Day 2
Saturday 7th May - Allt Beithe to River Loyne
With pleasure I discovered that my "FWA" coincided with Shirley's route; despite my protestations that she should not hold herself up, she declared herself happy to walk with me, which lightened the mood of the weather. We were most impressed with the desire of Alec, the proprietor of Cluanie Inn, over late lunch, to help all walkers as much as possible.
Having been misguided by our interpretation of advice (not the advice itself) from other walkers at Cluanie, we found ourselves fording a decidedly daunting River Loyne, in spate, at about 8pm, and decided that we'd had enough and would camp, despite the downpour, on the riverbank, alongside a father-and-son team without whose shouts of encouragement we might never have had the nerve to cross.
I am ever-grateful - and to my shame, I can't even remember their names. For the first time in anger, as it were, I pitched my new Hilleberg Akto (rehearsal in the garden did not compare). Although at a somewhat drunken angle - the tent, not me - it did the job wonderfully, and we all awoke to a hint of summer to come, and so far untroubled by Roger's dawn Gockoo.
