TGOC '22 Day 4 Drumnadrochit to Glen Mazeran

Day 4 was something I have wanted to do each time we go to Scotland but have not done until now. Take the ferry across Loch Ness to the other side. The ferry is run by Gordon Menzies, quite a celebrity in his own right, who lives right on Loch Ness and runs his own Ferry service. He has been involved with many activities on the Loch, which include most of the Nessie searches and a few other high profile activities. He is quite the character as I discovered on our way across as he describes in detail some of those adventures. He ferries Challengers across the loch for a small fee and does so during the entire Challenge as many times per day as needed. He is a huge asset to the Challenge community. The first sailing is at 8 am sharp and that is what I wanted to be on. Not knowing what my day would look like, having never been this way, I wanted to start early. In hindsight, I should have stayed for my breakfast at the Loch Ness Inn, as again, I had plenty of time with the amount of daylight to make it the 22 miles walking and 4.5 miles by boat for a total of 26.5 miles.

Up early and out of the hotel by 6:30 am,  before anyone was stirring, I walked down to the CO-OP to check on breakfast pastry delivery. They open at 6 am but didn't get their delivery for breakfast till 8 am! I would be on the ferry by then, so I just picked up a few items and headed for the pier. 

My room was the one under the word Inn, spelled in the shape of Nessie. You can see the large addition on the back where they have added many more rooms

Walking through the center of town. 

Crossing over the River Enrick that connects to Loch Ness 

More tourist shopping

The Nessie Center and Museum 

About 2 miles outside of town, you come to Temple Pier, where the instructions say to meet the Ferry. I was a bit intimidated by this sign and hesitated to go down to the pier for a few minutes. As it turned, out this is Gordon's road and house and his private pier! 

A view across the Loch to the remains of Castle Urquhart. Vicky and I visited the castle ruins here 35 years ago on our honeymoon, which was our first trip to Scotland. 

Gordan telling us stories and never having to look ahead to pilot across the Loch! 

Urquhart Castle 

More complete view as we sail by.

A pretty smooth ride across this morning

Gordon and his boat bidding us farewell after dropping us off at the very unused pier at Farigaig

Busting through the gorse to get from the "pier" on to the road

There will be a substantial amount of road walking in the first half of today. About 7 miles worth! This first bit, after getting off the boat is on a quiet minor road. 

I am not sure what kinds of plants drive themselves, but it makes sense they would drive if they were overweight. Best to be careful of fat plants! 

When I climbed the hill to the little village of Errogie, I found Ali, one of the Challenger organizers waiting for a bus. She was going to have to withdraw due to a hip issue and didn't want to put her future plans at risk by getting more injured. She would be home in about an hour! I was sorry to hear this, but it must be nice to have Scotland as your backyard to walk in. Up came Charles and Duncan as well

Vicky and I have always played the game of best cottage in Scotland on our crossings. When I got to Errogie I thought a few might qualify for her to look at later. Errogie turns out to be a cute little village. Just 14 miles from Ft Augustus and 16 miles from Inverness, seems like it is perfectly situated little area. 

Cottage #1, more modern build. 

#2. A former school house turned home. I like it. 

Leaving Errogie and walking the hard B road, it rains most of the time for the next few hours. The sheep and the new lambs don't seem to mind 

More rain walking the road. Fortunately the B roads remained pretty quiet all day. 

I used my umbrella to stay dry. It really helps when you don't have to keep all bundled up especially with your face almost hidden when cars can show up at anytime. Scotland is touchy on umbrellas as the wind blows hard, but when it is just a constant drizzle, the umbrella is a fantastic item to walk with. 

Just before getting off the B road walk, a farmer and his sheep dog were working the sheep in a field next to the road. I recorded some of the dog working the sheep.

Here we get off the B road and start up into the Monadhliath Mountains. Giant hills of peat and bogs! 

Just past this sign I stopped for some lunch under the cover of some trees to get out of the rainy drizzle. Under the trees was Jim Davidson, who I will eventually walk with for the next couple of days. Not long after came Ester, Charles and Duncan. 

We all have lunch, with Jim and I finishing around the same time, so off we go up the track. I think Charles needed to brew some fresh coffee. (jealous!) Below you can see the hill we need to climb in the far distance. This is around 2300' and we know the track goes almost to the top, but after that, there will be about 2 miles of trackless bog hopping to descend into Glen Mazeran. 

Climbing up the track, you can see to my right a huge canyon that has been carved by the water running through the peat. 

Looking back at the canyon from higher up the track 

Still higher

Reaching the top of the track, but not quite the top of the hill is a shooting bothy for the Estate. 

It is open and gets out of the wind for a warm up. More cup of soup for me. Duncan, Charlie are not far behind. 

After a warm up we step out into the beginning of the trackless section and go straight up the hill. You can see the shooting bothy in the center of the picture, just a small building from up here. 

Almost to the top and you can see the Drumnaglass wind farm in the distance. 

Reaching the top and the vast amount of deep peat ahead. 

These "ravines" are taller than I am, but I learned from Jim this is the place you want to be. If it is not too wet and the black peat will support your weight it is smooth walking if you pick one that is going in your direction. Walking on top, you are walking on peat hags, these are little tuffs of peat that are dry but are rounded and you constantly roll your ankles as you move along. I would use this new knowledge many times in the coming days to make my travel on peat hags much easier.

This new revelation made travel much easier and soon we found the natural course of the water off the side of the hill (below) and the grass was firmer and super easy to follow. We found evidence that both the deer/sheep had come this way as well as people, probably grouse hunters on the Estate. 

Looking back up as we reached the road, we can see the way we came down. 

Jim gaining the track and moving on into Glen Mazeran. 

It was all down hill from gaining the track and Glen Mazeran was gorgeous with the different color heather and peat as we descended. 

The heather had been burned in different areas along the Glen and it made various patterns on the side of the hills 

We walked on until we were good and tired. I had not checked my maps in a while, but this happened to be the exact spot I had designated to camp tonight. there was just enough flat ground without sheep crap for about two tents. Had the weather been worse it would have been easy to move up into the trees above the bridge. 

My tent in the foreground and Jim's in the back

My tent the Gossamer Gear "the One" looking back up the way we had come down today. 

The last of my homemade meals tonight. I made a series of delicious dehydrated pasta meals that could be eaten hot or cold and are great either way. This was the bowtie pasta with basil pesto, parmesan cheese, pine nuts and red peppers. Only takes 10 minutes to rehydrate and put together. At about 700 calories in a serving... yummy! 

Stats for today: