Sunday Walk

I know it's only been a couple of weeks since I last shared my walking progress but the Sunday before last I took part in a 14.54 mile walk with a group of eight of my friends.

Frustratingly, I completely neglected to take any photos on the way, mainly because I was trying to stay upright and a fair chunk of the journey was uphill. I did carry my camera around the whole way with me, so I did intend to take photos, it just never happened.

Luckily I walked over 35,000 steps and climbed the equivalent of 100 flights of stairs, so as well as having my Runkeeper map showing my progress around roughly a third of the island, I also have two shiny new badges.

The walk saw us walking from Port Bannatyne, out towards the Rhubodach ferry. Then we veered off up through the woods (stopping briefly to visit a convenient outhouse along the the way), before stopping for lunch and continuing up a massive slope.

One of the girls had done the walk the week before and warned us that we would need wellies for the walk. She wasn't kidding. There were a couple of fields which we had to cross which were covered with this long, yellow, tufty grass. In between the clumps were boggy and wet muddy patches so even with welly boots on, it was tricky business to pick your way through secure ground. I thought that the best places to stand would be the big tufty bits, because like looked like they were solid ground.

They weren't.

Quite often you would step on one and discover that not only was it just a fluffy patch of long grass, but that the long fluffy patch of grass was growing over boggy mud and you'd end up sinking almost to the top of your welly boot. I didn't fall over, but I did come close a couple of times!

Unfortunately the walk also virtually finished off the walking boots that I got in February. After we got past the boggy fields, I carried on walking in welly boots because the other shoes were rubbing; I'd rubbed right the way through the fabric lining on the inside. Mr Click has found me another pair which I should receive next week; they're Hi-Tec, the same brand as his, which he's had for approximately sixteen years, so here's hoping they'll last a little longer.

It only took me about three days for my muscles to return to normal after the walk; the first day was definitely the sorest and by the third it was just when I moved after being in the same position for too long. I'm hoping that this means that all the walking I've been doing each day has helped me find long distance walking a little easier.


I've taken the walking a little easier in the week since the long walk, but this week coming I'm getting back into the swing of things. We've got my birthday, plus a trip to Glasgow in the week ahead, so I'm hoping I'll rack up a few steps that way. And as of yesterday, I'm roughly 200 miles across Middle-earth which means I'm just coming to the end of the Midgewater Marshes!

Thank goodness because the midges here have been awful over the last week!