Day 59 Inveroran to Kingshouse

13 May 2013: 16km. Started 11:00. Arrived 16:00.

I woke up and saw the toe of my left boot seemed to be separating from the sole – hopefully just a cosmetic problem and not a full thickness separation, but I will need to keep an eye on it.

Zita cooked me an enormous breakfast then drove me to the Inveroran Hotel to restart at the point where I had stopped the previous day. I had just packed a few things for the day in my rucksack but even with this light load I noticed that I was walking slowly.

It was the sort of day when the weather changed so quickly that I was getting four seasons in five minutes. This included sleet for winter. Unfortunately most of this weather montage included varying intensities of precipitation. There would have been amazing views but unfortunately in the main I had to be content with imagining them as visibility was poor.

Given the poor weather and the fact that I knew Phil could not collect me until late from Kingshouse, I made a small detour to the ski lift café. Initially it was almost deserted but soon it became part of a “film set”. It was rather a surreal experience being surrounded by a team making a Singapore Airlines advert on a windy, rainy and cold day in the middle of the Highlands of Scotland. I also met the two men who I had seen at breakfast at Milngavie. They had been camping but were struggling with the weather and managed to hire a “pod” at the ski centre so were not going any further that day.

Leaving the café, I was rewarded by sight of a herd of deer. However more was to come, as the Kings House Hotel encouraged deer to approach and I saw them close up.

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Phil was even later than expected as one of the people for whom he was doing baggage transfer had fallen so he had volunteered to take her to the hospital for an X ray of her arm. He really does everything he can for anybody who needs help in this remote corner of Scotland. However it was not a problem for me as I had settled in at a table in the corner of the bar, ordered an early evening meal and was entering some new routes on my GPS in line with my altered route north of Fort William.

Phil arrived and we returned to the house where I discovered a further “family” member – Arthur the stag showed up to receive some food. I spent the evening watching a television programme with Phil about wildlife in the Outer Hebrides and drinking his whiskey. The last walker who Phil and Zita had rescued had finished off the best single malt – their generosity and hospitality clearly has no bounds! Later Zita returned from one of her work roles. They were both relieved to hear about my revised plans for the rest of my walk and we agreed logistics for the next day. Zita even gave me a hug at bed time!