Kyle To Invermoriston Sponsored Walk 2
From Moriston Matters, Issue 9, October 1978 .
Walking Back To Happiness
Saturday, 23rd September, 1978, the night and day of "The Long Walk". It was midnight exactly when the walkers, the two Margarets, Allan and Duncan, dipped ritualistic feet into the waves of the Atlantic at Kyle of Lochalsh; it was 7.10 p.m. when they arrived to the accompaniment of the music of the pipes and a welcoming Glen, at the end of the trek and tottered into (Yes, INTO - let's be absolutely clear about that!) the calmer harbourage of Glenmoriston Arms Hotel Public Bar. And this time the "dipping" was much more traditional, much more warming, much more soothing but no less, looking hack, daunting.
The first part of the trail was in pitch darkness, driving rain and headwinds, but covered at a cracking pace. Dawn came, but there was no conventional rhapsodising - the job at hand was becoming more and more grim. By 8.45, however, the summit of that, from a vehicle, gently-climbing brae in Glenshiel bad been scaled, and in no time, it seemed, we had "clocked in" at that somewhat well-known oasis, Cluanie Inn, where we were greeted and feted by "mine host and hostess", Daniel and Elma, Scott and Fraser, and an assortment of well-kent characters,
A brief respite and off again we set, and now, on the 30-mile mark, the most cruel of all dilemmas began to be experienced: if one, on the the one hand, didn't rest, even but momentarily, he risked exhaustion; if he, on the other, did rest, even but momentarily, getting mobile again was agony pure and undiluted. At any rate, the writer of this wishes to "draw", as Lord Moran kindly did over Sir Winston's very last years, "a veil" over the stretch (appropriate word) between the Garry road and Achlain.
Nearing Achlain, however, the picture began to lose its snowy muzziness as various deputations arrived to exhort and encourage. At Achlain Mr and Mrs Reid dispensed coffee and other appropriate refreshment, and this re-energising treatment continued all the way back to base.
The main feature of this effort, which realised, hopefully, £800 towards the Hall funds, was two kinds of team-work. The first was among the walkers themselves, summed up by Allan's remark: "I was counting on Margaret (Smart) to get us through the last ten miles". The second was the quantity and quality of the backroom boys and girls - Morag and Duncan, Marion and Brian, Linda and Brodie and Eilidh, Alastair and Catherine, who all manned the back-up vehicles, those who did more than line the route, the Reids, the Granges, the Fergusons, the Tomlins (and how Mike's therapy was a boon!), the diligent attentions of that gentleman in "the wayward plus-fours", John Morrison and his parting gift, Tote and Brian who walked for so long, Bill Leather who co-ordinated so much – but, as the host of "The Good Old Days" says, "chiefly yourselves", the people of the Glen.
Peter and Meggie
BY OUR OCCASIONAL REPORTER.
P.S.
And next? Coast to Coast in 2 days, did someone say? Why not?