LEJOG day 60: Laggan to Invermoriston
I think I may actually hate my new boots- or, more specifically, the insoles. You see, the insoles in my old boots were inflexible and fit in so well it was hard to get them out, and sat virtually flush with the edge of the boot. The insoles in my new boots are foam, and seem to move around, and curl up at the edge and I think it's this extra curl which has caused the blisters on the inside edge of each heel, right where your thumb would go if you were planning to dip me headfirst into the river Styx for immortality-granting purposes.
Today's walk- the first half of it, anyway- should have had me basically skipping along, full of beans and joy. For 10 consecutive miles, the Great Glen Way ran along the towpath of the Caledonian Canal and the path of a dismantled and never-completed railway from Fort William to Inverness*. I'm sure at this point I don't need to tell you that these are two of my favourite walking situations. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy it because when I started out I was too busy worrying about the prospect of developing a blister on my left heel to match the one on my right that was hurting, and then later on I was too busy being in pain.
The second half was probably always going to be a bit of a loss, because it was about 8 miles of trekking along tracks in Forestry Commission pine forest, which I've done plenty of already. What I'd failed to appreciate before I walked it was that these particular tracks do not, ever, run straight- and the little wiggles on the map are basically the path playing hopscotch with the contour lines, which are really quite close together around here. Right at the very end, on the way into Invermoriston, whoever placed the way markers clearly had a head injury (probably beaten with the Stupid Stick) and lead me off the nice flat track onto a disastrously undulating path which ran almost exactly parallel to it- but I was too worried about missing a turn off and having to do extra steps to resist the idiocy.
In other news, it is possible to walk nearly 18 miles half on tiptoe, if you have the proper incentive (like two stonkingly painful blisters on your heels), but it will hurt your calves and knees. I think it's time for paracetamol and bed, and tomorrow may be a day to test the efficacy of modern pharmaceuticals. If there's a chemist in Inverness, I might even give codeine a try...
*The rail journey from Fort William to Inverness involves a change at Glasgow, costs £92 one way, and takes 7h39- so it's quicker than walking, but not cheaper.
Distance walked: 17.75 miles
Time taken: 6h03
Percentage complete: 85.1%
Miles left to walk: 168
Days since I was last rained on: 2
Lunch: ham and cheese sandwich...and then another ham and cheese sandwich and a mug of tea when I hit Fort Augustus
Last night's B&B: The Great Glen youth hostel, South Laggan: I can't imagine why you'd be here if you weren't walking the Great Glen Way, because there's nothing else for miles, but it's perfectly reasonable place to sleep in that case
The moss looks like it belongs in a swamp in the Southern US, or at least that's what films have lead me to believe
...despite or perhaps because of the pain, I found this hilarious
AND ANOTHER THING: I spent three hours walking along the edge of Loch Ness, the largest body of fresh water in the UK, and saw it precisely twice
Today's walk- the first half of it, anyway- should have had me basically skipping along, full of beans and joy. For 10 consecutive miles, the Great Glen Way ran along the towpath of the Caledonian Canal and the path of a dismantled and never-completed railway from Fort William to Inverness*. I'm sure at this point I don't need to tell you that these are two of my favourite walking situations. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy it because when I started out I was too busy worrying about the prospect of developing a blister on my left heel to match the one on my right that was hurting, and then later on I was too busy being in pain.
The second half was probably always going to be a bit of a loss, because it was about 8 miles of trekking along tracks in Forestry Commission pine forest, which I've done plenty of already. What I'd failed to appreciate before I walked it was that these particular tracks do not, ever, run straight- and the little wiggles on the map are basically the path playing hopscotch with the contour lines, which are really quite close together around here. Right at the very end, on the way into Invermoriston, whoever placed the way markers clearly had a head injury (probably beaten with the Stupid Stick) and lead me off the nice flat track onto a disastrously undulating path which ran almost exactly parallel to it- but I was too worried about missing a turn off and having to do extra steps to resist the idiocy.
In other news, it is possible to walk nearly 18 miles half on tiptoe, if you have the proper incentive (like two stonkingly painful blisters on your heels), but it will hurt your calves and knees. I think it's time for paracetamol and bed, and tomorrow may be a day to test the efficacy of modern pharmaceuticals. If there's a chemist in Inverness, I might even give codeine a try...
*The rail journey from Fort William to Inverness involves a change at Glasgow, costs £92 one way, and takes 7h39- so it's quicker than walking, but not cheaper.
Distance walked: 17.75 miles
Time taken: 6h03
Percentage complete: 85.1%
Miles left to walk: 168
Days since I was last rained on: 2
Lunch: ham and cheese sandwich...and then another ham and cheese sandwich and a mug of tea when I hit Fort Augustus
Last night's B&B: The Great Glen youth hostel, South Laggan: I can't imagine why you'd be here if you weren't walking the Great Glen Way, because there's nothing else for miles, but it's perfectly reasonable place to sleep in that case
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