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!!