Day 69: Fairies in the Rain

Distance: 18.3 miles
Dawn status: sick of the rain
Today was an eighteen mile walk along the Caledonian Canal, the redundantly named Loch Lochy, and the awesomely named Loch Oich. It sounds like a long walk, but we had no sore feet or tired legs: eighteen is the new twelve. But we were cold and wet because starting at about eleven o'clock, the Scotland Weather Gods treated us to a diet of cold, steady, rain. For the last few miles about all we could think about was the hot shower waiting for us at the end of the day.




The big news today: MAK is back! After a three day blister enforced hiatus, Michael was out in the rain, in his new shoes, and walking at full speed. I'm sure he enjoyed the chance to bum rides, and meet people, and write a guest blog, but he came to Scotland so he and Jan could walk with us, and he was happy to be back. So happy, he was dancing the crazy walking stick dance as he left the hotel this morning!




It's great to have MAK back, but not unexpected - we knew he'd be recovered today! What was unexpected was what we found a few miles into the walk, in a quiet glen on the banks of Loch Lochy. There, low to the ground, was a welcome sign and a small collection of wee treasures in the moss.




We almost walked by, but a few steps past we doubled back and poked our heads into the woods. We looked down the trail, and saw more. We walked in to investigate, and found Fairy Glen.




It was some kind of whimsical, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland kind of place that went surprisingly far down into the glen. There were umbrella mushrooms, trees decorated with small rubber boots, a whole community of gnomes.




The ladies below reminded me of Skydancers, terrible weapons we bought for our daughter when she was small.




There were bears and a stained glass butterfly.




It was a very cool place, and fun to explore. But we were already getting some mist and drizzle, and we knew the rain was coming, so we moved on before long. Sure enough, after another hour or so the rain started in earnest. It got cold. We kept warm by taking no breaks. Until we hit this sign.




Oh-oh. Soon after, we met this dude.




We had to wait about 15 minutes for a pickup truck to take us through a half mile or so of active logging. So technically, that's another little bit of the country we didn't walk. I hope they don't put an asterisk on our LeJoG completion certificates.




An hour later, we found refuge in a warm, floating pub. They were out of soup, and nearly everything else, but they did have hot tea and we did find something there to eat.




And they had tables. So Dawn did I could check the map to see how many more miles of rain we needed to walk through.




After lunch, we walked past the Well of the Seven Heads. The monument was built in 1812 to commemorate some crazy clan tiff that happened in 1663. Somebody killed one of the MacDonalds. This made the other MacDonalds mad, so some guy named Bald John went and killed seven guys that they thought did it, then cut off their heads. He was taking the heads to Invergarry Castle, to show the chief of the MacDonalds (Ronald?). The heads were kind of bloody and gross though, so first he stopped at this well, and gave them a rinse. And so now today we have this monument of a hand holding seven heads.




Here's the castle where Bald John was taking the heads. It's just a quarter mile from the hotel where I am sitting typing this post.




Tomorrow we reach Loch Ness! The weatherman is calling for rain. I hope he's wrong.

Location:United Kingdom