Day 3 - Sunday 8th May
Inchree - Loch Eilde Mor
(26km / 650m ascent)
After a wonderful breakfast we set out for Lundavra after first taking in the little track that rollercoasts you above the waterfalls and then through the Glenrigh forest. Looking back westwards we could see Glen Gour getting a snow shower.
As we strolled further up the track we saw big black clouds in every direction but above us, with huge curtains of hail and snow trailing beneath them. Phil explained that the Germans have a particular expression that explained how we were feeling - known as Schadenfreude. Some other blighter was getting a pasting - but wonderfully it was not us!
We had another brew when we broke free from the forest by the perfect little stream that runs through a little piece of Paradise - Lundavra.
It is not possible to tell you how beautiful this place is - the farmer is known to be reluctant to let walkers through during lambing time - but Phil & I agreed that in the unlikely event of us winning the lottery (tricky as neither of us plays it, so roughly the same odds) this would be the one piece of real estate we would buy in Scotland - then we would stick up notices telling everyone to keep out! (only joking.)
Having said all that neither of us had the wit to get our cameras out and take a picture - so you will just have to go that way yourself next time!
Lunch was taken where we joined the West Highland Way - in a bit of a messy spot full of discarded fruit skins and general thoughtlessness. The chaffinches enjoyed our company and we enjoyed one of those fierce looking showers for a couple of minutes while we had another brew.
As we made our way south and then eastwards on the WHW we met dozens of WHW'ers all looking a bit glum and footsore. Polite conversation was made but Schadenfreude kicked in & we had a fit of the giggles and had to walk on. What is it with these people? Why so glum? The weather was great, the scenery fantastic and we still had loads of Scotland to discover! It must have been their blisters...
We trundled along quite nicely, taking in another brew at Tigh na Sleubhaich (when it promptly got all blowy and cold again - only happened when we stopped) then ambled along the track to the Mamore Lodge Hotel - where we bumped into Di & Mike again. Three excellent pints of something Dark from an Island and we felt suitably re-trained and before too long we were camped up at Loch Eilde Mor enjoying the sunlight playing on the mountains.
Phil produced a nice red to wash down my lamb hotpot (many thanks to Lynnie for spending weeks with the Sunday lunch drier.) We took a crash course in Phil's whisky bottle, for educational purposes, and to lighten Phil's load, and slept like lambs in another sub-zero night.
