Highland Drove Walk - Day 5

Glen Shiel to Loch Quoich - 15.3 miles

I'll start with: it was a bloody freezing night, and sleeping in boggy marshland high up in the mountain range was definitely an experience. We were very happy with our thermal clothes but even with a 3 season sleeping bag we could feel the temperature drop drastically; sleeping on uneven ground added to the experience as we did a lot of tossing/turning and gentle sliding. Even though it was nice and sunny in the morning, and the forecast mentioned sunny skies for the next 4 days, it was still chilly enough to see your breath. It took us record time to dress, pack up and break camp; we wore every single layer we could squeeze ourselves into just to help speed up the warming process up. Washing yesterday's clothes was ridiculously painful and some of my fingers actually turned blue. It took a little while to get circulation back into them. Getting out of the marshland took a lot of climbing and smirking at the 'path' that was more waterlogged than the actual marshland. The scenery in this section was simply phenomenal and my camera had an overdose of pictures but the path itself and some stream/river crossings were almost impassable.

We both became expert rock hoppers after the 47th crossing and I guess that's why seeing an actual bridge close to Kinloch Hurn was such a big event. The jokes and games were constant: Eddie was Freddo (frog) hunting and I was trying not to laugh at any pants-on-fire jokes (over trousers can get very hot). The sun was out with a vengeance today so we introduced almost hourly feet-dunking sessions: breaks where we dunk our feet in freezing water to reduce the likelihood of inflammation and overheating, it's a bit painful at the beginning but OH so refreshing and effective.

Getting into Kinloch Hurn was a novelty, the area is picturesque in every way - can definitely recommend visiting it. Seeing houses and stepping onto a real road was the sign of civilisation - it was actually weird not having to worry about sinking. The plan was to get out of the valley and find a camping spot by Loch Quoich but one of the mini lochs just before was simply too beautiful to miss. After setup and some prep, we braved the Loch and went for a refreshing splash; big OUCH but oh so invigorating. We tried to enjoy the stunning views for longer but following dinner, we conked out almost immediately. I love every second of these trips, even the painful, sweaty, wet and freezing part; they are all part of the package