Monday and back to the trek. It was lovely spending time relaxing with iain and nipper his over excitable puppy. After a good fried breakfast I got my kit together and we headed to the top of the loch. Agreeing to meet up again after I'd navigated the next wild section of the journey for a coffee I headed along a gravel track following the instructions iain had given me. The bad weather had added to the difficulty of making my way around the coastline which meant I always needed to plan several routes so I always had options. One thing I've found invaluable on the challenge is listening to the locals. Listening to iain and taking the winter weather into account it became apparent there was really only one plausible route to follow.
The gravel track lead into the hills, it was cold and snow was laying on the ground and among the grasses. It was an easy hike although after a couple of miles I found my pack beginning to weigh down on my shoulders. About half a mile later I came to a mountain bothy iain had told me about. I couldn't pass it without at least taking a peak but I certainly wouldn't be staying the night, it was far too early. The bothy was very similar to ones I'd seen before. An old single floor cottage restored. Inside two rooms, a living space and a bunk room. There were two tables and a couple of benches with a book shelf. It was dimly lit so I picked up a pocket torch someone had left and scanned the titles. One book stood out from all the others, bram stokers dracula, not because it was one of the greatest novels ever written but because it took me back to Whitby and Slains castle in Cruden bay. It was like I'd only been there days before.
After the short break I left the bothy and immediately picked up a trail I'd been told to follow in search of a loch iain described as the narrow loch. The trail soon vanished though and I was on my own with only my intuition to guide me. I knew a stream would run from the loch I just needed to identify it amongst the hundreds of watery veins running across the marshes from the hills surrounding me.
The temperature was now dropping and it began to hail heavily followed by a brief moment of snow fall as the skies turned dark. The ground beneath my feet was marshy with deep potholes and extremely hard going. My pack was feeling heavier with every step. There was no way I'd be able to cover the milage I needed to with the time available to me during the day. I'd weighed myself at iains cottage and then put my kit on and weighed myself again. My gear including the wet weather gear was now weighing 8kg more than when I'd left Southampton. At 30kg it was too heavy. I needed to get the weight down some how. I needed to leave something behind. After thinking about it I decided I couldn't do with out food and I needed to keep hoolley which meant I had to choose between either the tent or the tarp. Looking at the potential risks of this decision especially during the winter months I decided to loose the tent and air mattress. For me it was a logical decision the tent and matress weighing around 2kg considerably more than the tarp and bivibag. The tarp was also quicker to setup with more room to move about under.
Stopping on the marshes I took off my pack and removed the coffin and matress and laid them side by side on the snow. It was a hard decision, what if I needed them, what if I couldn't find somewhere to set up the tarp. I'd have to improvise. Slinging my pack back on I immediately noticed the difference. I headed off, my pace considerably quicker.
Now not so worried about the weight of the pack and the weight quite literally lifted from my shoulders I covered the marshy ground heading the way I felt was right. Coming across a large loch I knew I'd gone off trail. Looking about me I knew I needed to head closer to the snow capped hills nearer the coast. Trampling over the marsh and over a small hill I found the narrow loch. I knew where I was and where to go next. Following the loch keeping it to my right I headed between the hills towards glensada quarry.
It was getting dark by the time I'd started walking down off the hills. Iain had told me to pop in as I was passing to say hi to ian Henry. As it turns out ian wasn't working but I was expected. Unbeknown to me dinner and breakfast had been organised and a room for the night in the employees accommodation. I had to accept, I mean afterall how many people, other than the 200 employees there, could say they'd stayed in a quarry. I invoked the"random act of kindness" clause.
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