Day 0 - Torridon to Loch an Eoin

Sorry for the delay in getting these posts up. We are currently on Day 4 and will have service for the rest of the evening. I’m hoping to get 4 posts up. We took notes in the tent every night.

Our bags finally arrived!! We headed back to the airport this morning with mixed emotions , and some nerves, hoping our bags would arrive. After a bit of waiting the baggage agents finally brought them out, a little worse for wear (my front mesh pouch was completely ripped), but there nonetheless.
We hopped a bus back to Glasgow to get the first train possible to Inverness. The train was delayed en-route, but having become accustomed to nothing going right the last few days, we didn’t sweat it.
When we got to Inverness we hopped off, found the closest grocery store for supplies, then hopped in our taxi to Torridon. The ~100 km drive through the mountains revealed what we would be hiking through for the next few days. The driver was super-friendly and we had a great time talking about all of the hot-topics: football (Hearts are his favourite), politics (Boris and Nicola are numpties), Banff (would be his dream vacation)
We got to the hostel around 17:00. Ruth signed us out on the challenger’s log. We saw that our friend Peter from Sundre who we had met during TGOC 2017 was due to leave tomorrow so we asked if he had checked in. He hadn’t yet, so hopefully we see him out on the trail in the next few days. We took a few minutes getting changed, getting our gear sorted, and were ready to head out - 4 days late.

Signed Out and Ready To Go!

It was only 17:30. We had decided earlier in the day to get a couple hours of hiking in to take the edge of the first full day of hiking tomorrow. It did not take long to get into the wilderness - about 15 minutes and we were in the mountains. Spectacular!!!!

Looking Back To Loch Torridon

We heard our first cuckoo only 1 km in!!!! And he must have followed us all the way to our camp spot because we still heard him after dinner.🤣
The scenery has been stunning right from the start, and I could not imagine a more picturesque camp spot. The weather was sunny, breezy, with intermittent clouds.

First Camp Spot

For those following on a map, we stopped at Loch an Eoin, under Maol Chéan Dearg -it is so beautiful here, and we are finally feeling happy after the past four days of chaos!
Shoes: Mandy - wet, JM - so far so good

Mandy’s Sock Drying Station 🤣

Dinner: rice pilaf and coconut rice, lemon chicken skewers. Dairy Milk mini cake rolls for dessert. Tea, coffee.

We are in the tent for the night at 21:10. The cuckoo must be saying good night to us. I am not sure why he keeps repeating himself though...