting back and
reading the paper for an hour or so, before being
shown to my room. The pub feels very historic
and is owned by a farmer and his wife, both of whom
seem to work non-stop. Dinner was made from
local produce and I shared a table with a nice
couple from south of Edinburgh who were on holiday
and day hiking from the Inn.
Rain is forecast for
tomorrow. I suspected I would have to pay for
my run of relatively good weather through Scotland
at some time.