Day 2
Drymen to Rowardennan
I woke
early on the second morning as the sunlight was already very bright, and there
wasn't a cloud in the sky. As I got all my gear packed up and ready to go the
others began to slowly emerge from their tents. By the time we all had
breakfast and everyone then went to pack up their things I'd already had a good
few hours of hanging about which was quite frustrating, but at least we were
still setting off much earlier than the previous day.
We posed
next to the wishing well and each made a wish before setting off. I wished that
my feet would hold out for the day, as I already had a few small blisters,
which didn't hurt yet, but I hoped they wouldn't get any worse. The walk into
Drymen was rather uneventful along a hedgerow and then a road, but we passed a
few nice buildings and then saw a family of hares running in front of us as we
made a steep climb up hill.
The path
then navigated away from the road and across some hilly grassland which is
where my feet really began to hurt. We had a few moments rest and I changed
into trainers hoping that the change of shoes would stop my feet rubbing in the
same already sore places. We then walked through some farmland and passed the
East Drumquassle site where we had originally planned to camp. It looked
reasonable enough apart from the close proximity to the farm animals which may
have created unwanted noise and smells.
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| Loch Lomond almost in sight |
We
finally entered the Garadhban forest which was absolutely swarming with midges,
so we had to keep moving quickly. The sun had been beating down relentlessly
all morning, and I could already feel the back of my neck burning (which is
very rare for me!), so the shade was very welcome indeed at this point. This
was short lived however, as many of the trees had been felled in order to open
up the views to Loch Lomond, and as we climbed the hill I must say the views
were breathtaking.
This was
quite a difficult part of the walk for all of us, mainly due to the heat. In my
whole 28 years of living in Scotland I don't think I can remember ever having a
day as hot as this, especially at the end of May. The path kept winding around
corners and disappearing so we were all dismayed when we saw that we still had
further to continue unsheltered. The path underfoot was very stony and quite a
challenge for my trainers, so as we finally approached Conic hill myself and
two others decided to take the shortcut to Balmaha down the hill and along the
road.
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| The view opening up over Loch Lomond |
We went
straight down to the loch and took off our socks and shoes and dipped our feet
into the cool water, which felt absolutely wonderful. We stayed in Balmaha for
a few hours, waiting on the others to arrive and had something to eat and
drink, sitting in the gorgeous sunshine ( it was now gorgeous that we were
sitting down; when we were walking in it it was hellish! )
When I
stood up again I almost fell down as the pain in my feet was so great. I had to
limp off to the bathroom and assess the situation. What I found was horrifying
- the blisters had gotten much worse, so my wish in the well this morning
hadn't come true afterall. The stony path through the Garadhban forest had cut
through the thin soles of my trainers and ripped my feet to shreds. I had
blisters between my toes, on my heels, and some giant ones on the balls of my
feet. I knew that my walking for the day was over.
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| Rowardennan Hostel |
I decided
to get a taxi to our next stop - the Hostel at Rowardennan. Another girl from
our group came, plus two 18 year old German girls who were also going that way.
It ended up being not too expensive between the four of us. We got chatting and
I said that my feet were hurting from the day's walk, so the German girl showed
me what she uses - but unfortunately I can't remember the name of it! I was
surprised to see such young girls doing a walk like this alone, especially in a
foreign country, but they said that they were very experienced walkers despite
their age. We kept them entertained for the journey with our pronounciation of
'Edinburgh' which is more like "Enbra" rather than their americanised
"Edinboro"
We
checked into the hostel, and I was glad to find that the six of us were sharing
the same room. I don’t think I could have handled any strangers at that point
as my feet were still agony. The hostel was reasonably quiet at this point
anyway, as most people were still walking. I put some antiseptic on my feet,
but didn't bother with any plasters or compeeds as I thought it would be best
to let the air into them. I put my flip flops on, ordered two beers, then
limped outside to sit on the grass.
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| Afternoon sunshine at Rowardennan |
We had a
lovely afternoon just sitting by the Lochside. The surrounding area of the
hostel was absolutely gorgeous, and so was the weather - my little spot of
paradise on the whole Way. We went up and sat on the pier with our feet
dangling in the water, and met one of the German girls again. There were some
gulls swooping around us and she told me in Germany they were called Die Mowe.
My friend said that we called them "Pigeons: the rats of the
sea". I didn't bother to correct her, so now somebody in Germany
thinks that seagulls are called pigeons.
 ; |
| Paradise :) |
The rest
of the group eventually arived, and we sat outside until the midges became
unbearable, so had to move indoors. We were happy just to have an early-ish
night as we knew tomorrow was going to be tough.
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