Great Glen in Reverse

Day 15 Walking, Thursday, June 20.

Pine Guest House, Inverness to Drumbuie Farm, Drumnadrochit. 

Bus from Point A to Point B, but did spend the morning prowling around Inverness and accumulated 19267 Steps continuing to be a traveler/tourist.  Also tonight’s B&B is a mile out of the village center so that had to be done first from

the bus stop out, than back in for food, than back out.  

Trying various combinations of heel support, arch support, ankle brace, nothing.  There has to be the magical solution.  

Fantastic breakfast of this person’s favorite foods. 

Good bye to Angie my hostess who was such a fun person.  She and her husband have owned this B&B for 16 years and raised their family living in the basement.   They personally only have two windows which look out to their backyard, do the laundry for all the guests, and prepare the breakfasts down there.

This morning the husband Evan was hanging the towels out to dry in the backyard.  Orange and purple.   My room had purple, which was better than orange, but hot water for a shower would have been even better. 😀

Told Angie about the thief seagull yesterday snatching my food, and she said it is terrible how the birds have become so aggressive.  They often will swoop down and take an ice cream cone from a child - lifetime fear of birds for those poor kids most likely.  (Olivia being pecked by a rooster at the Jackalope!) 

Angie was wearing one of her Wocky Wooly Sheep aprons from Ireland. 

Apparently after World War II, there was such a shortage of food here in the Highlands that people were capturing and eating the seagulls (they are rather large).  Then the birds began to disappear and a law was passed that the gulls are now a protected species.  A species whose behavior has become a real source of trouble.  Bad Bird!

Inverness Church spires with a Castle on the far right. 

Kilts for sale all over Inverness!

Found the Waterstone Bookstore in the little mall. Great shop with huge sections of books devoted to Scotland:  fiction, crime fiction, true crime, history, archeology, travel, wildlife, plants, walking, climbing, etc.  Twice parked myself in a corner chair with the pack and poles on the floor and a stack of books in front of me.  Bookstores tend to leave customers alone if they are quiet, and reading.  

Imposing Funeral Home. 

Story Angie told me yesterday about a man who came to stay at her B&B.  She received a phone call from a man who was hiking the Great Glen Way solo and wild camping.  He wanted to know if she had a single room available.  Yes, when would he like it.  His reply was “when I get out of the hospital.”   He arrived by taxi and the driver had to help him up the steps into the house and to his room.  His leg was in a full cast from his thigh to foot.  He had fallen up on one of the high level routes and fell down a way over the side.  No cell phone signal.  Spent the night incapacitated, and in the morning dragged himself up to the trail. From there was able to call for help.  Severely broke his leg.  Makes my heel seem like a minor owie.  

There were these goody guys all over the city that artists painted. This one says it has Ben Nevis painted on the lower portion to acknowledge the highest mountain in Britain, which can be seen - if the weather is clear.  The character, Oor Wullie, is from a popular Scottish cartoon. 

The sign says “Where it all ends (or begins) - The Great Glen Way.  May the reverse route go a bit better for this trekker.  I shall continue on southward.  

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”  Marcel Proust