LEJOG day 63: Inverness to Dingwall
First things first, there's something I have to get off my chest: what kind of monster orders two pints of beer as they sit down in a restaurant? Answers on a postcard, please.
I had a day off in Inverness, the "city in the Highlands", also known as "the cultural capital of the Highlands", which I was expecting to be full of, I don't know, culture, for some reason. Instead, I found that the castle is a Victorian-built court of law on the site of a historical stronghold, which you can't go into unless you've a court date and a lawyer, and the Cathedral was quite definitely smaller than Kings College Chapel. However, there was a Pizza Express so it wasn't a complete loss.
Today was the first of many consecutive days of road-walking. Every step I took was on tarmac, and the relative thinness the soles of my new boots compared with my old ones is noticeable under those conditions. The blisters are much better, though.
It was actually a nice day's walk- once I made it over Kessock Bridge, I just ambled along various quiet country lanes along the Beauly firth and then through farmland, and it was all quite reminiscent of Cornwall. The sun came out, I happened across a two-mile shortcut along a cycle route, and at the end I had tea in the local Tesco, where the guy behind the counter topped up the pot with extra hot water and gifted me a banana on the basis of some kind of backpacker kinship.
Plus, I finally earnt the right to sing the chorus of The Proclaimers' 500 Miles in the past tense, even if I didn't do any falling down at doors.
Distance walked: 15.90 miles
Time taken: 4h33
Percentage completed: 89.6%
Miles left to walk: 117
Days since I was last rained on: 5
Lunch: hoi sin duck wrap (there's an M&S in Inverness, too), crisps, cake, flapjack, jelly babies- I just ate everything
Last night's B&B: Ardconnel House, Inverness: fine, just not very used to walkers
1,000 miles from Land's End
I had a day off in Inverness, the "city in the Highlands", also known as "the cultural capital of the Highlands", which I was expecting to be full of, I don't know, culture, for some reason. Instead, I found that the castle is a Victorian-built court of law on the site of a historical stronghold, which you can't go into unless you've a court date and a lawyer, and the Cathedral was quite definitely smaller than Kings College Chapel. However, there was a Pizza Express so it wasn't a complete loss.
Today was the first of many consecutive days of road-walking. Every step I took was on tarmac, and the relative thinness the soles of my new boots compared with my old ones is noticeable under those conditions. The blisters are much better, though.
It was actually a nice day's walk- once I made it over Kessock Bridge, I just ambled along various quiet country lanes along the Beauly firth and then through farmland, and it was all quite reminiscent of Cornwall. The sun came out, I happened across a two-mile shortcut along a cycle route, and at the end I had tea in the local Tesco, where the guy behind the counter topped up the pot with extra hot water and gifted me a banana on the basis of some kind of backpacker kinship.
Plus, I finally earnt the right to sing the chorus of The Proclaimers' 500 Miles in the past tense, even if I didn't do any falling down at doors.
Distance walked: 15.90 miles
Time taken: 4h33
Percentage completed: 89.6%
Miles left to walk: 117
Days since I was last rained on: 5
Lunch: hoi sin duck wrap (there's an M&S in Inverness, too), crisps, cake, flapjack, jelly babies- I just ate everything
Last night's B&B: Ardconnel House, Inverness: fine, just not very used to walkers
Great clouds in your pictures. And, congratulations on completing 1,000 miles. Your Grandfather is impressed.
ReplyDeleteso still alive eh! and ambling on semi-gregariously, albeit pootered, blistered and hobbled with frankensteinian feet...
ReplyDeletecongrats dude, was a sincere pleasure to your acquaintance make. I'm delighted you'll soon be approaching your spiritual terminus and as you intimated in a previous post was thrilled to see you in kingshouse albeit in a less than copacetic state not but a week ago
anyways I shall bid thee safe peregrinations and whisper a quiet slàinte with my inaccurate moral compass pointed towards my favourite single-serving Sassanach whilst tilting my jar of the black stuff in wistful indulgence of my highly parodied and self-destructive national proclivity
huh? yeah you know what i mean
only a short hop now
love and hugs
anthony
You found it! Still hobbling on indeed, I should buy shares in Compeed- these new boots are killing me! I'm going to interpret the last bit as meaning you're using me as an excuse to drink heavily :P
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