Saturday, July 9th, 2016 — 21km / 13miles.
That morning we walked out of our B&B before 8am and were greeted by a light drizzle and fog over the Loch. For the first few kilometers the trail veered away a few hundred meters from the Loch and, after climbing a little, leveled out on an easy forest trail with intermittent views of Loch Ness. By then it was dry again and it stayed dry for remainder of the days’ walk. I’d studied the map the previous evening and found a trail back down to the road for Alison to take, before more serious elevation gain.
The scenery and views down were gorgeous on the uphill. After cresting the hill the path gently meandered down through fields. Arrived at Inverfarigaig I decided to stay on the road – a decision I later regretted as it would have been so much nicer to walk on higher ground on nicer trails. Oh well. I walked into Foyers around 1:45pm where Alison was waiting for me at the Foyers Waterfall Café. I enjoyed a latte before we walked the short distance to our accommodation for the night. Upon arrival at Foyers House we didn’t feel all that welcome. We realized that we were a tad early and that the rooms might not be ready (they were), but we weren’t even offered the lounge to wait in. After some insisting and some very stiff conversation we were finally allowed in the lounge. We both felt that the proprietors were in the wrong business. Maybe a sign ‘Early walkers not welcome’ would be an idea? Enfin, we lounged around until we were given our room keys at 4pm sharp. Dinner was nice and we’d decided to keep smiling at the lady-of-the-house and eventually we got some tentative smiles and small talk in return.
