We woke up lazily, and had our 9:00 breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It sufficed, and came with the Mickledore arranged walk, so why not?

Dan tweaked his back (again), so he opted to rest in our hotel room while I did some investigating for our walk tomorrow. I first walked, following a Great Glen Way sign I thought pointed a particular way. Nope. Then I walked the other direction and found the official start of the walk, where probably everyone takes the obligatory photo.

But it isn’t where you start the walk! How confusing is that?

I walked just a small bit and saw a sign across the street that looked promising. I took a quick photo and zoomed in. Yep. The start of the walk! Right by our hotel. The path, in fact, runs directly behind our hotel window, and the people I heard talking last night were clearly walking on it!

Since I located it I decided to walk a bit to see where it took me. The first Great Glen Way marker was pretty clear and easy to follow …

Hmm. Into a residential area. Strange. But, once again, I misread a sign and wound up at a dead end in said residential area. What IS my problem?!

Well, I figured it out: the Great Glen Way signs have what I thought were arrows pointing in the direction I should go, when I guess they just are the logo or some such thing. Other posts do have an arrow pointing us in the correct direction (like the one I posted above), but those aren’t like the signs I mistakenly followed. Go figure. (I’ll try to remember to post a photo of the sign that confused me when we head out tomorrow … but with this old brain who knows if I’ll get to it!)

So backtracking was next and it was “Well, DUH, Patty, can’t you see what that sign is telling you to do?!”

Continuing the walk I ended up off sidewalk and street and on to trail. It’s so pretty … flowers are blooming and the birds are enthusiastically singing. Weather was fabulous, too: enough cloud cover to keep me from getting too warm, and very little breeze.

I wasn’t sure how far I walked when I opted to turn around (right after crossing Soldier’s Bridge), so I set my watch to record a walk and back I went.

Except again I missed a turn. Argh! When I hit homes I thought, “Well I don’t remember this at all.” So I turned around and headed back and it was so darn clear where I missed my turn. There were the sheep. There were the sweet lambs. (There was all that sheep poop.) Ah well. I very well may have added 1/2 mile or more to my walk and that’s just fine. I may as well get ready for the longer walks we have coming. (Tomorrow’s is said to be 10 miles.)

I came back to the room to find Dan doing some computer stuff, and after I showered, and did a small amount of laundry in the sink, we hung out for a while before going back out.

First off I showed Dan the sign I totally missed this morning, and then we went to the big Great Glen Way sign, agreeing that our photo would wait until we are actually heading out. As we were there four cyclists showed up: they had just finished the GGW coming from Inverness (our final destination), taking two days to do the ride. Dan took some photos for them, and we chatted a bit. One woman did say they hit good weather but we should be prepared for anything. I’m hoping we are, although I’d prefer no rain. (I can dream, right?)

We then again walked to the little downtown area, in search of coffee and a light snack. Hm. Apparently coffee isn’t available in the afternoon. Instead we wound up ordering beers and a pizza. A bit more than we had planned on eating. Ah well. Guess we’ll burn it off on the walk. Maybe.

Next up was a walk back to the hotel, a bit of a rest, some computer time (including writing more of this blog entry), and just a lot of doing nothing, which I really do excel at. Dinner was right next door — the same place we get our free breakfast — and was just fine. Nothing to write home about, but I’m not writing home so whatever!

Seeing a young man stick his menu in his pants, though … that was a fun thing to view and a great photo with which to END. 🤣