Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 5, day 1 - Fort Augustus to Kiltarlity

Not really the beginning of the end

Distance: 55.51km (total so far 1241.31km)
Total climb: 1660m (total so far 22,947m)
Steps: 65,608 (total so far 1,481,811)

Also:

Number of lochs: 1
Number of monsters seen: 34 (including stuffed ones)
Number of Shinty clubs visited: 2

The first day of the last week. When we got the 6 routes for this week, there was some hope that things would be getting shorter as we approached John O'Groats - and then we saw that wasn't going to happen. Still some long days to come.

At least the weather in Fort Augustus had improved - we were back to short sleeves and shorts, which was a great improvement on our arrival! Today's route was mostly continuing along the Great Glen Way, until we diverted northward off that towards the end.

Most of the day was spent alongside Loch Ness. When I say alongside, there was definitely a third dimension involved - the phrase "high above" might be more accurate. We had three big climbs up from the shores of Loch Ness into the hills to the north, together totalling about 1600m - which is quite a bit more than Ben Nevis from sea level.

Still, the going was mostly forestry tracks - as we moved north this week, we could see how much forestry was going on in the Highlands, particularly towards the north end. The contrast between the growing areas and the felled areas was still fairly brutal, but I was getting more used to it.

Once we were high enough, the views of Loch Ness in both directions were truly impressive. And, unlike Friday, the clouds had lifted so we could see the surrounding hills.

What comes up has to come back down - and since the only road was along the shore of Loch Ness, that's where the feedstations had to be. The first one in Invermoriston restocked my running pack pockets - by now, even more than at the start, I preferred to eat less but regularly rather than stuffing myself at the feedstations, so I went through a lot of cereal bars, cheese miniatures and small packets of biscuits. Not the greatest diet normally, but I was burning 4500 calories a day, so it was all fuel.

The reward for descending to the feedstation was an immediate ascent straight back up the other side, switching backwards and forwards to make the climb feasible. It was technically a mountain bike route as well as a footpath, although I wouldn't have fancied it.

Once we were up again, the views were as good as ever, and gave us something to look as we worked our way along. 

At the top of the hill, we found an interesting artwork. I'm not sure what you'd call it - it wasn't a statue or carving, just a circle made of bound branches called "viewpoint".

The idea was that you used it to frame the view - it actually worked better than the photo shows, and gave a view of the hills back towards Glencoe where we had come from last week. Of course, there were also other uses for it!

The rest of the morning was spent back on the forest trails, along which we could make good time, before descending back to the road at the wonderfully named Drumnadrochit for feedstation 2 and lunch.

Lunch was at the Shinty club in Drumnadrochit. We'd been told about Shinty by Martin, one of our Scots members of the party, who used to play it - its a game played widely across the Highland areas, and described as a cross between hockey and Irish hurling (which makes it sound lethal!). Apparently even the smaller Highland villages have Shinty teams, and it was our luck to have the use of their clubhouse for lunch.

The main tourist role of Drumnadrochit these days appears to be looking for Nessie, and as we walked through you could buy Nessie souvenirs ranging from the merely tacky downwards, visit Nessieworld, or delve into the history at the Loch Ness Experience. You could even take a trip on a boat to look yourself if you wanted to. I wondered about getting a small stuffed Nessie for my pack, but decided it probably would get lost before I made it to John O'Groats, so I kept going and got ready for the third and last big climb of the day.

This time we were leaving Loch Ness behind for good - the Great Glen Way headed on towards Inverness, but that was too far south for us (the first time anyone's ever said that about Inverness!) and we were heading up out of the valley almost due north. It was a less interesting afternoon's walking, initially along wooded tracks and then some quiet roads. Not unpleasant, but just not the majesty of the morning's views. However, the going was again good, and we came down into Kiltarlity in the late afternoon - journey's end for that day being in another Shinty club.

Song of the day - we were recommended by Martin to a couple of Shinty songs, so it had to be one of those - I'll go with "Clash of the Ash" by Runrig, which was a new song on me but one I rather like.

Last: The Caledonian Canal and the Great Glen Way

Next: A distillery and the NC500