Well the hike today turned into a little more than we were thinking – we took a detour to see Rob Roy’s grave (see pics) – who was a notorious outlaw in this region, so fitting for us to go visit, especially wince we are hiking the “Rob Roy Trail”. Today started with a little misty/rain – and that was fine but then add a little wind and it was pretty cold. Of course you see a Scotsman standing beside the road in a T-shirt smoking a cigarette – meanwhile I’m contemplating if I should put my Melanzana over my already three layers of stuff I’m wearing… The high temp today was 49F, the low last night was 35F – so I’m assuming it was say 40F this a.m. before the wind-chill.

We’ve been watching a series on youtube called the BBC Men of Rock – there’s a three part series on Scotland and the history of geology – much of the world history in geology comes from Scotland as it has the most visible signs of historic rock on the planet. It also has rocks that are 3 billion years old, so some of the oldest on the entire planet. Pretty interesting series to watch and learn, the formations here are stunning with huge plate upheavals everywhere. There is also rock everywhere – in walls, in fields, in hills, etc. We’ve probably seen 300 miles of stone fence that was built 200+ years ago for sure (by hand mind you).

Today’s hike was long, but good – the walk sort of stunk from the trail standpoint – a lot of asphalt again – signage wasn’t great either, but All Trails app has a great map so I’ve been using that and we get to where we need to be. Overall today I’d give a 5 out of 10 on trail quality, 7/10 on views, and 10/10 on my personal comedy in keeping Cindy going. I’m sure she would give me a 1/10 for sure. I, of course, was doing Monty Python skits in my head while walking in the wind… At dinner tonight I told a local guy about saying “a duck!” for the witches and he got it immediately and thought it was funny – so maybe you have to be local to have fun with it (and be a bit older).

Let’s see other stuff – lots of animals (sheep) today, and lots and lots and lots of sheep today… Couple of horses. People bring their dogs here and they are very well behaved – people bring them into restaurants and the dogs just sit by their table – with other dogs sitting 5 feet away. Ours of course wouldn’t do that so well – with the attention to the meal being of the upmost importance.

Tomorrow is about 12 miles – but we’re staying back in the same town/hotel as there isn’t a hotel in the next down (getting a car back). This hotel is nice and the first thing after walking in was “can I have a beer” – which of course was immediately poured and enjoyed.

I will write a post mortem blog post at the end for others looking to hike this trail. The Rob Roy trail is managed by volunteers and is relatively new in Scotland – so you don’t see lots of people doing it. Generally I like it, but we were commenting that when you leave at nine a.m. and are back at 4 p.m. sort of wiped out you don’t really get to see the town. By 9 p.m. you’re ready for bed for sure. If I were to do this again I think I’d add a down day in the middle just to recuperate a bit and to see more about where we really are.

Tomorrow is Friday, so we have three hiking days left – then it’s the journey back to London for the flight home – hard to believe this journey is coming to an end. I can say that at this point of the trip you’re starting to think about “will I have clean underwear for the flight” or “what do I have that won’t smell…” – timing is everything on these trips and we’re getting down there on clothing for sure 😉