Day 12 Laggan to Gairlochy 24 May

Distance 14.40 miles – cumulative 203.76 miles – 5 hrs 50 mins – walking time 4hrs 30 mins – pace 3.2 mph. Camped Garlochy Holiday Park
Frances at Lilac Cottage provided a continental breakfast presumably named for it’s size. We were joined by another walking couple and two fellas walking together both going in opposite direction to us walking the Great Glen Way. We are finding the company is always interesting given a shared passion for walking. There is also mutual quizzing to gather route intelligence, especially tea stops.
For the second day In a row the weather has been glorious. So…….drum role…….trumpet fanfare……the legs came out!

This landmark gives rise to a morning of angst along the lines of ‘does my bum look big in these (shorts)’. After 30 years of being together Steve still has not quite perfected the art of mixing genuine sincerity and spontaneity when giving the stock reply ‘no, of course not darling’. It was helped today by Lynn being reminded that the shorts she is wearing are a children’s size, a fact that will be approved of by her side of the family who always appreciate avoiding paying more tax than is necessary.
The day was spent walking beside Loch Lochy an area used during WWII for Army and Royal Marine basic commando training. Numerous plaques explain the remains of training installations, many of which are being preserved as memorials to the Commandoes and the role played by the local area, which is very suited to practising amphibious warfare.
Today we passed the 200 mile mark. Some readers who we gave our route plan to have spotted that our actual cumulative mileage is some 12% in excess of our planned estimated mileage. This is mostly due to going off route to campsites or poor estimates of distance taken from maps. Unspoken is that Steve’s planning was rubbish, fortunately Lynn is very tolerant and forgiving.
We spent the afternoon sunbathing by the tent and cooking our first ‘camp’ meal -almost hardcore now. From our tent pitch we had a view of the Ben Nevis range, a pleasure which awaits in a couple of days time.