Accommodation: campsite.
A. Day. Off. It was a real bittersweet feeling being camped directly opposite Ben Nevis (wherever it is) because I had come to the difficult decision that I wasn’t going to climb it. When I’d been planning the trip I had read about a few people who incorporated the 3 peaks into their end-to-end challenge and there was no denying the extra kudos in that. But in my head, I knew that skipping the climb was the right thing to do. I’d hoped I might have gained sufficient match fitness by this point but my feet in particular were feeling a bit fragile and the jolting action of going all the way up and down again was not going to do them any favours. The last thing I wanted was to jeopardize the whole trip. Another time.
So now I was officially a lightweight, what to do on my day off? Laundry for starters. Bit by bit the mountain biking fans started arriving and filling up my field. I watched on with respect when a young kid – couldn’t be older than 10 – was doing impressive one hand wheelies on a bike that looked way too big for him. Even more impressive was his attempt to hustle older kids by challenging them to see who could do the longest one hand wheelie. In spite it being my day off, I went for a little bit of wander to see if I could find a better Nevis angle. It was still proving elusive.
Tonight was the turn of the burger container to get my business. Opted for a veggie burger which was decidedly average.
Pop quiz: What makes the following noise? Shhhhhhzt Slam. That dear friends, is the sound of a campervan closing its sliding door. There were 20 to 30 of them in the vicinity. Not much chance of getting an early night but to be fair, everything had quietened down by 11pm.
