TGO Challenge 2015 Day 3 Athnamulloch Bothy Glen Affric to Tomich

Day 3

Today was a little more relaxed for me anyway as I knew the route and that Vicky had gotten over the really hard part yesterday with no issues. We had planned to have a 16 mile day today walking along the Affric Kintail Trail and then going into Tomich for a night at the Tomich Hotel (shower, bed, food) The walking was mostly level today along Loch Affric and around a forest track.

The weather had completely changed today from the previous two days. There was some high Cirrus clouds last night and that usually signals a change in the weather and we woke this morning with rain and low clouds and much colder temperatures. 

Everyone was packing up in the rain. Below is Jayme Morgan and Peter Molenaar (Peter we had met last year on the challenge and he had been very supportive of us)

Peter and Jayme were off to walk on the north side of Loch Affric while we were staying on the south side

We were also in our complete rain gear for the start of the day and we stayed in it all day

Glen Affric was everything that everyone said it would be as we walked along the side of Loch Affric for most of the morning.

Solitary Pine along the Loch

The rain would come and go put the clouds stayed very low all day. I would not have wanted to do the pass we did yesterday in today's low clouds. When the sun did peek out, it made rainbows every time. The rainbow seemed to match the color of the landscape and it was beautiful. We stopped several times in the morning just to look at the scenery

Affric Lodge- a very posh and expensive place to stay if you want to hang with Beckham and his friends - check out the ad shot at Affic Lodge below for some live footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaMuQPmzrrU

This picture is in color below but you can hardly tell the sky was so grey.

Finally toward the end of the Loch we were joined by other challengers making a decision about what to do with the rest of the day. We had been provided with a fine sign pointing toward Tomich that I know cut through the middle of the forest and cut about 3.5 miles off the proposed route for the day. I felt this was a good idea considering tomorrow's mileage was higher to get to Drumnadrochit. So Peter, Jayme, Vicky and I headed right toward Tomich and Louise and Jay headed left toward Cannich and stayed on the Affric Kintail trail.

A very nice sign post pointing the way. You can see this detour on the route map above for Day 3 it has an arrow indicating the right through the forest.

It was a nice track through the forest, but the forest had been heavily logged and clear cut so those sights were not pretty and a reminder that everything in Scotland is privately owned and subject to use (or abuse)

We arrived in Tomich and we were reminded that this is the birthplace of the Golden Retriever breed of dog.

The Tomich hotel of course was at the very end of town, but it was a welcome site with a bed, bath (not much hot water) but great food and drink.... more drink

Before dinner drinks had Alan Sloman and Phil Lambert join us in the bar (they actually continued on to Cannich that evening) and Judith (Barnes?) who was staying out on the lawn in her tent for the night.
Dinner was Peter, Jayme, Jeremy Burrows, Vicky and myself

                                     

Total mileage today was only around 12 miles in a reasonable time with no issues.