17.5 miles – gailforce winds, torrential rain, hail.
A day of highs and lows…
High: the spectacularly beautiful Sandwood Bay;
Low: a powerful headwind driving torrential rain into my face;
High: Andy from GPS Training explained what I had done wrong and got my GPS working;
Low: my Spot X emergency contact device froze but Andy couldn’t fix that;
High: I managed to speak to Rachel on the phone;
Low: horizontal hail;
High: the Belgian waffle with toffee sauce and icecream I bought at the Old School House, Inshegra;
Low: another bloody hail storm;
High: the gorgeous Rhiconich River;
High? Low?: fording the fast-growing Garbh Allt river, up to my knees, inching across on ‘all fours’ with my trekking poles, and just managing not to topple (that would have been the end of the walk);
High: pitching my tent by the loch.
Day 2 in Photographs
It was shortly after this photograph that the heavens opened and the downpour poured down, making photography impossible. The detour through Kinlochbervie in the horizontal rain meant I could at least get a phone signal, so I was able to sort out the problem with my GPS.
Julia Bevan
2 June 2022 at 14:45
How long did it take your boots to dry?!
Guy
13 October 2022 at 15:47
Forgive the pedantry mate: where a river is shallower it will be faster flowing. I assume therefore that the river was considerably broader at your crossing point. Point to me? Here’s an emoji for good measure – 😉. (I know how much you treasure them.)
Toby
13 October 2022 at 16:17
Broader obviously! I needed the crossing place to be not too fast-flowing and not too deep, so that the force of the water (its velocity X the surface area of my legs with which it collided) was not sufficient to induce me to take a purler. Thus, narrow and or deep crossing points were no good. The place I chose was the broadest and shallowest on offer. And you want a point? Forsooth!