Sunday 10 May
Having trouble with the battery – there seems to be a lot of plate sediment on the bottom – probably shorting all plates. I could give it a rinse out and replace the acid. However may do some sort of temporary repair – fingers crossed.
Northwards to Dalmally (A919) and then on to the A82 to Crainlarich and Tyndrum. Mountains are everywhere, predominating and towering right overhead, with clouds draping over the peaks. It is raining and heading into gusty and crosswinds – it is hard to stay on the road. There is a good deal of holiday traffic, mainly good drivers, occasional mad ****. Onwards to Glencoe and completed a huge half circle, up and down hill and mountain with wonderful views but cannot keep stopping to have a look. Running out of petrol, the tank only holds a gallon – it has gone seven o’clock, will try to knock someone up at a closed garage for petrol in Kinlochleven. No response! Pass a fish farm in Loch Leven and had to stop off because of torrential rain. I find an entrance marked ‘private’ on the gate, to a pinewood where I camped down for the night. I had supper and was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow, to dream sweet dreams, to the sound of rain drumming on my tent and the sweet music of a lullaby of the wind in the pines towering over me.
Monday 11 May
Six o’clock, still raining and wind now howling through the pines and bits falling on my tent. I am really warm, dry and comfortable in my sleeping bag, so I turn over and have another 40 winks and wait for the storm to pass (and of course an excuse to have a lay-in – an easy day – have earned it, a perk!)
Radio battery disconnected somehow, so no weather forecast. I get going and someone is talking about a London bus strike – I could not care less. I have gathered a nice pool of rainwater in a hollow in my ground- sheet, this I use to have a shave as I have not shaved for six days (it helps to protect the face from fierce elements). I have ‘brekky’ of porridge (with bran), jam for sweetener, lashings of milk which I have carried from Wigan, bread, more jam and cheese. I have an orange for ‘afters’. The rain is ceasing and wind not so strong – another 200 miles of mopedding lays ahead, up along the Caledonian Canal to Inverness, through the Grampians. The tent has kept the rain out well and replaces the tent I lost on my French trip.
Travelled on to Fort William, then along the Caledonian Canal, on the A82 to Drumnadrochit and then the A877 to Beauly, where I had to shelter from the rain, A little later I had to pull up and put down my tent in very heavy rain to a sodden birch wood. I somehow manage to get a good kip in spite of the rain all night. A dog in a nearby house sussed me out at about 4 am and barked, more from surprise, than defending his territory.
