As we continued along the road, it started to get more and more remote, with the hills rising up on either side. I was pleased to see the end of the road and the beginning of the track, but as I got closer I could see that there was a big deer fence and a cattle grid with no gate at the side to get the horse through. My stomach dropped, I had phoned both the estates and been assured that it was fine to get a horse through and I still had no phone signal. Time was getting on and there was no way round, I would have to back track all the way to Bonar Bridge.
Trying to stay calm, I jumped of Cognac and inspected the deer fence and the surrounding area. I found a gate in the fence off to the right, but it had a combination lock on it. There was a bridge over a river with steep sides on the left and another cattle grid and deer fence, along with a sign "private- no through road" There was a gate to the left that I could get Cognac through. I led Cognac through and wandered down to the lodge, but no- one was around. So I headed out back onto the road, I had passed by a phone box 3 miles or so back and was going to head back down when a car drove out of the lodge gates. I waved the gentleman down and explained my predicament. He told me it was an Amat gate, which was the estate I had already passed through and hadn't thought to phone. The gentleman checked the gate as I had and told me that he was heading home now and would phone Amat to tell them I was trying to get through. In the mean time he said (in a very strong accent that I found hard to understand!) that I shoud go through the gate to the lodge and follow the track alongside the river and cross the river further up, where I could get onto the Alladale estate. So Cognac and I headed that way. The river was way down below us, with steep, rocky sides, there was no way we could cross it, so with followed this track further and further, it got less and less defined until it was little more than a deer track. The ground got wetter and wetter and still we trudged on. We hit boggy ground and I was having to pick our route. The midges were really bad and Cognac was getting hot from the hard work of the wet, boggy ground. I breifly got signal on my mobile and desperately phoned Jez to tell him where I was and that I didn't know if I could get through, he sounded worried but I assurred him that the worst came to the worse I had my tent and sone white electric tape for the horse. I turned around and headed back the way I had come, I hadn't realised how far we had come and it took us almost an hour to get back to the fishing lodge. We were both exhausted and drained.
We came across a lady and gentleman fishing at the end of the track and they seemed surprised to see a horse, I exp[lained what I was doing and the situation of the gate and they walked back with me to the gate, several other people gathered round us and the story was relayed to all. I was offered a spare bed in a fishing lodge and to put Cognac in the cat park. I headed back down the road three miles and in the time it took us to get there they had phoned the farmer who owned the field opposite the Manse fishing lodge to ask if I could put the horse in there for the night.
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