And so it comes to an end

We took Cassie for a walk. To begin with we thought we’d walk to a waterfall, but in the end we trekked 5 miles up and up to a v tight saddle between two big mountains. And the views onto the other side, down and across to a lake and more mountains with no roads or tracks, was fab. And, after three weeks of v patchy weather we hit the hills for our longest trek with wall-to-wall Mrs Sun. By the time we got close to getting back to the Morvich campsite Cassie was ready to be picked up, but she survived … as did we both. Although, C did fall flat on her face early on when he shoelaces got all tied up. Exhausted, but happy, we washed Cassie down and both took the rest of the year off [noting we’d both run 5 klicks the day before].

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thanks to Gary and Ruth …

Last night we stayed with old work friends of C’s in Arisaig. Gary and Ruth (thanks for having us) moved up here about a decade ago and have built this lovely house with views over the harbour and onto Rum and Eigg. They looked after us royally, we spent a lot of time talking about Scottish politics and the possibility of IndyRef2 and generally chewed a bit of the cud. This morning, after a walk around the harbour with the dogs (they have a small horse masquerading as a Bernese Mountain dog) we took off and have made it as far as Rannock Moor for the night. We intend to assault England tomorrow, where we shall not be taking any prisoners.

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the view from Gary and Ruth’s balcony

And what of Scotland? It’s busy up here at the moment, and that really surprised us. There are hundreds of motorhomes and just as many buses of tourists. It got better the further north we went, but it’s still busier than we’ve ever seen it. We really loved the east coast, loved the northwest and are now definitely a bit underwhelmed by anywhere near a major conurbation. I guess we come here for the solitude. And to be fair we have always had decent weather. This time, it’s been busy and the weather has let us down a touch. However, to be fair the last two days have been glorious and some of the colour

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a photo from this morning’s run

has returned to our pallet. But we will certainly pick and choose our timings next time – either early Easter or maybe as late as mid-October. By then we should hope to have the place more to ourselves.

Anyhow. From a writing perspective it has served a purpose. I have finished the rewrite and am now halfway through the reading out loud of Unsuspecting Hero to C. We might not make the end of the book by the time we get home on Tuesday, but we shall be close. 

All-in-all, then, a great break. Next? Certainly in the Doris our ambition is Spain and Portugal for the Spring. But there’s a lot of water to flow under a number of bridges before we go firm on that.

I’ll let you know.