Thursday 14 June 2012

Scottish Shenanigans

Weekend adventure no 3...Dave, Ant, the Fairy and me travelled up to bonny Scotland planning on recceing the West Highland Way in 2, maybe 3 days. The weather had other plans...

Arrived in Milngavie, Dave and Ant hit the pub, Fairy and I hit the charity shops! We stayed in a campsite just outside the town all ready for a 5am start the next morning.

Carb loading?
Fairy and Ant are my support crew for the WHW race on 23rd June so while Fairy and I ran Dave showed Ant where to meet us. My ankle was still hurting and Fairy had a strangely swollen knee/lower leg from running a marathon the week before so we were both the running wounded.
Approaching the Beech Tree Inn
The run went well, Fairy's knee was hurting but she'd taken some 'super duper' painkillers so we carried on along the loch to Rowardennan.
Ant snoozing at Balmaha

Ant joined us from here with Dave driving to Beinglas Farm. I had to be really cautious landing on my left foot which really slowed me down along the rough track by the Loch, which was annoying as this is my favourite bit of the route. We spotted 2 runners ahead who we were catching. It shows you how spooky the internet can be as I recognised them, knew their names, but we'd never met! I've been reading John Kynaston's blog (Mr Blogtastic) almost daily since 2008, when I first entered the WHW. It's full of really useful and interesting info and well worth a visit. Anyway the runners were Katrina, John's wife and their friend Caroline. After introductions Fairy and I headed off, with me doing my usual spectacular headlong fall (nice black knee) meeting Dave at Beinglas.
As we approached Derrydaroch I spied another familiar figure, it was Mr Blogtastic himself! More introductions, John headed back to meet Caroline and we carried on to Carmyle Cottage to meet Dave.
Cow Poo Corner
We played leapfrog along the route with John and Caroline till just before Crianlarich woods when I stopped and had a chat with them and Fairy pushed on to Auchtertyre, where we were stopping. Ant had run ahead so we all finally met up at Straithfillian Wigwams, where we'd booked a wigwam! The wigwam was really cool, we headed over to the Real Food cafe in Tyndrum to eat, then back for a party with lots of beer, dancing (yes after 50 miles of running!) and a huge fire!
Trouser Socks!
The next day we'd planned to run as far as possible towards Fort William and then finish it off the following day. We awoke to a howling gale! Dave and I ran to Tyndrum and then gave up whilst Ant was itching for a run so we kicked him out of the van at Bridge of Orchy and made him run across Rannoch Moor to Glencoe. As we drove along the A82 to meet him the wind got worse, we saw a motorbike and a big camper van blown off the road, and there were police and fire engines along the road. Sitting in Mrs Um in Glencoe carpark with the rain lashing down and the wind trying it's best to tip the van over we got a bit worried about Ant. Just a bit. 

He appeared finally, thank god, and sitting in the van we decided to head home just as there was a loud banging crash and the front and rear windows of Mrs Um smashed with the wind! That was it, we headed south!

Another adventure ticked off...







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