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| Tibetan Buddhist nun fearlessly tests out bridge with very low weight limit. |
Once we reached Saddell, there are options as to the route to take. There is a alternative section of the Kintyre Way going up Saddell Glen. The main route, which we opted to take leads up through a forested area. There was nobody else on this section and it was pretty good going. It leads eventually to the head of Lussa Loch which is a man made reservoir. We stopped here and decided to choose between various alternative routes when we had walked the length of the loch and reached one of the junctions in the route there. We had already chosen not to try the very long extension to Bellochantuy. This effectively adds one day onto the main route. We thought it likely that we would choose the shorter, and slightly easier, alternative route for the end of the day. Blisters and foot and leg ache were beginning to show themselves in Ani Sherab and myself, but Phen was starting to charge, fueled by copious amounts of coffee at both breakfast, and supplied in a flask by the various B&B establishments en-route.
Down the length of the loch, to find that Phen had continued on - we hoped straight on down the main route to Campbeltown, though we had no way of knowing which way he had gone. It was abundantly clear by this time that Ani Sherab and I needed to take the shorter option and so we set off down the appropriate path. Our route, not route marked like the main line of the Way, had one really awkward navigation point: we had to leave the path to follow a pipe line down to a second, then over the second one (by the bridge portrayed above) before traversing across to another path. The route by the pipelines was through a very wet (after seven days of hot, dry weather) small valley, with the pipeline on supports above us. This was difficult to negotiate, and was by far the wettest point of the Way so far. It also raised some slight concern: if Phen had come this way, without a map, there was no way he could have been aware of this section of the route. He would have continued on into a network of trails and forestry paths. By this time, after some hours of walking, we had seen three other people and two border collies since leaving the bus.
The final section back to the road and bus at Peniver was very difficult because Ani Sherab's blisters had become very painful indeed, and could only walk very slowly. I was walking slowly, but did not have the same degree of difficulty with my feet. We managed to catch the 17:10 bus to Campbeltown and ended up in the centre of the town around half past.
Ani Sherab and I were in the middle of Campbeltown, with, as far as we knew, about a half hour walk to the B&B. In the light of the state of our feet, and our disinclination to walk back and forth, we decided to have a meal at the Indian restaurant we could see. I phoned the B&B to inform them that we would be arriving round about 20:00. Then it got a little confused. My phone call was answered by the man of the house; I said that we had a reservation and would be arriving a little later. He appeared uncertain about my booking, and called his wife, putting the phone down while he did so; I then heard Phen's voice saying that he was one of three people booked in for the night. Then my phone call was terminated. It turned out that he had rung the door bell at the exact moment that I had phoned. Things were further complicated by the fact that the owner had misrecorded the booking - she had it recorded for July rather than June. She was very relieved that we were going to be some time getting there, as it gave her time to prepare the rooms. She got her husband to run Phen down to the Indian, and pick up our luggage. We had an enjoyable meal and then went to the B&B to find everything sorted out and as planned. Phen had both gone straight on at the decision point, as we had hoped, and had been walking fast enough that after some searching for the B&B he arrived coincident with my calling them. All's well that end's well.