Getting on with my life and thinking about things.
It is Wednesday, so it must be Tyndrum (pron: tine-drum). I can no longer call this "WHW 5.1211" as my West Highland Way ended at Crianlarich yesterday about 20 minutes after the last train for 6 hours had departed. A taxi carried me to the "By The Way" lodgings and that was it. Half-way, or thereabouts.
My mobile is battery-dead, and no amount of AA power across it is shifting it. As it is on the 'Nokia slim' connection, Mick's kindly offer of his mains charger would not fit it. Next time I pack the 3-prong plug.
When my feet get wet, they wrinkkle like prunes, and walking in the wet of Sunday and Monday gave me a dose of foot sores and blisters. Dried kit at the Beinglas campsite (wigwammed it), and listened to the radio (one earpiece in) on Tuesday, but my pace was barely over 1mph, so I decided at the A82 underpass to call it quits.
"Any fool can be uncomfortable" were the prophetic words that echoes in my ears. On Radio 4, there was a good story about the woman who cycled in Northern France, but couldn't mend a puncture, so spend a lot of time pushing her bike around looking for assistance - I empathised with her. It is the journey, not the destination.
But it doesn't help the fact that I have a few days in the West Highlands to look forward to as an accidental tourist. The high life of Tyndrum, the cracking facilities at the "By the Way" hostel, and the bus out tomorrow to Fort William for a couple of days until my train ticket becomes valid, and I head for home. Foot sore and fancy-free
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
It must be Tyndrum
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6 comments:
Have a relax and look after those feet, apparently walking on your knees is much harder.
Sorry the way it has worked out for you Duncan. Good to see that you are safe and ok though. Dawn
Sorry to hear you have had to cut short the WHW. Know exactly how you feel. I got to about the same point as you last year when I attempted to walk it and the blisters felt so bad that I decided to stop and come back another time.
Haven't returned yet. At least you have walked it before and can enjoy a couple of days relaxing.
It was the first day that killed me feet then never recovered afterwards, too much tarmac at the beginning.
Anyway hope you enjoy a few fays relaxing.
Sorry to hear things didn't work out.
Have a good few days relaxing in FW :-)
Goddamn country we have.
Rain, grey skies, rain, grey skies, rain, rain, rain
aye, steven, it was the blisters and sore feet and chafeing that did it for me. Although mainly caused by the rain and the results (swollen rivers, boggy sections and slippery rocks), some rain and lack of sky didn't cause me to call it off. Dropping down to 1kph because every step out and every footfall was agony had lots to do with the decision. If that makes me a fairweather hiker, then mea culpa.
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