21st-23rd December

21st December day 291

I was now officially on a break until after Christmas, and as with everything on the trek, completely unplanned. I was also feeling under the weather with suspected man flu.  With the rain continuing to fall in a constant downpour we decided to stay in to allow me to catch up with my blogs. The weather was most definitely determined to keep me from continuing, thankfully I was in good hands and after a nine month hike the break was to do me good, not only physically but also mentally. The strain of constantly moving and surviving the challenges presented to me day after day had affected me in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

22nd December day 292

Over the previous weeks under iains care I'd begun to regain weight and relax, his generous and caring nature knew no bounds and when iain asked if I could accompany him to Inverness for the day while he took care of a personal matter, I felt honoured that he felt confident enough to ask.

On the way to Inverness we had to pass loch ness, a place I'd visited when I was about 14 with my parents,  eager to spot the monster I fell asleep in the car. On long car journeys this was quite common for me. As iain pulled into the car park of the "official" loch ness monster exhibition I came too, a little disoriented. Unfortunately the exhibition was closed which was a shame as iain had suggested that for my next little adventure I should paddle board the loch in search of the elusive beast and it would have been interesting to find out a little information while we were passing. Thankfully the cafe was open though so we stopped for a coffee and bacon sandwich before continuing on to inverness.

The rest of the afternoon I waited for iain while he took care of his personal matters giving me the opportunity to catch up on the latest tabloid news. Taking an alternative route around loch ness, this time I managed to stay awake,  I was able to see the extent of the challenge I would undertake next time I visited Scotland.

23rd December day 293

I'd not been feeling too well during the coming days and it had finally caught up with me. After having a lovely breakfast I climbed into a hot bath, my head was numb and sinuses felt clogged. After taking some pain killers I went back to rest not waking until later that evening.