10th - 16th December

10th December

As the weather Continued to deteriorate and whilst checking the forecasts for the following days it was decided that continuing the trek  immediately would be potentially dangerous. Reluctantly I had to make the decision to hold up once again. During the following days the met office issued warnings as a horrendous storm engulfed the north of Britain with 40 ft waves and torrential rainf among heavy snowfall and sub zero temperatures.

It was several days before I was able to take a stab at the next section of the coastline.  While I waited patiently I helped iain feed the deer on the hills and made myself useful. We were also able to work on extracting the blog posts from Facebook to be used in the book. I'd often wondered if Facebook kept all your posts and had hoped it had as I had not kept a record of the trek anywhere else.

Copying the text from the website into a word document I slowly but surely managed to retrieve all the blogs although I was only able to find a few tip entries. On the whole though a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

With the days continuing to shorten and snow lay on the ground it was decided that my retreat should be extended until the weather improved. Taking heed of iains advice, local knowledge being priceless, opened up new opportunities I'd not expected. Over the next few days I became a tourist. On the 13th we jumped in the car and drove along the route I would be picking up and headed to glen nevis near fort William at the bottom of britains highest mountain ben nevis. Passing through fort William I seized the chance to visit the barbers. The following day we went further along the coast to see the mountain ranges of glencoe and passed a couple of locations that were used in the liam neeson movie, rob roy.

After the two days of excursions we were treated by Cameron and morag who handed iain some homemade sausage rolls,  a cooked lobster and a ham bone for nipper. That afternoon using one of off road vehicles on the estate we headed up into the hills to feed the deer. The continually changing views of the Scottish hills never ceases to amaze. Each time its different and in the varying light cast across the vast countryside something new always presents itself.

16th December day 286

Checking the weather forecasts the night before indicated a couple of days where the weather would prove suitable for hiking. It was an opportunity not to be missed. Rising early and fuelling myself with another of iains superb cooked breakfasts I got my gear ready. Today I was to be taking only the daysack with a few items of kit for emergency purposes and a pouch of food for lunch. I was also to be taking with me a new addition to my gear, a gopro video camera santa had delivered early.

Still dark nearing nine o'clock I looked up at the skies attempting to judge the state of the weather. The skies appeared to be fairly clear, it wasn't cold and whats more it was dry. Bats were circling around the cottage as I headed in to grab my lightweight pack and iain took me back to the farm he'd collected me from.

Arriving at kingairloch we pulled the car over into a passing bay and I climbed out. Feeling excited and eager to cover more of the coast line I set off away from the car and followed the loch side road back to the coast along the way passing several grazing stags unperturbed by my presence.

Reaching the head of the loch i continued to follow the road passing an old school house featured by robert Louis Stevenson in his novel "kidnapped".

"Kidnapped", by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (published in 1886) is one of the best known historical adventure novels ever written. Henderlands manse, as seen in the photograph, is one of the places Stevenson stayed whilst following the the Stevenson way a unique walk which has now been established.

It would be a shame to lose such an important part of Scottish history but a planning application has been lodged with the Highland council to demolish the building and replace it with a modern cottage. Should the application be granted a slice of Scotlands cultural heritage will be lost.

Without the weight of my enormous pack I was able to make good time following the stony shore and looking ahead with the perfect clear skies I was able to make out a snow covered ben nevis on the horizon. I Reached my first way point earlier than expected so I contacted iain to let him know I would be attempting to make it to my second way point across a small section of wilderness. 

Leaving the road and civilisation behind me I crossed a small beach, passing a large steel submarine bouy marooned on the sand, and up into the hills. Almost immediately I found myself having to climb small rocky ledges and follow wild goat trails to avoid soft marshes. The further around the headland I went the higher and more technical the climbs became. Descending from one of the peaks I stumbled on a small bothy hidden away from view close to the hills and to one side of a large secluded and extremely isolated beach. I'd come up to it from behind and above.

The roof,  which was pretty much all I could see from the hill, looked reasonably new and the building judging by what little I could see appeared to be well maintained. Once down from my birds eye position I walked round to the door, "pirates stores" read a sign painted on. I moved the large stone away from the door and went in to investigate further.

Behind the door was a single room, bunks to the left and woodburner and table to the right. As bothys go this was quite adequate and felt reasonably comfortable. If I'd been carrying my entire kit I would most likely have stopped there. I didn't have my kit though and I still had several hours before nightfall which was plenty of time to clear this wilderness section and make it back to the coastal road.

Leaving the bothy I closed the door and returned the large stone to its resting place and headed back down to the shore. I followed the beach as far as I could before having to cross a wide burn using three large boulders as stepping stones and heading back up into the hills once more. The slopes down to the coastline had now become extremely steep. I wasn't exactly walking along the waters edge but I was as close as I could get. Occasionally picking up trails worn into the hillsides I gradually made my way through the dead ferns and along the coast. The light was beginning to fade and the temperature was dropping quickly. With only a mile or so to go and the terrain becoming less wild I quickly made my way to the beach I'd agreed with iain would be a good place to meet at the end of the day. As I hiked along the shoreline I could see iains headlights waiting. This would be where I would set off from the following morning. I'd covered a good stretch of the coast and was feeling quite good about the accomplishment,  not having to carry my full pack had made a huge difference.

That evening,  back at iains cottage I was able to bathe my aching muscles before tucking into a lovely home made meal. Climbing in to bed I reviewed the gopro footage and edited a short film of the day which took considerably longer than I'd expected finally finishing up just after 3am. It had been a long day and although I was tired I was also excited about the trek I would undertake the following day, a short hike followed by a quick paddle in hoolley as long as the weather stayed in my favour.