Winding Down in Gijon

Posted on September 2, 2018 by Michael Kane

Winding Down in Gijon

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time – Bertrand Russel

It’s interesting to be doing my standard Sunday night post from Gijon on the northern coast of Spain.  I’ve gotten pretty far from my normal life over the last two and a half months and well, that was the plan. A little extra weird to be writing on a US holiday weekend.

At this point I still expected to be hiking but I’ve ended up at the beach instead.  I’ve come to realize the reason I’m here is to slowdown.  Even while I was hiking in Scotland/Spain I was scheduled, which basically means I’ve been scheduled continuously over the last two and a half years. I know, you’re thinking don’t expect any sympathy from me I’ve been scheduled continuously for….years. Is that a good thing?

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To be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy, just some change.  A chance just to stop and wind down. To get a bit away from the standard American mindset of go go go. It’s not easy, it’s ingrained in us at our core.  It’s taken me almost three full days to start to let go.  To get to the point where binge watching Netflix, strolling the beach and paths around Gijon, and just watching waves truly feels ok.

The first couple of days it made me anxious, shouldn’t I be accomplishing something.  Doing a specific hike, or going to a museum, or kayaking on the ocean.  And honestly the answer is no, relaxing, letting go, IS something. Something important that none of us do enough of in our lives. My only lament about Gijon is there don’t ever seem to be any clouds to watch.

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Even very often when we vacation we over schedule ourselves. We fly/drive someplace, spend a couple of scheduled days sightseeing, rush to fly/drive home and go to work the next day. As a result, we do in fact often find ourselves continually scheduled for …years. It’s not healthy, we all need a break from time to time and not just an afternoon. And I know it’s not easy, it seems impossible, but it isn’t and it’s something you need to do.  As with most things, it comes down to desire and planning.

This bit of time in Gijon has been good for me, I’m starting to feel a bit of a mental reset setting in. I’ve even come to some hard decisions just by allowing myself the mental space, freedom and most importantly the time to dwell on things. The best part, I have two more days here.

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Spain is a good place to do this, things move at a slower pace here.  There is no hurry, no tight schedule. Society seems, in general, to move at a less structured and hurried flow.  It makes it frustrating at first, but easier in the long run to mellow out and have a happy day my friends. So two more days to stick my toes in the ocean and enjoy the waves before returning  to being a bit more of a tourist for awhile, I hope you can find some time to wind down as well. – Rev Kane

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The Aquarium in Gijon

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Michael Kane

The Aquarium in Gijon

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My first full day in Gijon and I decided to head to the aquarium.  It was a nice little aquarium in the format you see a lot of them in these days.   It started with a river system and then wound around to the sea.  There were sets of small tanks representing various different oceans and a main larger tank with various fish, rays, turtles and sharks.

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I visited when I did because it allowed me to watch the feeding in the main tank.  I was curious how they fed the sharks. There were several smaller sharks under 5 feet including a small white-tipped reef shark. However there was one large, 6 foot and very bulky shark in the tank.

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Two divers came into the tank with buckets and were hand feeding the larger fish, rays, turtles and smaller sharks.  For some of the sharks the divers used poles.

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After a bit I realized I hadn’t seen the big boy in a while. I eventually went round to all of the viewing ports and he was nowhere to be found. Apparently, they must have a way of segregating him during feeding time.  Must be too dangerous for the divers with both him and food in the water.  Now the interpretive aquarium person may have explained this but my Spanish is not nearly good enough to have kept up with her presentation.  All in all it was a nice way to spend a chunk of my day. Below are my photos including eels, seahorses, jellyfish, crabs and more, enjoy. – Rev Kane

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Last day in Oviedo

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Michael Kane

Last day in Oviedo

One last day in Oviedo before I head for Gijon. A few last shots from around the city including an ancient Roman fountain still in tact, and my first bowl of a fabada (fava been stew with local chorizo and blood sausage) it’s delicious, enjoy. – Rev Kane 20180829_153450

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Camino Primitivo – Day 2

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Michael Kane

Camino Primitivo – Day 2

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A little more regular of a hiking day on day 2, up in the dark, got ready and out the door about 8:15. Misty morning, pretty but was burning off and knew it would be a warm day.

A bit out from the albergue the trail left the main road for a smaller road. I heard a dog barking, behind a fence, have I mentioned their love of big dogs here.

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This one was actually a total sweetheart

I could see a really big dog (150 lbs) and he was barking and about 50 meters away I realized he was in front of, not behind the fence. He was also starting to come my way.  I backed off to where he was comfortable and started to assess my options. Couldn’t hop the fence and go right that’s where he lived.  Couldn’t hop and go left there was no way through.  So I started looking at my GPS to see what around by road looked like and it was about 3 miles.  The dog was barking the entire time, and then I heard a gate click, and about 30 seconds later and old dude, hands behind his back came whistling into view and nodded to me. He had put the dog behind the fence and shut the gate, he strolled away as I moved forward.  Bizarrely, the yard was overrun with cats climbing around and over the fence had to be a dozen, it was all a bit surreal.  The old dude was nowhere in sight so I loudly said, “gracias amigo,” as I went by.  The dog had been barking but as I got closer moved off, I was relieved when just as I was almost completely past he came snarling and flung himself into the fence trying to get at me.  My feet went straight off the ground and the adrenaline surge easily helped me cover the next mile. Not a good start.

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Even more than the first day, except for some connecting paths, we spent most of our time on roads and concrete paths.  Even the connecting paths wound by farms and past people’s back doors.

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Coming through one little town on a road I heard a dog barking from inside. Ironically a huge untethered dog lay in the driveway and never even looked at me.  I was a 100 yards past the house and a vehicle was coming up behind me.  As it passed the house fido found his way out and chased the car which he gave up just in time to be close enough to go for me now.  I stomped at him yelled and scared him off but had my second morning adrenaline boost, hell who needs coffee on the Camino, happily he had only been an 80 pound dog.

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My head really started working now, maybe I should up my mileage, knock the trail out in fewer days.  Hell I have to have exceeded my Camino dog quota by now.  More roads did not improve my mood, neither did it getting warmer, or the pricker bush I accidentally leaned into.

Now I know how on a trail a day can spiral out and I started working on improving my outlook. I focused on things like the flowers I saw, a house built with a rockface running through it.  I made sure to eat and keep my blood sugar up, even pounded a coke. I kept reminding myself of a saying from the Appalachian Trail, never quit on a bad day.

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I was heading for Grado, a town of 10,000 and a place to get supplies. I had myself convince to run the trail to Salas before making any decisions, that would be day 5.

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Then another diversion, so instead of walking down along the river, we were doing the last couple of miles into town on the main road.  It was also getting warm.  Entering the edge of town we came upon some autoshops and as I went by the first one a dog burst out between two cars growling and coming hard at me.  He was both the smallest (40 lbs) and most determined puppy of the day, to the point I almost had to hit him with a trekking pole, which even at this point, I did not want to do.

This was my breaking point, baseball rules, three dogs and you’re out.  I walked about another half mile and saw some shade by a grocery store. I dropped my pack and sat down in the shade.  My phone dinged, the market gives customers one hour of free wifi.  I took it all as a sign, I checked, the train station was a quarter mile away, a train to Oviedo was leaving in a half hour.  There were places worth seeing and staying at the beach in Gijon a couple hours away.  I pulled the plug, reserved rooms, as I was about to head to the train station my wifi time expired.  Just as I had loaded the walking directions.  I got up and my two English friends came strolling up. I told them the news and we got a drink together before I jumped on my train back to Oviedo.

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I’m not a superstitious man but as I mentioned in a post recently I’m trying to go with the flow more right now, not be so rigid and planned, see what the universe has in store for me.  Sure that’s all a bit hippy dippy but what the hell, I’m on an adventure.

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Fact is I wasn’t feeling the Camino, sure it was only two days but it already had confirmed my concerns about a lot of road walking and the urban nature of the trail, another 12 days of doing the same thing was only going to prove I could do it for 14 days.  I didn’t need the proof, the trail is easier than the ones I just came off of in Scotland.  The decision in the end was to push for smiles and not miles.  I felt good making the decision and still do.  Tomorrow I head to the beach for 5 days to do nothing.  Honestly these will be my first truly unscheduled days in two years. I plan to do nothing but walk and sit on the beaches, watch surfers, eat seafood,  stream some Netflix, take a few pictures, do a little writing and see what comes my way or maybe just lay in the shade by the ocean.  Somewhere in there I’ll figure out where I’m going next.  I need to be in Lisbon by September 16th to fly to Morocco, so I’ve got some time to wander and have some more happy days my friends. – Rev Kane

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Camino de Primitivo – Day 1

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Michael Kane

Camino de Primitivo – Day 1

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My first day on the Camino Primitivo.

Started with breakfast in Oviedo and headed out about 9:30. A late start for me on a trail but I had a very short walk today, only about 8 miles.

Early on I met a couple from the UK and we chatted a bit. Turned out she has been a guide on the Camino for 15 years so I immediately set to grilling her about how things worked. She was incredibly helpful and was present when I needed to sign in for the albergue (pilgrim hostel) so doing that for the first time went really smoothly.

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Best hill ever on a trail

The albergue was nice and spacious, there were only 2 other guys staying with me initially and we were later joined by an older German couple and eventually three other hikers. One guy was from Knoxville, TN of course.  The other was from Spain, guess my greeting in Spanish was too good as he launched into a full discussion. I apologized, explained and he shifted gears.

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The hike was mellow, one descent climb at the end. After leaving the city we were walking through pretty Spanish countryside on roads and a couple paths. The route is generally well marked and at my one point of confusion a beautiful Spanish girl came to my rescue with very clear directions.

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I spent the afternoon with the English couple and we spent it talking and laughing. Today, mostly because of them, was exactly what I had been hoping for, some fun trail community to hang out with.  I was of two minds before starting the Camino.  First, excited about better trail community than I had in Scotland and skeptical about the urban nature of the trail. I had a great first day on the Camino and both mindsets were confirmed. I met some great people, and was a bit dismayed by the amount of road and street walking in towns.- Rev Kane

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Oviedo – Part 2

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Michael Kane

Oviedo – Part 2

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So the afternoon was good, checked into my hotel and had that minute of panic when they ask you to hand over your passport.  No worries, I’m an experienced traveler who knows they don’t need the passport, just the info which is why I carry photocopies of my passport.  Only one problem, there is a rule about travel, you always forget something, guess what I forgot? Yup.  Happily the manager this morning returned it to me at breakfast.

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So yesterday I had a list of errands, I wanted a shell necklace, the symbol of the Camino. I wanted some flip-flops for the hostels, I needed to buy some hiking snacks and snacks for the room.  Most importantly I needed to pick up my Camino passport at the cathedral.  Only one problem, I’m in Spain and it’s Saturday.  Sure they don’t eat dinner til 9 or 10 at night, so the restaurants are open, but nearly everything else closes at 5 and doesn’t open again until Monday.  Toto we are not in the USA.

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This is not a criticism, I love the idea of a slower pace, of actual weekends that exists in much of Europe. While on the trail in Scotland a hiker named Sal from the UK asked me if it was true most Americans only get 2 weeks vacation a year. “You people work too much” was his reply, and I agree. The issue was of course, me, with my American brain, not thinking about it in advance.

Other than the passport, nothing was critical, and neither was that.  So although I did that first, I tried something atypical for me.

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You see, I’ve been watching Dirk  Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on Netflix, the first season is beyond brilliant and enjoyable.  First, God I miss Douglas Adams. Second, a major theme is just letting the flow of the universe come to you. So in that spirit and in trying to stay outside my comfort zone, I headed for the Cathedral and wandered. I didn’t Google locations, map out a plan, design a set of locations and an order, I wandered the streets of Oviedo letting the flow of the universe take over.

This is not an efficient method, but much like the holistic assassin in the show I found my targets.  Along the way I met some folks and got to chat in Spain, to Brazilians, in Portuguese, good day. It did in full disclosure take a second wander at night, I told you, not efficient. But in the end I have everything, I’ve got my passport back and am even enjoying the quiet Sunday afternoon of my birthday doing laundry at an eco-friendly laundromat with free 5G wifi.  Did I mention eating white chocolate covered Oreos for my birthday?

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Below are a bunch of photos I took while wandering, enjoy and have a happy day my friends. My Camino starts in the morning. – Rev Kane

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Oviedo – Part 1

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Michael Kane

Oviedo – Part 1

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Welcome to Oviedo! Look who was waiting for me.  Apparently since he used Oviedo as a fill-in for his Barcelona film, they built him a statue.

Beautiful train ride once the sun came up.

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Rolling through the southern Pyrenees was beautiful. Started out thoroughly confused in Oviedo.  The train station was on the street I thought, just about 5 blocks away. So it took about 15 minutes to get oriented.

My first impressions of Oviedo are that it’s compact and clean, except wow, everyone smokes in Spain.  People seem nice, not that I’m interacting a whole lot.  There is a ton of art here and even some shows in English.

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Below I’ll include some shots of the street art and some from San Francisco Park, the big park in the center of town.

On the way to Hotel Vetusta I got a little worried about my accommodation, I don’t think I need to translate that, I mean my birthday is tomorrow but I’m not that old.

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Happily this was mine.

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Had a nice lunch at a cafe on the park and now off to checkin and wander a bit. – Rev Kane

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Day 5 Great Glen Way – Drumnodrochit to Inverness (bizarro world)

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Michael Kane

Day 5 Great Glen Way – Drumnodrochit to Inverness (bizarro world)

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You can read my last post about most of my last day hike on the Great Glen Way for the straight story.  What follows is a somewhat embellished, somewhat fanciful and somewhat true story of getting lost on a mountain in Scotland. Please be aware this post contains adult language.

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The last fucking mountain in Scotland and descending as well. That’s where I get lost. I came to the gate and the beware of work vehicles sign just as the forestry truck pulled up, and, unknown to me carefully blocking the trail diversion sign. I ambled down the trail only to find safety cones, crime tape and dire warnings of impending doom should I proceed, so of course I stopped and had a debate with myself about whether or not to ignore the warnings and proceed. I remembered there was a woman shortly behind me on the trail.

The plan became to wait for the gate sound and see if she came the the same way. The gate creaked, when no one appeared a couple minutes later I decided to backtrack and take the turn I’d bypassed. When I did I promptly found her wondering in circles looking dazed and confused. Not a good sign, we had found one sign but it was laying in the grass with arrows going in two directions, this would become our normal the rest of the day.

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We decided to walk uphill,  something counter intuitive to every instinct I had 16 miles into a hike with a heel blister the size Edinburgh developing on my heel.  But you know, she had GPS.  It yielded some minor success on the top of the hill as we found four college students from Prague wondering dazed and confused, checking their GPS. This of course initiated the thing that is most likely to get you killed on a hiking trip, the GPS confab.

They compared their maps amd paths, I’m sure there were mentions of things like waypoints and declinations or some other such nonsense. We could see the city. I suggested we just go downhill and catch a fucking cab. After five minutes with absolutely no resolution we decided to generally go left, thank god for GPS.

This meant uphill and over and I decided to stick with it the Aussie I’d found they’re generally nice people, and as a result of walking while still debating her own GPS we promptly lost any trace of the students from Prague. We reached the top of the hill and after consulting the GPS, went left.  This connected to a road that went downhill, I was all about a downhill road and started down while my friend continued to comment how according to her GPS this direction lead to falling off the earth. Fine, at least I would be done walking.

We continued down and she remarked regularly we were doomed but I was walking downhill so all was right with my world. Eventually  we saw a man and a small dog bounding through the bushes.  Upon seeing me the viscious beast ran straight for me, taking up a powerful stance just in front of me obviously prepared to defend its master’s honor.  The terror was immediately ramped up by hearing the killer’s name, “come here Honey.”

We negotiated with the beast and its owner, who promptly set off to lead us “back to the trail,” and of course he added it’s “just past my house.” Code, as all hikers know, for welcome to the real life version of the film Misery. But it was downhill which every good forest serial killer knows is a hiker’s soft spot so we merrily followed along.

Arriving at the base of the hill, Honey’s true nature was revealed and she took off on a bloodthirsty tear for a pond full of ducks leaping bodily into the water on the attack.  Along her run she was terrifying, don’t believe me, well she flushed 4 college students from Prague out of the bushes running for their lives until they realized her blood lust had an avian focus. We were all together again, this greatly reduced our chances of being serial killed.

So as a merry band of Honey’s near victims we happily stumbled toward the city just past the graveyard of Honey’s victims.

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We found actual trail signs and began following them until the diversions startred again.

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It was all too much for one of our band who fell over dead on the grass.  Top Gear rules, a man falls, you leave him behind. It was about then we realized the Aussie was gone. No worries, forward on to Inverness Castle.  With the grief of their lost friend overwhelming them the students from Prague bid me farewell to get ice cream.

Shortly after, I found a park with restrooms and popped in.  Upon walking out, the Aussie was waiting for me. Non-fazed we continued walking to our next diversion. I knew we were in full Twilight Zone mode when we passed Horney’s Pleasure Faire setting up on the park.

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The GPS said cross the bridge, but the men in vests and little yellow hats refused us access, they said, “you must use the diversion.”

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Now I knew why the Aussie was here, it was to usher me along before the long train of profanities exploding from my mouth, I’d had one diversion too many today.

We found another bridge and climbed one final hill to the end marker for the trail.

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At that point, the Aussie revealed she had only been hiking the trail under the command of a stuffed dog, took it out of her pack and promptly photographed it at the end marker. I then quickly concluded my adventure by heading for my accommodations in the exact wrong direction. Have a happy day my friends. – Rev Kane

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Day 5 Great Glen Way – Drumnodrochit to Inverness (straight story)

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Michael Kane

Day 5 Great Glen Way – Drumnodrochit to Inverness (the straight story)

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The long walk home.

So I’ll be writing two versions of my 5th day on the Great Glen. The first will be the fairly standard trip report of the walk with some pictures. That’s the one you’re reading now. The second will be a slightly embellished more literary version about getting lost on a mountain in Scotland on the back end of my hike, and being “rescued” by a dog named Honey. Comparing the two accounts should give you some interesting insight into my writer’s mind.

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The day got off to a late start as the BnB didn’t even start breakfast until 8AM. So I was a little worried about making the 6PM checkin time in Inverness,  silly I know but I don’t like to inconvenience people.  The 20 mile section started with the highest climb of the trip. Although steep at points it was mostly a steady long climb over beautiful forest trails. The full climb but plus a second peak took almost two hours.

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The middle section of the hike was reminiscent of the West Highland Way. We we were on top of the mountains walking alternately between cut and growing stands of spruce forest with moors full of heathers in between. Pleasant walking as the sun was out and the midges were not.

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I had decided to try and avoid my standard long day heat rash by only wearing my liner socks, mistake. I did avoid the rash but ended up with a huge heel blister on one foot. Yes, I had in fact remarked the day before about how I rarely get blisters. Totally cursed myself.

It was a pretty day but my energy was waning, my head was as ready to be done as my feet. On a lunch break I once again ran into the lads from Glasgow and we had a nice chat on the side of the road. The last six miles of the trail were a gradual descent into Inverness, well at least it was supposed to be.

We came to a gate that indicated a diversion on the trail, that I promptly missed.  But I knew something was up and waited for the person just behind me on the trail to catch up. When she didn’t I knew I had to backtrack.  Eventually, I would find her, then 4 guys from Prague wondering around with some loose idea of where we should be going. There were no signs or at times official trails.  After some time and losing the boys, we just decided to go downhill.  In the end and finding a dog named Honey, it worked out and we made the final walk to the castle and the finishing sign.

I’ll have more thoughts on the overall experience in another post but it was a happy two weeks in a beautiful place with nice people and I’m glad I came.  Hope you are having a happy day as well my friends. – Rev Kane

 

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Day 4 Great Glen Way – Invermorsten to Drumnodrochit

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Michael Kane

Day 4 Great Glen Way – Invermorsten to Drumnodrochit

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A peaceful and mellow day on the trail. Started with a massive thousand foot climb, one of two for the day. The first one does the altitude in an a little over a mile so it’s steep.  I downed a Coke pre-climb to give me a boost, nice view on top.

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Over the next 6 miles of quiet forest track and old roads I didn’t see a single person. When the low road I was on finally merged with the high road I encountered several couples hiking the other way.

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There was an interesting spot today that for some reason I didn’t think to photograph. A little pottery shop just off the trail at Grotaig. Great little spot with a wonderful owner. I met up with some hikers from Glasgow and we all chatted with the owner over coffees and ginger beer. He even provided some highland hospitality and gave us some complimentary homemade fruit breads.  What was meant to be a 5 minute cold drink stop turned into a really pleasant half- hour rest.

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Heading out I soon caught up with another hiker I’d met the first day. We chatted over the last three miles down to today’s finish.

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Another day of great weather along Loch Ness, 20 miles tomorrow to the finish line. – Rev Kane

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