Thursday 14th April 2016 – 884.31 miles
Left around 9am and back onto the West Highland Way in no time.
Easy walking along a well marked track. We saw quite a few walkers today – all going our way!
We stopped for a break by a gateway and, as we sat looking at the amazing view, we could hear curlews calling to each other. We met Terry, Jerry and John who were on their way to the Glengoyne distillery – great to meet you and hope you enjoyed your visit. Ian Jackson walked by too. We met him again when we stopped at The Beech Tree for a cuppa.
John and Andrew Myers asked us about our walk too and we gave them one of our flyers. We found ourselves walking through farmland along a disused railway for several miles. Easy walking again with a few muddy puddles but nothing impassable.
Dave found a small plastic bottle with a message inside. It was written by Orlugh aged 13 and described the first day of her walk along the West Highland Way.
She left her email so we have sent her one to say that we have found her message in a bottle. We plan to add our own page and put the bottle back on the path tomorrow.
For the first time since we started our walk we have met someone who is walking further than we are.
He was walking towards us and Dave asked him if he had nearly finished his walk. ” Not quite” was his reply. His name is Michel from Brussels in Belgium. He is walking from Inverness down through Scotland and England, over to France then on to Calabria in Italy! Wow! We wish him a good journey and hope he raises a load of money for his charity.
We crossed over Gartness Bridge and walked past a row of pretty cottages.
There was a tiny “honesty” shop that sold ice cream, chocolate, bottled water etc. with an honesty box for the money.
We turned away from the West Highland Way just after Gartness to make our way to our destination for the day – a friend of Hazel’s called Jane.
We arrived earlier than planned but Jane’s daughters Zoe and Katie made us very welcome as did their dog Dixie. Jane came to say hello but needed to get back to work – her company is called Snapdragon which makes personalised gifts.
Dave and I had a pleasant couple of hours chatting to the girls about this and that over a lovely mug of tea.
Jane’s husband Ewan arrived home from work and, later we all enjoyed a wonderful family evening all sitting around the table eating pasta carbonara, drinking wine and chatting about our journey and everything in general – made us realise how much we are missing our family.
It has been a good day today.
Hope you are having better weather now in Scotland. Your progress is amazing so keep your feet going strong.
You guys should write a book on your travels and all the interesting people you have met along the way. Take care on the rest of your route. Stay warm.
miss you too mum and dad, but it’s lovely to hear all about your adventures via the blog and Facebook and chats on the phone <3