Edinburgh Day 2 - LAST DAY!!

Well, this is it.  We are in Glasgow tonight, getting ready for bed, and thinking about our last two-plus weeks.  I can't believe it's over, but in some respects it already seems like weeks since we were walking.

This morning we did a Hop-On-Hop-Off tour around Edinburgh.  These types of tours had been highly recommended to me by a very well-travelled family friend, and we were not disappointed.  The ticket allowed us to use the bus as much as we wanted for 24 hours.  There were 15 stops on the route, and it was all live narrated.  First, we decided to take in the whole route without hopping off.  We were on the uncovered upper deck of the bus and it was a little chilly this morning, so when we completed the entire loop we hopped off and found some hot teas and a snack.  Once we warmed up we hopped back on and hopped off at the Royal Mile.

We did a little shopping, and eventually made our way back to the start on foot.  It was lunch time, so we found a pub.  Since we still had about four hours to catch our train, and since the weather had gotten sunny and warm, we decided to enjoy the tour one more time.  We had different tour guides each time so we learnt something new each trip.  We saw the Palace of Hollyroodhouse , Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh Castle (again), the Scottish Parliament, museums, historic pubs, and much more.  When we got back we sat in Princes Street Park and enjoyed the amazing scenery for an hour before we headed to the train station.

From the short time we were there, we both feel like Edinburgh is an amazing place.  If we had the chance, I think we would both like to come back and spend a little more time someday.

So, I think our adventure has come to an end.  It has been truly unforgettable for us.  It was a great opportunity to spend some serious quality time with my son, and for us to experience a truly amazing country and culture together.  I would highly recommend it to any outdoor lovers, as well as history enthusiasts.

Thanks again for all of the interest and support everybody has shown.  I hope I did an acceptable job of telling our story, and that you enjoyed it.

Good night everybody!

Edinburgh Day 1

We are in Edinburgh tonight after a very relaxed and easy day.

We caught the train from Pitlochry to Edinburgh this morning at 9:30.  I found it extremely relaxing sitting on the train watching the countryside go by for a couple of hours.  I could have sat on there all day.

We got to Edinburgh around lunchtime and made our way to the hotel.  It was too early to check in, so we left our packs and headed out.  Our first stop was the Oxford Bar.  This is a bar that is a regular stop for John Rebus, a recurring character in Scottish crime novel author Ian Rankin's books.  My dad turned me on to these books and I have enjoyed them very much.  We didn't stay for a drink as there was a minimum age of 18 to get in, but it was fun to have a quick look.

The Ox

After we grabbed some lunch we walked over to Edinburgh Castle for a couple of hours.  We got the audio tour and it was very interesting.  We saw Mons Meg - a medieval bombard built in 1449, St Margaret's Chapel - the oldest building in the castle, and much more.

It's so amazing to see and be in places that are hundreds of years old.  We walked down the royal mile on the way back to the hotel, and checked out some of the shops.

I think our bodies are in a bit of shock at not having to walk today, because we spent a few hours just laying around the hotel room.  It seemed like a shame to waste any time while we are here, but we just couldn't find the motivation to get up and get going.  After a good rest we went for dinner and walk.  The outside of Edinburgh Castle is unbelievable.  It is amazing that it is right in the middle of town.  The whole area is so beautiful, and I think it would be very cool to live or go to school here.

Edinburgh Castle

Our plan tomorrow is to do a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour.  We'll hop off a couple of times, and maybe walk up to Arthur's Seat in Hollyrood Park.  After dinner we will be catching a train to Glasgow so that we can head home Wednesday morning.

It was a fun day, and we are looking forward to tomorrow.  That's it for now.  Good night!

Day 15 - Aberfeldy to Pitlochry

WE MADE IT!!!

After 15 days and about 350 km walking we arrived in Pitlochry early this afternoon to end our big adventure.

We Made It!!

The hiking gods were smiling on us once again as we had a dry pack-up, and cloudy with sunny breaks for the whole walk.  It was a very enjoyable last walk along the River Tay, over Dunfallandy Hill, and down into Pitlochry.

River Tay Snack

First View Towards Pitlochry

We checked into our swanky hotel, had showers, a little rest, and then went for a walk down Main Street.  We stopped at the Moulin Hotel, where my dad and I spent a few evenings the last time I was in Scotland. I think I am officially half Scottish now as I had deep fried haggis as an appetizer - I'm slowly working my way up to real full-blown haggis.

We are back at the hotel now, relaxing, and watching some TV.  Tomorrow morning we will be catching a train back to Edinburgh.  Tuesday night we head to Glasgow to catch our plane home on Wednesday morning.

Happy Feet

Thinking back on this trip I realize that I owe a big thank you to many people for making it possible:

First off, doing this alone would have been much more trying than it was, and somewhat meaningless.  Ben was stronger than I ever thought he could be.  When I felt like stopping he kept me going.  He kept me distracted when the days were getting long with in-depth discussions about Tanki, games of Would You Rather, or just contemplating life in general.  Thank you Ben for being such a great walking partner, and for not getting too mad at me when I was lost, or when I was being short with you.

Secondly, this trip would not have happened if Mandy hadn't encouraged me to do it.  I probably would have spent a lot of time thinking about it, but not doing anything about it.  Thanks, cheeky monkey, for encouraging me to do it.  And thanks for calling us exactly when we needed a little boost - when we were trapped by a about a billion midges outside of our tent after a long day walking.  I hope that if I ever get to come back here that you will be with me, as I am sure you will find it as beautiful as I do, and enjoy the people as much as I do.  Love you.

Next, the people of Scotland have been amazing.  Whether it was filling up water bottles, giving us Mars bars, or providing timely directions, it was all very much appreciated.  Above all, your kind and curious nature made for some very enjoyable and entertaining conversation.

Finally, to everybody who has been reading our blog.  There were some pretty long and trying days, but knowing that there were people reading our posts every day made us feel like we weren't alone.  Without a doubt this gave us some extra energy and motivation to keep going.  I hope was able to tell an interesting story, and I hope you all enjoyed the trip as much as we did.

I think that's it for tonight.  As mentioned,  I will be posting from Edinburgh tomorrow, and Glasgow the next day.  It will be nice to tour around a bit, but I'm looking forward to getting home to see Amanda and the boys, and the Friday Night Dice Crew - Mark (a.k.a. pal), Jenni-with-an-I, Gerry Pepito May, and Farmer Audrey!!

Nighty night!!

Day 14 - Loch Freuchie to Aberfeldy

We are almost at the finish line!  Today's walk was quick and relatively quiet.  I think Ben and I are both focused on finishing now.  There was not too much discussion during the walk today.  It seemed like we were both reflecting on the past two weeks.

Hitting The Trail - Only Two Days To Go...

Last night's wild camp was beautiful, as I have already mentioned.  The wind came in gusts, and at times hit the side of our tent so hard that the roof would collapse to within inches of our face.  When the gusts relaxed the tent would spring back into its normal form.  It took a real beating, but the only damage we found this morning was a slightly bent pole segment along the roof line.  Pretty impressive in my opinion.  A tent pole break in the middle of the night would have been a little frantic for sure.

We had an easy, and dry pack up this morning, and were on the road by 9:00.  We were a little surprised when a flock of about 30 sheep came tearing around the corner towards us and we didn't waste any time heading up the steep bank on the side of the road.  A few seconds later we saw what was causing the stampede when a farmer and 4 hearding dogs on an ATV also came around the corner chasing them back to the farm we had just passed.

Sheep Stampede

Loch Freuchie was very beautiful to look back on as we headed up the side of Meall a Choire Chreagaich (don't ask me to pronounce that).

Once we were done climbing, we had a very pleasant walk across open moorland.  The scenery was reminiscent for me, of my first trip to Scotland with my father, which makes sense as we are now only 15 km from the same town.  The area we are in is called Perthshire and I find it very beautiful.

As we walked down into Aberfoyle we went through a park called the Birks of Aberfeldy, which supposedly inspired one of Robert Burns famous poems.

Birks Of Aberfeldy

The town itself is very nice, and we had several options for dinner.  We saw the sign below on one of the restaurants we considered - I'm not sure if the guys at work will appreciate the Scots stealing our great idea, or if they will be happy that the good word is spreading...

Tomorrow will be bitter-sweet, but mostly sweet.  We are both looking forward to crossing the finish line at Pitlochry, and having a nice relaxing evening of celebration.  At the same time, I will be a little sad that this walking adventure is coming to an end.

That's it for tonight.  I'm off to sleep.  Thanks for reading everybody!!

Day 13 - Comrie to Loch Freuchie

I'm laying back in the tent in what is probably our best wild camp spot of the trip. This is the type of backdrop I imagined when planning this trip to Scotland.

There are no bugs, which is a bonus, but that's because the wind is gusting at about 100 km per hour, without exaggerating.

I wasn't so sure the day would end this well. We had a decent stay at the campground in Comrie, and a delicious breakfast at a cafe in town to get us started properly.  Ben had the Wee Scottish Breakfast, and I had the Veggie Scottish Breakfast.  Most of the day was cloudy and misty.  Unfortunately, I think we missed a lot of beautiful scenery as a result.  We walked the banks of Ben Chronzie (elevation 941m) at about 650 m of elevation, but couldn't see a thing.  As we came over the pass the trail petered out and we ended up having to bushwhack through several kilometres of Scottish bog all the way down to the River Almond.  Our feet were so wet at that point that we didn't even bother hiking back upstream to look for the crossing, we just waked right through.  Good thing we have dry socks and backup shoes in our bags for tomorrow!

Back on the trail things seemed to get better from there.  When we stopped for dinner - ham and cheese buns, and potato-leak soup, the sun poked out for the first time.  Also, the owner of the cottage we stopped near for dinner, just about the only cottage we passed all day, allowed us to fill our water bottles, which means we are home free for tomorrow.

After dinner we walked another 4 km to find our current spot.  I would be surprised if, other than the cottage owner, there is anybody within a 20 km radius of us.

We are definitely on the home stretch now.  Twenty-two kilometers to Aberfeldy tomorrow, and then a quick 15 km to Pitlochry the next day.  We decided it doesn't make any sense to walk through Pitlochry, to Blair Atholl, only to take a taxi back to Pitlochry.  Getting to Pitlochry early will allow us to clean up and have a proper celebration!

That's it for tonight.

Things we learned today:

It is good to have a compass when you're lost in the clouds in the middle of nowhere.

Your feet can only get so wet, and then it makes no difference.

McVities vanilla cheesecake digestive cookies are yummy after a long day of walking!

Day 12 - Callander to Comrie

Day 12 provided some of the best scenery of the trip.  We walked from Callander to Comrie via the hills and pretty much saw nobody all day.  We had the whole place to ourselves. The weather cooperated giving us a cool, cloudy day, with frequent sunny breaks - no threat of rain, and no prolonged sun exposure.  I couldn't have asked for better.

We had a pretty good climb up Callander Craig right off the bat that gave us some beautiful views back over Callander and over to Loch Venacher.

View Of Loch Venacher From Callander Craig

Soon after that we were walking down Glen Artney on the flanks of Meall Odhar, and Tom Odhar.  It was very peaceful and relaxing walking along here, and it was a good opportunity to reflect on how far we have come.  I am very proud of what we've accomplished, and particularly how well Ben has dealt with so many challenging days in a row.  Though I think we have really enjoyed it, a recurring topic of discussion lately has been how many days are left, and what we are really looking forward to at home.  Of course family and friends first, but after that for me it is my slippers, and for Ben it is sleeping in late, in his own bed!!

First View Of Glen Artney

Final Stretch Into Comrie

Around 5:15 we rolled into Comrie for dinner.  Comrie is twin city to Carleton Place, Ontario, where I think there might be one or two readers from.  It is also next door to Perth, Ontario, where Ben's grandparents are all reading from.  I thought it was a neat coincidence.

The campground we are in tonight is nice.  The guy who showed us our spot warned us that the horse, Polly, in the field directly behind us,"has a woman's sense of humour, if you know what I mean, and she bites!!!"  I'm not sure I know exactly what he means, but I won't be petting Polly tonight!

We have 50 km to cover in the next two days between here and Aberfeldy.  There are no services between the two, so I am a little nervous about drinking water...  Last time we weren't able to find much when we needed it.  We will also be carrying more food than we usually do.  I will post an update when we come out the other side.  After that we will only have one more day of walking left.  It's hard to believe!

Good night everybody, and thanks again for reading.

Almost forgot, thing we learned today:

When you put your tent away wet and covered with a million midges, and don't open it for two days, it smells disgusting when you set it up next time.  Oh well, I guess we don't smell so hot ourselves.  Good night!

Day 11 - Drymen to Callander

This morning was very challenging.  We woke up to about a million Midges all waiting for us to get out of the tent.  It was not a nice way to wake up and seemed to set the tone for the day.

Thousands Of Midges Waiting To Welcome Us Back Outside...

We managed to get packed up relatively unscathed, and the cool breezy weather actually made for good walking.  We continued through the Loch Ard Forest and into Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.  I think we are now officially in the Scottish Highlands. We made it to Aberfoyle and stopped for breakfast around 10:30.  Ben and I made a new friend who came from across the street when we called.  She was very cuddly and spent quite a bit of time with us.

We Called Her Pumpkin Pie

Before finishing the hike we decided to bus the second half of the day for a couple of reasons.  Our feet were wet, mine has a recurring blister under the crease of my big toe and could use a little rest, and the next few days are going to be challenging with some very remote walking.  Not to mention we are tired.  Getting to Callander a little early also allowed us to dry some gear, do some laundry, and rest up.  All in all I think it was another good decision.

Callander is a beautiful little town.  The main street is full of shops, hotels, pubs, and the church - all of the buildings are made from stone.  The town is nestled up against the Callander Crags, which is quite stunning.  I got the feeling that it is a bit of a tourist town as there was lots of activity.

We are definitely on the home stretch now, with only 4 days of walking left.  If we are not able to post tomorrow, the next post will not be until Saturday night.  When we leave on Friday morning we will not see a town until we arrive Saturday night in Aberfeldy.  It will be a beautiful but isolated part of the walk.  Please keep sending us good vibes, as I know they have been helping.

Time for bed now.  As always, thanks for reading our posts!!!

Day 10 - Milngavie to Drymen

Day 10 is done.  We are in the tent for a third night of wild camping, somewhere in Loch Ard Wood.  We left the West Highland Way in Drymen and are now on the Rob Roy Way heading north towards Aberfoyle, and Callendar tomorrow.

Last night's wild camp site was the best so far.  We had a beautiful flat spot, sheltered by the trees, only 20 yards off the trail.  We got another early start this morning and were at the Glengoyne distillery by 10:30, in time for an 11:00 tour.  Although the distillery was shut down for annual maintenance, it was an interesting tour anyway.  It also felt nice to be doing something civilized.  We learned some pretty interesting facts including an estimated 160,000 bottles of scotch are lost from evaporation from the barrels every year - the humanity!!!  For this reason the guide told us not to make fun of any Scitsmen seen drinking from puddles. The location of the distillery, nestled up against the Campsie Fells, was very picturesque.

After the tour we blew through another 10 kilometres to Drymen.  We stopped for supplies and then had lunch at the oldest pub in Scotland, the Clachan Inn, which was supposedly licensed in 1734.  We enjoyed the food, and some more Wimbledon, before hitting the road around 3:30.

After another 10 km, being chased by flies most of the way, we found a patch of grass off the trail to make camp at.  Thankfully we have come up with some games to keep our minds occupied when needed.  Today we played "Count the Slugs".  These are big black slugs 2-3 inches long.  Ben counted 40 today, our best yet!!

As soon as we stopped walking to set up, we got our first taste of the Midgies.  Yay!!!  Now we know what everybody has been warning us about.

We are both looking forward to a long shower and some clean clothes tomorrow night.  That will set us up nicely for the home stretch.

Day 9 - Kilsyth to Milngavie

We are at the end of day 9 now, on the banks of Loch Craigallian, having our tea and hot chocolate.  Today was a fun day of walking that saw us get off of the canal tow paths, and start heading north along the West Highland Way.  Scottish people seem to be very enthusiastic about the WHW, which goes from Milngavie to Fort William where Ben Nevis is located (Google homework from a previous post).  We will only see the first 25 km of this trail but are glad to have been on it.

We met an interesting trio on the canal path, the true life inspiration for Grumpy Old Men, played by Walter Mathau, Jack Lemon, and the other old guy who I forget.  They were hilarious!!  First off they told us our packs were too big, without even knowing where we were headed.  We travelled with them for a couple of kilometres and couldn't stop laughing the whole time.  If they weren't bickering with each other they were sending zingers our way.  One guy asked Ben my name.  When he told him, he asked what kind of name that was.  Ben told him French. The immediate response was, "I hate the French."  At the end of it the main guy wished us luck and said if we were ever back this way not to bother looking them up.  It was all in good fun and we appreciated them taking our minds off our feet for a while.

Scottish walkers take their walking and paths very seriously, and as a result there are lots of rights of way set up and enforced.  We have seen this on two occasions.  The first was yesterday as we basically walked through somebody's back yard.  I nearly had a heart attack when a huge Alsatian (sp.?) came at us barking from in his cage....  The second was as we crossed two different golf courses today.  I think we took part in the Balmore Golf Club ladies morning!!  Don't worry John Farrington, we used good course etiquette and waited for the foursome behind us to play through before we crossed the 16th fairway!

We decided to get a juice before the last push into Milngavie when we saw a little tea house in Balmore - The Coach House.  It is a fair trade gift/tea/coffee shop.  There was lots of cool stuff inside.  As we walked up the owner was outside in the second hand book shed.  We struck up a conversation, and eventually realized she was closed on Mondays.  Nevertheless, she opened up for us to get two cold drinks and use the loo, and let us sit on the patio to take our break.  We gave her a Canada pin as thanks.

We made good time to Milngavie (pronounced Milnguy by most) and stopped for some grub, and supplies.  We watched a bit more Wimbledon while eating.  Andy Murray was about to play as we left and it seemed to be picking up in there.

About five different people in Milngavie asked us if we were prepared for the Midges or Midgies, so we decided to pick up some Midgie repellant.  We've had a few already in the first week but not as bad as it seems to get according to the locals.  As always, the Scots seem to be looking out for us - thank you Ian MacDonald for calling ahead on our behalf!!

Another 5 km after that found us at our current location, which might be our best wild camping spot yet.  You know we've been through all of the important stuff when tent talk comes down to "Would you rather be a carrot or a tomato?" - "I don't know." - "Well I'd rather be a carrot because you're protected in the ground from all the animals that want to eat you."  Makes sense...

Tomorrow we might stop at the Glengoyne distillery for a quick tour and to top up our water bottles (with water), then on to Drymen for a late lunch, and then on to our next wild camp.

Thanks for reading everybody!

Day 8 - Castlecarry to Kilsyth

WE ARE HALF WAY!!!!

The end of this easy day means we are half way there!  It feels good.

Today was quite leisurely as far as walking goes.  The biggest bit of excitement was when two swans who had parked right on the canal path with their young hissed at us as we cautiously walked by.  Seriously, they should get together with the cows and compare notes!

It has been a little strange for me every morning.  When I wake up I feel a little hesitant and nervous about the day ahead, and wish I could just stay in my cozy sleeping bag.  But as soon as I get walking I feel excited about the day, and am so happy that I am here.  Maybe it's just laziness or fatigue that makes me not want to get up.

Today was a little different as we planned on sleeping in.  I made it all the way to 8:30, which was fine since it gave me lots of time to get everything ready.  I went to breakfast and had porridge, not oatmeal, and tea.  When I got back to the room I went over the maps for the next few days and made mental notes about where to get supplies, etc.  I woke Ben up at 11:15, and we checked out at 12:20.  The front desk lady was very kind and asked all about our trip.  When I asked if we could have a couple of oranges for the road she came back with the two oranges and two Mars bars.  So nice!

We had only planned for 10 km, and tore through that in under two hours.  We met a couple of fisherman along the way, but none seemed to be having any luck.  When we got to Kilsyth we walked up into town to get supplies and have a bite to eat.  We stopped at the Scarecrow Bar and Grill and had a drink while watching the UK track and field championships.  It was very relaxing.  When it started to pouring rain we ordered some snacks and hunkered down a while longer.

Once we were ready to leave we got all of our stuff together and headed out.  When we were searching for the beginning of the trail that would lead to where we thought we were going to camp a helpful gentleman came out and gave us some good advice.  Where we wanted to go was too difficult to get to.  He made some suggestions as alternatives and so we headed out again.  A couple of kilometres down the way we ran into another couple of fisherman who helped some more and we are now sitting on a hill in a park in a small town watching the sun set from our tent.  Not a bad end to an easy day!  The bonus is that we knocked about 2.5 km off of tomorrow's walk to get where we are tonight.  Sweet!

Sunset At Twechar Park

That' s it for now.  Will post this on our way tomorrow, but tomorrow's will be a day late.  Good night, everybody!

Day 7 - Linlithgow to Castlecarry

We arrived in Castlecarry after another long day of walking.  There was lots of motivation today as we are in a hotel tonight, we are planning on sleeping in tomorrow morning, and we only have 10 km of walking tomorrow.  Tomorrow is our planned easy day to mark the midway point of our long walk.  The first thing I asked when we arrived at the hotel was if we could get a late checkout.  Yes!!

It started raining last night around 2:00.  The rain and wind were pretty harsh at times but the tent held up quite well - we only had a small puddle in one corner when we woke up.  It was still raining quite hard when our alarm went, so I decided to wait until there was a lull, which came around 9:00.  Unfortunately by the time we were all packed up and on our way to find breakfast we were soaked.  Luckily by the time we finished breakfast the rain had stopped falling and we dried up as the day progressed.   Our tent is hanging in the bathroom right now in hopes it will be dry by the time we leave tomorrow.

Most of the day was spent along the Union Canal again, which doesn't offer a lot of scenery.  There were, however, a few more notable points than yesterday.  First was the biggest  aqueduct in Scotland (2nd largest in the UK) at 250 m long, and 26 m tall.

Avon Aqueduct

Next point of interest was the Falkirk Tunnel, 630 m long.  It felt like walking through a Walt Disney attraction - dark, humid, creepy.

Falkirk Tunnel

Finally, at the end of our stint on the Union Canal we saw the Falkirk Wheel, a boat lift that connects the Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal.  The wheel takes the place of 11 locks that were filled in when the canal was closed in the 1930's.  The wheel is a very impressive engineering accomplishment and a Scottish icon.

After a rest there, we finished the day walking along the Forth and Clyde.  This was much more picturesque and gave us a look into what we would be doing the next few days.

After cleaning up we had dinner at the hotel pub while watching Andy Murray's Wimbledon match.  I don't need to say who everybody in there was cheering for.  We will watch a little TV before bed and then hopefully get a long restful sleep.

Tomorrow night will be wild camping so no update.  It will also be the first of four nights in the tent.  We will be going through towns though, and I'll try to update then.

Thanks for reading and good night!!!