TGO Challenge 2015 Day 4 Tomich to Drumnadrochit

 Day 4
I think today was by far the longest (it felt like it) and by far the worst weather of the Challenge.
We had a big day today of 18 miles to get to Drumnadrochit. It was over very varied terrain, not really any really big hills but lots of ups and downs.

The day started with a lovely Scottish breakfast again and they put all the challengers together at one table, probably to keep the smell in one place!  The Tomich Hotel was very nice and very helpful they even did a load of our washing (socks, underwear, and such) last night so we were leaving with warm dry feet... but that only lasted about one hour!

On our way out of town we passed a very large and new Holiday Park ( Tomich Holidays) it is a huge facility with even an indoor swimming pool. It is a self catering vacation village with a main house an also cottages all over the property

You have to go around and out the back of the property and when we walked around the back we found the working farm... at least we hope these guys were not waiting to be dinner!

 The initial walk out of Tomich was in good weather and sunshine but half way up the hill it started to rain and rain hard.

This was the last home we passed before heading into the hills for the day... Yes please when do I move in!

As we got on top of the hill the sun came out briefly and with it more rainbows.

                                     

 It rained so hard that even the camera got a bit wet as I tried to take a selfie with Vicky and rainbow

Of course the closer we get to Loch Ness the closer we get to all the wind mills we saw last year and you can even see the big electrical pylons in the pictures above that I think are worse to look at taking the power away from the turbines

After cresting the hill behind Tomich we entered a forest that was more like a swamp.

 The forest track wasn't bogs, just incredibly wet under foot. there was no were to avoid it so it was just walk for miles in the water.

The rain persisted as we reached a sign for Corrimony. A small town about half way to Drum. As you can see it is still 4.2km (3 miles away)

In those trees in the distance sits a Bothy for the only shelter around. In this bothy we found Peter and Jayme, Jeremy enjoying a little break from the weather. Jeremy and Peter's course was going to take them up a road into the wind, which by now was very fierce. We were at least headed east with the wind to our backs. We decided to proceed on as we felt we needed the extra time and despite it being so wet, we were still dry (except for our feet) and warm. 

The bothy in the trees. This one always has a bottle of whisky on the table to fortify its visitors.

We reached the little village of Corrimony which has an ancient ruins site called the Chambered Cairn  

http://www.explore-inverness.com/what-to-do/castles-great-places/corrimony-chambered-cairn/

it is a 4000 year old bronze age site.

 Out of Corrimony and on to Drumnadrochit- still 8 miles to go

The sun came out briefly now and then and when it did everything looked better. we entered another long forest track - The Lochletter Woods-

 There was a very long and steep uphill climb to the top of the woods till we could overlook the town of Milton

 Finally a sign appeared for Drum. It differed from the route that I had mapped but it must be right because it is a sign...right? 

Well it led us on a very steep decent on a very muddy and slippery path and while promising on the sign to be shorter, it was in fact quit a bit longer.

I could tell Vicky was really getting tired, but she kept up and had a smile on her face as we finally got down out of the forest and into Drumnadrochit.

Unfortunately the B&B I had booked was on the outside of town so we had to walk through all of Drum before reaching the Drumbie Farm B&B

 Another rainbow for the day greeted us from the sitting area inside the B&B and our hostess was very nice and welcoming. we had a lovely four poster bed and plenty of hot water in the shower.

sitting room of the Drumbie Farm B&B 

After we got cleaned up we got a ride back into Drum to the Loch Ness Inn Restaurant. It was amazing food and a great atmosphere. Vicky is feeling much better now

 We even discovered a new Cider. the Kopparberg also from Sweden. Not quite as good as the Rekorderlig cider we discovered last  year, but a good substitute

I highly recommend the Loch Ness Inn http://www.staylochness.co.uk/
We should have booked our stay here. We had a great time at the B&B but it was out of town a ways and we needed a taxi back after dinner.
So today was a really hard day and tomorrow was going to be a long day as well, so it was off to bed with a handful of Vitamin I (Ibuprofen)

Drumbie Farm B&B
http://www.loch-ness-farm.co.uk/