Monday 15 May 2017

Marriage Experiment Day 1 - Plockton to Glen Elchaig

We ran into our first Snafu this morning when we got to the train station. When we went to pick up our pre-booked tickets it said that they had already been picked up. We went to the ticket window they looked it up and said that they couldn't do anything. Agggggg!! So with no other choice we bought two more tickets at £110 each (I paid £32 each a couple of months ago). If you do the math and conversion that was a lot of money before we even got on the train. They did say we could contact ScotRail and they might be able to give a refund. Fingers crossed!
After our blood pressure came down, the rest of the train experience was spectacular. On the way to Inverness we passed through Pitlochry - me, Ben, and Jojo's old stomping grounds. It brought back some really great memories and got me even more excited for the experience we were about to begin. The Inverness to Plockton leg was so beautiful. We could see over to Skye. There were lots of seniors on the train just out for a sightseeing ride. We talked to one friendly guy from England who had bought a 15-trip railcard to tour around Scotland. He was interested in our trip, and advised us to beware of the midgies! I think we both dozed off once or twice as it was a sunny and relaxing ride.
We signed out for the walk at the Plockton Hotel and had some lunch there.


 It was about 2:30 and we were hoping to cover 26 km today - a tall order. Unfortunately we did not budget for the off-trail portion of the hike.

 The bog and heather made things very challenging. In Amanda's words, "it was like I was stuck on a level of CandyCrush where each step was like walking on two foot thick marshmallow pillows floating on water, without any boosters". In other words it was exhausting. Clearly the exertion has made us delirious. The scenery was amazing nevertheless, and the weather cooperated. A little breeze would have been very nice but I am not complaining. At about 8:45, still 8 km from our goal we decided to stop for the night - good decision.
We had mac and cheese for dinner, with tea and coffee, and are now relaxing in the tent. Amanda is reading while I am writing this entry.


We are still married after Day 1 so I guess the experiment is going very well! Looking forward to tomorrow, hoping that we are not too sore or tired.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading everybody!! Goodnight!

1 comment:

  1. It was I william wallace who took your tickets.....

    ReplyDelete