Highland Drove Walk - Day 1

Sligachan to Camasunary bay - 12.3 miles

Having a good night's sleep just before a long trek is always great but this was seriously deep/comfortable sleep, I literally made a note of the mattress' name as I'll be buying one in the near future. After a large Scottish breakfast, we took the 3-hour-long coach to Sligachan and just after 1 pm our journey officially started from the car park.

As we were well behind with time we decided to do a short 8-mile walk. Well, 8 miles on a zigzagging, pebbly path took us a bit longer than planned and it turned into 12.3 miles soon enough :). Few steps into the trek we were informed by another walker that the Sky Trail marathon was taking place today and we would be seeing up to 30 runners go past. We saw our first runner 20 minutes later and the next one more than 2 hours after that. From the very first step the scenery was simply breathtaking but having stunning sunshine did definitely add to the appeal and the picture quality. Having to live up to my "Google street view" nickname was a hardship but I was up to the task: 200 pictures in under 2 hours may have been a new record, even for me.

After a couple of short breaks, we decided to have lunch and that's how we met Alex, a super funny, intelligent trekker on holiday from a stressful job. We talked/bantered and laughed for almost 3 straight hours, what a guy. The views never disappointed and trying not to camp at every Loch, waterfall or stunning view was actually a harder task than anticipated.

When we finally got to the beach we set up camp, however, due to the sunset and possibly freezing wind, I cancelled my swim but at least frostbite wasn't an issue that evening. The midges never made an appearance due to the constant breeze so dinner contained less protein. After taking another 100 pictures, of the beach and surrounding area from every possible angle, we all decided to call it a night by 9.30 pm. To say we were all wiped was an understatement and I think we all passed out within seconds of crawling into our sleeping bags.