We walked from Ardrishaig to Inverneill on sunday evening in pouring rain so that we would be ready to start a long walk on the road on Monday. He was very worried about this and decided on a 4am. start.
Well this pleased me to start with as I got my breakfast very, very early. But I did not realise that it would be a long, long time until he fed me again. Very rumbly tummy. Things got even worse! He started to dress me up in a bright jacket that he described as a high vis vest. Why? So that the lorry drivers would slow down for me. But they will slow down any way to admire me silly. AND the lead.
All dressed up. Once again you can tell how I feel about this. Note the sick bowl!
Actually I did not like this walk on the road as there were dozens of lorries and often no place to step off the road as cliffs often came right down to the edge of the road at the corners. The lorries were huge and very noisy. I was frightened. What would the RSPCA say about this silly idea. When we got to a track and off the road – lead off, jacket off and I’m OFF.
Pleasant track.
This part was really nice, plenty of space, mud to roll in and water to swim in. Cool. But all good things come to an end and we were back on the road all dressed and trussed up. Fotunately it did not take long to get to Tarbert.
Now I got a big gunk! We had to get on a bus to get back to the campervan. The driver was not at all keen but HE managed to persuade him to let me on. The vibration upset me like it did when I went on that noisy boat at Ardfern. We went to Tarbert and visited people before we went to Cloanaig and walked to Skipness and back to the van.
This was to save his wee legs from walking on a road at the end of the day. So no roads, no dressing up and no leads tomorrow!
Tarbert to Skipness.
He did not tell me that I had to endure yet another bus journey to get back to Tarbert and the start of the walk. No Likey. I shook like a leaf and actually sat on his knee and cuddled. I suppose he was really quite nice to me – so he should be! It was all his idea in the first place.
We followed the first stage of something called the Kintyre Way. We walked (he did – I ran) up to Tarbert Castle where there was lots of sheep – funny black ones. I thought that I had arrived in heaven as they all looked like Black Labradors with boys as well as girls AND all smelling wonderful.
Great walk, lots of freedom, no rows from him and I could not see this Goatfell thing that we were heading for as it was hazy. What is hazy? I thought it was something that happened to him when he drank that whisky stuff? The last mile to Skipness we ran – well he called it running. It was a bit pathetic watching him shuffling down the track. The best laugh was that he was in a hurry to catch the 13.20 ferry. It was actually scheduled for 13.50! Can he really read and you would think that he could have looked out to sea and seen that the ferry was still heading to Lochranza – the opposite way!!! He is supposed to be my guardian.
The Final Straight. I felt like Eddie the Eagle. A wee bit of snow and off we go with a quick leap over to Arran.
I am so glad that this track was well marked with blue posts as the way things are going I don’t think that we would ever be seen again if we had to rely on his navigation. I suppose in the end I would just have to abandon him around dinner time.
Kintyre Way markers to guide one towards safety and another meal!
We arrived at the ferry a good thirty minutes early. Over to Arran and down to Brodick to meet my sister Meg who is nearly as beautiful as me. At last some good fun. Got him to throw sticks for us to thug each other over.
Tomorrow we go back to Lochranza and walk back along the coast to Corrie. Meg is coming on this walk with Kay. So looks like a good day.
May 20th 2014
tesswalk 