We have arrived in Inverness, where we will have two rest days! We were driven back to Loch Laide this morning and found that starting our walk in the hills meant that we were following a relatively level walk along easy paths, including a stretch of new tarmac road linking isolated smallholdings. The landscape changed from mountain scenery to farmland as we approached Inverness, and we descended towards the city with views of Beauly Firth and Inverness Firth. We crossed the Caledonian Canal and the River Ness into the city, and stopped for a late lunch in an Italian Restaurant, where we were joined by Bethany, who had said goodbye to her American co-walkers. We then made our way to our accommodation: an apartment in a central location.

A Backward Glance

The mountains receded as we pushed on to Inverness, the most northerly city in the UK since 2000 when it was granted the status by our late Queen. To most it’s the main gate to and from the Highlands, to us it’s also a short rest, start of our last leg to John o’ Groats and in a couple of weeks, the starting block for our sprint home by rail. As we trod the easy paths and roads I sensed we were leaving behind the land of giants. Loch Ness gave itself over to River Ness that feeds it apparently, (Loch and River were hiding behind nearby hills). Dark passages through sky scraping trees became lighter open ways, populated by smaller Scot’s Pine, Mountain Ash and Birch. Drovers who took lines of highland cattle sometimes a mile long across the terrain we’ve been walking would have laughed mockingly at my words. For hundreds of years tough men and their young boy apprentices would travel twelve miles a day like us but with no B & B or pub stops. They slept in what they wore outdoors in all weather; ate oatmeal mixed with water, whisky or blood from one of their animals (black pudding). Not nice but preferable to the haggis their wives cooked for them as a last resort. At one time drovers were in charge of the most valuable transportable wealth up here and were key to prosperity of Highland communities – for hundreds of years! I reckon if Scotland T.V. put on its own ‘Rawhide’ series when Clint Eastwood (Rowdy Yates) first donned his chaps, it would still be running. The city suddenly appeared before us as the path entered a large field hedged with trees, and my Drover quickly cajoled me down to the rest and easy grazing Inverness was promising.