Jo was out at her school friend's for dinner and was also fairly late, so we were both a bit slow starting off on Saturday morning. The trip over the Lecht and the tiredness overcame Jo and she did not travel well. This was the first stop just after Tomintoul at a pretty spot overlooking the River Avon - not that Jo was appreciating it:
We eventually made it to Fort William in time to have lunch with Kelly al fresco at a sandwich bar in the pedestrianised High St. I tried out my "smile and shoot" feature and Kelly was the first female to make it work:
The start of the run/walk/climb was at the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre and there were hundreds of people there - many also doing the 3 Peaks Challenge, but some just wanting to climb Ben Nevis. Here we are at the start:
The girls had originally said they wanted to start at 6:00 pm but they were all so full of nervous energy that they eventually just had to get going before 5. Here's the 3 of them all set to start off:
What should we do now then? We decided to walk over the bridge and along the river for a bit as it was such a lovely day. We had only got a few hundred yards when, blow me, we spotted a pub! We headed up towards it across a stile:
They had 3 real ales and everyone was sitting outside the Ben Nevis Inn looking up at the mountain. The Inn is behind me here and you can see some of the parked cars - this was another popular starting place:
After a beer, we walked back to the Visitor Centre - this is Jo on the suspension bridge:
We weren't sure when Kelly would manage to get back down - as it happens they made very good time (Kelly will fill in the details in her blog). We checked in to our hotel and eventually wandered round looking for a place to eat. We considered the Crannog, a seafood restaurant on Loch Linnhe but eventually just went back to the Grog and Gruel, where we tried to get in to their upstairs restaurant. There was a waiting list so we sat in the bar and had a beer - then two, then three and still we waited. Eventually we got upstairs but didn't actually get our food until 10:30 pm, by which time Kelly was well down the road towards Challenge 2.
The girls had originally said they wanted to start at 6:00 pm but they were all so full of nervous energy that they eventually just had to get going before 5. Here's the 3 of them all set to start off:
What should we do now then? We decided to walk over the bridge and along the river for a bit as it was such a lovely day. We had only got a few hundred yards when, blow me, we spotted a pub! We headed up towards it across a stile:
They had 3 real ales and everyone was sitting outside the Ben Nevis Inn looking up at the mountain. The Inn is behind me here and you can see some of the parked cars - this was another popular starting place:
After a beer, we walked back to the Visitor Centre - this is Jo on the suspension bridge:
We weren't sure when Kelly would manage to get back down - as it happens they made very good time (Kelly will fill in the details in her blog). We checked in to our hotel and eventually wandered round looking for a place to eat. We considered the Crannog, a seafood restaurant on Loch Linnhe but eventually just went back to the Grog and Gruel, where we tried to get in to their upstairs restaurant. There was a waiting list so we sat in the bar and had a beer - then two, then three and still we waited. Eventually we got upstairs but didn't actually get our food until 10:30 pm, by which time Kelly was well down the road towards Challenge 2.
It rained on Sunday. I put on my anorak and walked up to the newsagent to get a Sunday paper for the journey home, as Jo decided she wanted to drive to avoid feeling sick. I pulled my hood up and tightened the elasticated drawstring then let go, only to be pinged full in my left eye by the plastic at the end of the drawstring! I was in agony all the way home and we stopped at the top of the Lecht to get some paracetomol. When we got home, I managed to sleep for a while.
Today the eye is not quite as sore, but I still have blurred vision. I set off for work at the usual time - not sure if I really should have been driving or not with only one good eye - but felt I should pop in to the hospital to get them to look at it. Casualty don't handle eye problems any more - you have to go to an opthamologist/optician to get it checked out first of all, so I drove over to Tesco at Danestone - too early - their optician section doesn't open until 9:00 am. I had a cup of tea and waited, but when 9:00 am came, I found out that the optician wasn't coming in that day! The girl was very helpful and phoned up ASDA at Dyce, but they, too, didn't have an optician in on Monday. I gave up and phoned my own optician in Banchory and I have an appointment with them at 3:05 pm this afternoon.
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