Sunday, July 10th, 2016 — 23km / 14.5miles
This day was slightly different than the other walk days. As always, I had studied the map and terrain the evening before. Taking into account the distance and elevation gain in the second half of the days’ walk, and the fact that I could not see an obvious and practical place for Alison to cut the walk short, we decided to walk to Whitebridge, have lunch at the local (and only) pub and call a taxi from there to take us to Fort Augustus. I’d actually called the Whitebridge Hotel to make sure that was an option. No problem the friendly manager said.
So, with said plans there was no need in setting out too early and a 10am start was decided upon. Light drizzle again when we started but after about 45 mins it stopped. The trail to Whitebridge was very easy and totally flat. A ‘river crossing’ provided some excitement but didn’t slow us down. Just before noon we arrived at the pub where we sat down for lunch. After lunch we talked to the manager about ringing a cab, which they did for us. Well, they tried… and tried…. and tried. To no avail. There were two numbers to ring and neither got us anywhere: no answer, no message, no call back, no cab. This went on and on, all afternoon. After some hours the manager offered that one of the staff would drive us to Fort Augustus, once they were back from a supply run to Inverness. For some reason or other they never showed up again that afternoon. So, what better to do in a pub in Scotland on Wimbledon Men’s Final Day than to watch Scotsman Andy Murray beat the competition to win the tournament? Once the tennis was over a friendly local couple drove us to Fort Augustus. They themselves lived only a few kilometers from Whitebridge, but they didn’t mind in the slightest driving us the extra miles. We even stopped at a scenic look-out. Judging by the drive, the walk would have been quite spectacular, but since it actually rained the whole time we were in the pub, I didn’t feel too disappointed. Note to self: this was the ‘quiet side’ of the Loch and there wasn’t even a regular bus service.
After being dropped off at and checking into Thistle Dubh, our B&B for the night, we quickly went to the local grocery store to pick up dinner for the evening and lunch for the next day as neither were provided by the B&B. I continued for a walk around Fort Augustus before heading back to our B&B.
