Invermoriston - Drumnadrochit

In a bid to get the blog finished off before the next Monster, here goes with some observations from the Silver and Gold stages.

The silver stage started with another hill - it was a belter. This stage was the unofficial MP3 stage where the three of us stuck the choons on and got the heads down. I assumed the anchor role for much of this stage due to the fact that I kept having to stop to remove the stones that had popped down the sides of my well worn trainers.

At the start of both Bronze and Silver, I did have doubts as to whether or not I would finish it - Inverness seemed so far away. Last night I drove from Crail to Dunfermline - a distance of 37 miles over relatively flat land. I still cant believe we hiked 6 miles more than that after completing a 30 mile cycle. I think it will be a wee while before the chuffed-ness (new word) wears off. :-)

I enjoyed walking along singing out of tune to an assorted mix. A rogue Take That track (from the good lady wife) came on and Howard Donald told me to 'keep on walking....keep on walking baby!' - nae bother Howard. Baby.

The cake and drink stops were great although in hindsight we might have stopped too long at them - well, how can you walk with your poles whilst wolfing down chocolate and banana cake? Thanks to everyone who fed and watered us - Maggie's veterans were spot on with their tales of how good the food was.

The hill coming down into Drumnadrochit was a nightmare. We were all feeling quite good when we spotted the centre at the top of the hill and thought we would be there in no time but it seemed to go on forever and there was a fair bit pressure of the knees. Some brave souls were running down the hill to ease the pressure - we thought they had found out they were running out of stew.

We got into the checkpoint at around 7:30ish. Our support team were waiting for us, along with Stuart and his family and Scott's wife and his family (mine too!). I was pleased that Lee had kept Robyn up in Inverness - seeing them at the gold stage gave me something to aim for and look forward to.