In the morning I headed out to feed Cognac and found him and the horse in the field next door, side by side, seperated by the fence and both fast asleep! So Cognac had breakfast in bed!
Cognac was feeling pretty fresh and bounced me through Fort William. A guy delivering coal had to double take when he went to cross the road and saw a horse heading towards him. " I thought I was seeing things" he chuckled to me.
On our way out of Fort William there was a long windy road with cattle grids with a gate at the side, a young boy who's garden backs onto the road saw us coming and ran out to open the gate for us.
By this time the sun was out, the sky's were blue and it was really starting to heat up! We joined onto the West Highland Way and followed the rough, stony track towards Kinlochleven.
There previous night we had phoned everyone in Kinlochleven and Loas Knopper had been asking around for days to find us somewhere to stay in Kinlochleven, but there just wasn't anything. Vyv Wood Gee, who gave me tonnes of help and advice with this part of the route down to Glasgow had said that she has stayed at the Kings House hotel before, but that it had been unsuitable for the horse as the ground was so wet. In desperation we contacted them about the possibility of staying. They were fully booked but said I could wild camp with my horse out the back of the hotel if I wanted. It would mean a hell of a long, difficult day and I didn't want to camp without the horse being in a secure enclosure.
It's was really hot and really hard going and by 3pm we had covered 15 miles, which was good going, but there was still many more to go to Kings House and I knew that by the time Cognac and I got there we were going to be really tired. Perhaps we were better finding a quiet spot and wild camping for the night...
We were at Kinlochleven by this time so we stopped in a car park for some grass and the last mouthful of hard feed I had.
We chatted to a young girl and her grandmother and then I started to look for somewhere to climb on from. This was the magical moment when Geoff and Ella appeared with two dogs! The asked about what I was doing andcI explained and they asked where I was staying and I said that I was going to wild camp and Ella said that they had a big garden just down the road and that I was welcome to bring the horse down and stay there! I was so relieved! They showed me the way and the garden was indeed big enough for the horse and it was quite something to see him wandering around in it! Ella offered me a bed in the house. I showered and my clothes were put on to wash. I joined Geoff and Ella for dinner and had free access to the phone and laptop so I could get my accommodation sorted for the days ahead. I was made to feel completely welcome and Cognac got lots of treats and attention.
I emailed Loas, who had been helping me try to find accommodation in Kinlochleven and she popped over for tea and biscuits, and she brought me a bar of chocolate! For my journey. It was great to meet her after emailing for the last few months and we got on really well.
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