The Missing Miles......

It was an early rise this morn, but not to get to the Den o Alyth car park in a timely fashion to start this weekends training walk, as you might think, oh no! the alarm was set for us to wake up and watch Andy Worry, sorry i mean Murry finally put to bed the 75 year wait for a British man to win that elusive slam!

Three straight sets later however, we were off and running and managed to get a mere five miles along the road when I announced that I had forgotten my walking shoes...cue stoney silence as the car was screeched to a halt and turned round.....finally we arrived at the car park and were immediately faced with a very slippery dilemma! The path that lead us from the car park to the start of the trail looked more like a bob sleigh track! and neither of us fancied breaking any bones for the cause! so it was decided to walk along the roadside which would cut out the woodland trail all together, but the distance would remain the same.

After a few miles, we stopped to look at some chickens and geese in a homely looking farmstead. The chickens were very friendly and came right up to the fence! I announced that this was the closest i had ever been to real life chickens (as opposed to parts of them in neat little packs on supermarket shelves) to which I'm sure the retort went along the lines of "oh my God you're such a city girl"........but i couldn't really be sure.....

The road soon forked and we took advantage of the photo opportunity props we found, before we followed the signs to Glenisla, proceeded up a steep hill and both laughed at the road sign informing "Horse drawn carriages" to go through the gate to avoid the cattle grid! Neither of us could recall seeing any horse drawn carriages thus far, so we carried on regardless!

Eventually we ambled onto the Cateran Trail, part of an old drove road, and climbed up out of the valley and onto the open moorland surrounding the area. It was time for a scooby snack and although none of us felt particularly hungry, there is always room for some yummy chocolate and a few sugary Moams!!

The town of Alyth seemed to come into view very quickly given that this was a 7 mile trek we were on, for both of us it was like we had only just left the car! I began to think 10 miles is just a walk in the park really! a pleasant meander!and this buoyed my spirits greatly and went a long way to quell those dark feelings of self doubt that creep in now and again about my ability to complete the WHW at all! It was downhill all the way from here and even though the air was bitingly cold, it felt good to be amongst these glens, feeling alive and real and chilly and nippy......it all just felt fine!

As we were drawing to the end of the walk and entered the main streets of Alyth to return to the car, we popped in on a work colleague of Fiona's, Cathie, for a very welcome coffee and a blether. What a lovely day!