This day had it all … weatherwise for sure. And it ended up my longest day with around 37km (48km in total, but around 10km by speedboat) and a total of 11:30 hours walking.
My readiness is down to 49 now, expected with no recovery time, sleep was 73 and the activity dropped to 79, which is also normal based on the OURA algorithm.
Anyway I am still feeling fine despite today’s tough walking.
First I had to walk about 4km to the harbor to catch the boat across Loch Ness that was organised by the TGOC. There were 12 TGOC‘ler that magically appeared to be placed in one of the two „speed boats“.
What a fantastic (cold though) ride and spectacular with the two boats next to each other.
I knew several people from previous TGO events … and I was recognised by others. Very nice to meet some familiar faces at different locations.
On the Foyers side I first went by the falls … the spectacular lower falls I missed however.
Then onto the excellent Cameron Cafe. I was a little early but then the first who got served – Full Scotish!
It already rained on and off before I hit the Monadliath Mountaibs … then was nice again … then quick rain … you could not put the raingear on fast enough.
Almost at the top I saw a small green hut … entered and saw some familiar faces.
And then it started to heavily hale, that later turned into snow. I waited here for about 2 hours, made a coffee and had nice chats with the others who decided to stay since they had managed to get the oven going. I was quite tempted to stay as well. But a short sunny spell made me decide to continue.
What followed was a several km long walk through extremely boggy terrain in heavy snowfall.
Once I reached the top the water started to quickly collect and I could see the development from a small creek to the powerful river Findhorn in a mere 3 or 4km.
I had quite a bit of problems to cross a couple of the side creeks due to their waterload.
By that time I also had caught up to Janneke, Dutch programmer who actually lives with her boyfriend not far from my scotish home. We walked together for about 15km with several more snow/hale and rain showers.
I found a good camping spot close to the Findhorn and Janneke went on for a couple of kilometres.
Had to set up the tent in rain and was happy to see that not everything in my backpack was wet.
Cooked my noodles and hope for a good sleep and better weather tomorrow on my way to Kincraig, where I will stay at the Forces Manor in a single room 🥳.
Because I made up some kilometres I hope to arrive there by 14:00/15:00 to give me some time to dry my stuff.
No reception here … so will send from Kincraig.
🚶♂️ : 12 – all TGOC Participants – no one else
🦌 : 2
Learnings:
- A comfortable first goal and results should not stop from continuing to your set destination.
- The little water from the rain, developing rapidly into a powerful creek and an even more powerful river is of course an analogy to developing an idea, starting a company and scaling. I requires funds (rain), ideas must meet a market (merging creeks), and speed (decline of the water).
Magic Moments:
Well, the hut right before the hale and snow started was pretty amazing.
My Travel Adventures 