August 28 - Guest post by Kelly (Mrs. Dude).

Hiking Dude knows that what I hate more than anything is being wet and cold. Since we've had mostly cold, rainy days in Sweden and Scotland, I revised our WHW schedule a bit to give us a chance to dry out after rainy hiking days.

We've been camping every other night, and staying someplace dry (like a camping pod or hotel room if we're lucky) the other nights. Our days are shorter (hopefully less time in the rain) and we are trying to time our hiking hours to avoid the worst of the rain. We have three days left to hike and two of the days seem like they may be sunny(ish) according to Google.

Last night we stayed in a pod in Tyndrum where we rigged up a clothesline to dry everything out. We were also able to wash and dry some clothes! This morning we headed out by 7:30 a.m. because the morning weather prediction looked dry.

The trail from Tyndrum to The Bridge of Orchy was the easiest yet! We easily walked the 7 miles in about 2.5 hours. The trail wasn't as rocky or muddy or blocked by puddles as on previous days. The only thing slowing us down were the sheep posing for photos along the trail. Finally, Hiking Dude said, 'No more sheep photos!'

We stopped for a scone with cream and jelly, and something hot to drink at The Bridge of Orchy hotel and enjoyed relaxing and visiting with fellow hikers for about an hour. Then we headed out on the last couple of miles, up and over a hill and down again into Inveroran. We arrived by about 12:30. It rained during this part of the hike, but not too hard. The hill climb felt easier than we thought it would. All of the daily climbs, with our packs, on the local ski hill really helped our endurance!

I tried to get a room at the Inveroran Inn (actually Inveroran is just this inn and a convenience shop), but they were full, so we planned to wild camp just down the road, and then return for a nice dinner later in the evening. We found a great spot near the river to set up our tent, and the midges loved it also! Even though we were trying to quickly set up our tent in the drizzling rain, we dug through our packs to don our bug suits! Once the tent was set up, we walked up to the convenience shop to have a coke and hang out.

Then back to the tent to hang out and get unpacked. (Way too much hanging out for hiking dude, but he was a great sport!). Then at 4 pm we put on our 'nice' clothes and went to the Inn's bar to hang out until our 6:15 reservation. Luckily, we were offered an early table which we eagerly accepted.

Our meals were amazing - beautiful and delicious! I had lamb and Hiking Dude had snapper. If you have the opportunity to stay or eat here, do it! The owner and staff were very friendly and helpful. We made it back to our tent before the rain started and now we are in for the night and planning on a rainy (but short) day of hiking tomorrow.

There are six other tents here now as it becomes dark. For deer just visited, eating the grass and ignoring the people. Two of them have huge antlers!

Check out my current location on the map.