Mark mentioned this description today and it has been, both pretty and perfect. Sure, yesterday had the usual fun way markers (see day 7 if you need an explanation).

But it also had so much rain we saw one puddle with a frog living in it. Even with the heater and hairdryer on full to dry out our clothes last night, we left the hotel in Nessieland, Drumnadrochit this morning wringing out the sleeves of my supposedly waterproof jacket, ready for 21 miles / 34km of walking.

The weather forecast promised no rain and the sun did try to poke out from behind the clouds as we crossed heather covered Highlands and tiny streams in the morning.

An important thing to note at this point ; we have crossed approximately a million streams today and a lot of them are impossibly pretty.

This is because a Loch, is very much not a lake. A lake is entirely land locked whereas a Loch has an exit plan. That many streams running into a Loch inevitably means a lot of hills and today has certainly not been flat. It has been stunning though: pools of sunlight trying to break through wooded glades and then out into stunning views down the whole of Loch Ness.

THIS is the Great Glen Way.

We also walked through several areas of forestation works that will ultimately improve this area, if such a thing is possible. Currently, a whole load of non-native pine trees planted in the mid-nineteenth century have reached maturity and with the minimal soil available here, they are falling over like dominoes.

Mark pointed out that huge pine trees are not black, flat, small or have spots on, so in fact, nothing like dominoes. If dominoes don’t work for you either, here’s a single tree that has fallen over like a single tree into someone’s house.

The take home message is that trees falling in the woods (and onto main roads) are a problem, whether anyone hears them or not.

So, whole areas are being cleared, commercially, supplying wood and paper products in the short term. Legally the companies must replant trees and they have to be native, so that in the long term, the original forest landscape will be restored. 

Maybe we’ll have to come back again one day……

In the meantime, we are trying to fix every detail we’ve seen in our heads forever, it’s not often you see something like this.

Distance – 34km