Well today was a really good one – the walk for the first couple of miles was again on asphalt (yuck) and uphill, but then once you get off of that it was a great trail/road then a formal trail with mushy / muddy spots and everything you could want in a trail. We did about 2000 vertical feet today – climbing across the nearby mountain to then descend into another loch. But once away from the local village we were walking through tons of animals just hanging out in the fields we were walking through. It was cold today, we’ll say 49F, but at the top the wind was blowing so definitely colder. My dress typically is a t-shirt, then light sweatshirt, heavier sweatshirt and exterior rain jacket. My backup is adding a Melanzana outer wear under my rain jacket. Had to have it all on today – including hat and gloves for about half of the hike. No biggie – but in reality you realize if it was raining out constantly you’d probably be colder than you wanted to be. I have yet to take my rain pants out of my backpack – and the weather looks to be holding through Sunday (our last hiking day). So I think we’ll be good. We have had light rain here/there but nothing longer than about 10 minutes.

Ok, enough about rain, todays adventure was really about finding/seeing lots of animals – sheep of different varieties and of course the highland cow. The highland cow sure is a lot like a normal cow, except for the horns and extra hair – they seem to be pretty docile just hanging out looking at you. With no predators why would they care?

The sheep are a bit more skittish with jumping up when you get about ten feet away and running off as a group. It’s funny though we had one that one parent went one way, the other a different way and it sat there in the middle of the road not knowing which way to go – we waited a good 60 seconds for it to make up its mind and it ran off with its mom.

Overall the hiking today was very scenic and probably the best hiking day we’ve had – including the weather. We got off the trail and had to back track for one part, but no big deal as it was a great section to have that happen. Hiking down the hill was very swampy and muddy – almost felt like a marsh – tells you how much water they really get here. Our driver said it’s one of the wettest years on record – I can believe it.

Cindy had this entire skit put together from Outlander the tv show/series – where she was touching rocks and beamed back in time – funny – but then came back through the time portal – so we’re all good.

Now the best part of the day (for me) was finally getting to the Monty Python part. There’s a scene in the Holy Grail where they come upon a rabbit and need to use the Holy Hand Grenade to solve the problem at hand (a rabbit). Today we found and adventured into this magical place where the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch was actually used. It seems some other people also had been there as there were some interesting decorations. One of my favorite things for sure.

Quick Discussion on Gear (shoes). So this hike is a mix of asphalt and hiking – for the asphalt you really want something like a Hoka tennis shoe. For this trip I’ve been hiking in Oboz trail shoe – it’s water resistant, not 100% waterproof. In chatting with the REI guy, gortex makes your feet hot so I elected to go with the less rain proof shoe. If it was raining hard, I might regret as it’s not cold… The problem is walking on pavement in them – my knees and lower back can really be bothering me if we end up doing 5 miles on tarmac. Cindy has hiking boots made from Hoka – but I don’t think I’d recommend them after doing this – one of the metal hooks for laces sort of wears through to her skin – we’ve put moleskin on it, but sort of shows signs that they are not a trail hiking shoe company. I didn’t do a full hiking boot – walking down the trail today I slipped and rolled my low cut shoe (and ankle) and thought – hmm a boot would have been better. Not a full mountaineering boot mind you, but something over the ankle for sure. I think the trick here is does it get wet and how fast can it dry. Leather is great but having wet shoes in the morning would be no fun at all. I’ve hiked in what folks call an “approach shoe” – I would not use those – your feet swell when you hike and those shoes have no room to do anything in – so are not as comfortable for longer hikes. In the end it’s what makes the best support for you, but also for conditions you are in. For us it’s mud, rocks, and wet – the chance of slipping is high so we want more traction and we wanted water proof.

Dinner tonight was excellent – saw this sign as well on the road which I thought was funny if you read it out loud.