Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 5, day 5 - Kinbrace to Mybster
Trains, blisters and rainbows
Distance: 56.14km (total so far 1415.26km)
One thing that was a constant presence during the morning was the railway track - there is an active although less-used line that runs alongside the road, and our first pitstop was next to a station - Forsinard, a mighty city consisting of two houses, a station and the Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre, which apparently contained lots of information about peat bogs (although presumably not how to get across them without getting wet feet). We passed on this source of entertainment, and continued up the road, now following the Halladale river north and ever north (which at least meant that we were mostly going slightly downhill).
We were aware that it had rained overnight, and we were certainly well to the north of Scotland now, but I was still amused to see the unmelted ice/snow next to the road. This was the beginning of July. I doubt the word "riviera" is used much in Scottish tourist literature!
One marker that interested me was this one - the old Scottish clan boundaries are still remembered and preserved.
The first part of our woodland walk was the only hill of the day, working up the side of Sletill Hill. We didn't go over the top of it, but it was a noticeable climb through the woods to the edge of the hill and out onto the open moor. We were in deer country, controlled by the landowners using deer-proof fencing. We'd seen some of that over the last few days, but the landowner here obviously had a high opinion of how much his deer could jump. The gates in the deer fencing looked liked something of a prison film!
The rest of the morning was alternate moor and forest, and the views were mostly over a wet countryside - the lochlans reminded me very much of the landscape in the Outer Hebrides, and were about as busy. You were reminded again of how remote the place was.
Lunch was welcome, because I was limping. I'd had a blister problem on the little toe of my right foot for most of the last four weeks, and I'd got away with just taping it every day - but whether the bog yesterday had infected it, or whether I'd missed with my taping either when I did the sock change at the end of the bog or this morning, it was quite badly unhappy. I limped into lunch, and asked our duty medic Bec to take a look while I was having lunch. She wasn't too happy with what she saw, but the middle of a forest track was not a good place for major operations, so she retaped it and gave me some paracetamol to blunt the pain until she could look at it that evening.
She was better at photos than I was, and got one of the local wildlife as well.
One sign that amused me again showed that we were well in the middle of nowhere. Mobile phone blackspots where there is no signal for some reason related to local masts and hills are common enough, but this was the first time I'd see a mobile phone whitespot - a place where there actually was signal.
I was expecting a group of teenagers clustering around it, but they obviously don't do that in the Highlands!
The last part of the day was purely along a road - we were now well clear of the forest stages, although we still had to jump out of the way of large chunks of forest being carried past on the back of large lorries. There was a good view of the wind farm that was still being developed, and the white turbines stood out nicely against the black clouds. The rain was mostly staying out of the way, but the sky was dark, and we did get some impressive rainbows.
I did mostly make it into the finish before the rain really landed. The village of Mybster was another one with a farm and two houses, but it was also only 15 minutes from our night's accommodation, and that would do nicely.
Song of the day - I didn't use music at any point today, so there wasn't a song that particularly stood out. Something by Rainbow would be a bit obvious, so I'll leave it for today.
Total climb: 548m (total so far 25,564m)
Steps: 64,774 (total so far 1,742,546)
Also:
Number of railway stations: 2
Number of trains per day at those railway stations: probably not much more than 1
Number of functioning toes: 9
We were aware that we were coming towards the end of our adventure, but didn't have much time to think about it. As far as today was concerned, it was another early start, and another long day.
We were really in the wilds of Scotland now, and this was probably the emptiest day of them all. The first village we encountered was late in the afternoon, and before then all we had was the occasional individual house.
The first part of the route was back onto the road - a very unused single-track road once again labelled as an A road. We had Loch an Ruathair on our left, but I was feeling a bit over-loched by now, and didn't give it too much attention.
One thing that was a constant presence during the morning was the railway track - there is an active although less-used line that runs alongside the road, and our first pitstop was next to a station - Forsinard, a mighty city consisting of two houses, a station and the Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre, which apparently contained lots of information about peat bogs (although presumably not how to get across them without getting wet feet). We passed on this source of entertainment, and continued up the road, now following the Halladale river north and ever north (which at least meant that we were mostly going slightly downhill).
We were aware that it had rained overnight, and we were certainly well to the north of Scotland now, but I was still amused to see the unmelted ice/snow next to the road. This was the beginning of July. I doubt the word "riviera" is used much in Scottish tourist literature!
One marker that interested me was this one - the old Scottish clan boundaries are still remembered and preserved.
Pitstop two was the elevenses spot today - they'd given us an extra pitstop, as I think it was obvious that everyone was tiring. This was just before we left the road and headed back off onto the forest tracks. I stocked up as usual, realised I hadn't been drinking enough, and headed into the woods.
The first part of our woodland walk was the only hill of the day, working up the side of Sletill Hill. We didn't go over the top of it, but it was a noticeable climb through the woods to the edge of the hill and out onto the open moor. We were in deer country, controlled by the landowners using deer-proof fencing. We'd seen some of that over the last few days, but the landowner here obviously had a high opinion of how much his deer could jump. The gates in the deer fencing looked liked something of a prison film!
The rest of the morning was alternate moor and forest, and the views were mostly over a wet countryside - the lochlans reminded me very much of the landscape in the Outer Hebrides, and were about as busy. You were reminded again of how remote the place was.
Lunch was welcome, because I was limping. I'd had a blister problem on the little toe of my right foot for most of the last four weeks, and I'd got away with just taping it every day - but whether the bog yesterday had infected it, or whether I'd missed with my taping either when I did the sock change at the end of the bog or this morning, it was quite badly unhappy. I limped into lunch, and asked our duty medic Bec to take a look while I was having lunch. She wasn't too happy with what she saw, but the middle of a forest track was not a good place for major operations, so she retaped it and gave me some paracetamol to blunt the pain until she could look at it that evening.
We'd been asked to stay in company for the first part of the afternoon, and I was lucky enough to join Andrea (the other Andrea, not Andy and not Rat Race Andrea) for the afternoon, who was great company. We chatted our way through the next few hours, and the pain in my toe at least backed off enough to ignore it.
The first highlight of the afternoon was the country's most remote railway station, Altnabreac - I'm sure there's a reason for having a station here, but it did rather look as if it was there for about three houses. We followed the railway track for a while and then headed off back into the forest.
I don't actually have many photos of the afternoon - but have a nice one of Andy and her group:
She was better at photos than I was, and got one of the local wildlife as well.
One sign that amused me again showed that we were well in the middle of nowhere. Mobile phone blackspots where there is no signal for some reason related to local masts and hills are common enough, but this was the first time I'd see a mobile phone whitespot - a place where there actually was signal.
I was expecting a group of teenagers clustering around it, but they obviously don't do that in the Highlands!
By now the painkillers were starting to wear off, and the rain was starting to come down, so I made a very brief visit to the last feedstation and tried to crank the pace up - this was a day I just needed to get finished now.
The last part of the day was purely along a road - we were now well clear of the forest stages, although we still had to jump out of the way of large chunks of forest being carried past on the back of large lorries. There was a good view of the wind farm that was still being developed, and the white turbines stood out nicely against the black clouds. The rain was mostly staying out of the way, but the sky was dark, and we did get some impressive rainbows.
I did mostly make it into the finish before the rain really landed. The village of Mybster was another one with a farm and two houses, but it was also only 15 minutes from our night's accommodation, and that would do nicely.
Song of the day - I didn't use music at any point today, so there wasn't a song that particularly stood out. Something by Rainbow would be a bit obvious, so I'll leave it for today.
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