Rob Roy Way | Day 8
Evening everyone,
It felt brilliant to be walking again today! It feels natural and normal to be outside and doing this. Eve is at her best, her daily struggles with Autism, although never gone, are barely noticeable. For me it feels more home than home. The only way it could be improved would be with the presence of the strongest, most caring and beautiful woman in the world, (I might be bias) Sarah!
Starting walking this morning felt really really good. Eve was excited to get going and was full of energy and enthusiasm. I struggled to keep up with the infinite questions and conversation topics. Keeping up with Eve is the hardest part of any day, and although she doesn’t mean it, she can be exhausting 🤣
The route today was awesome with views more breathtaking than the amount of effort required to see them! It felt almost like we were cheating.
The weather was kind considering the met office forecast for today. We had rain, wind and it was cold(ish) but it never really amounted to much more than an empty threat. We could see the grey clouds swirling around but we didn’t get a soaking all day.
The trail started by following a grassy path from the road near Acharn. The trail started flat then gradually lead us uphill running parallel to the River Tay towards Aberfeldy and into the forests following forest trails.
We stopped for a short break before we entered the forest then we were immediately dodging fallen trees that had landed all over the forest track.
The whole area was covered in the last remnants of snow too! It felt great to be walking looking at little pockets of snow. Eve obviously had to pick it up and try to make a snow ball that was more like an ice ball! She didn’t throw it at me as I think it would have knocked me out it was so hard. She threw it down the path and used it as a football until it was obliterated! Eve also made ice frisbees!
The forests felt alive. It was windy, but we were protected by the trees. The trees swayed and creaked so much, we both on occasions thought we heard somebody shouting. When we stopped to listen we could hear it was the creaks and growns of the trees as they swayed.
Eve spent most of time walking 10 feet in-front of me, with me struggling to keep up with her!
In the forest we found a small unmarked trail leading us back downhill. The trail was grassy and muddy. We slipped and slid all the way down. How we didn’t end up falling on our bottoms I have no idea!
We hiked passed a house, followed some gravelled roads before being lead back up hill through a huge sheep field that was covered in about 3 inches of mud that was as slippy as any ice rink we have ever been on. We really didn’t want to fall over in that as it would have got everywhere being so wet and sticky!
The highlight of today was reaching the Falls of Moness made famous by Robert Burns who got his inspiration here for his famous song The Birks of Aberfeldy. We even found the exact spot where Burns is said to have sat and wrote the song! I think the historic poignancy was a little bit lost on Eve. I found the song on YouTube and played it for her. Eve then made up her own words recording a video for Sarah of her of song.
The falls are spectacular and huge. There is a bridge that goes over part of the falls with magnificent views looking down.
The whole area is very touristy. There is a very well made and maintained trail that runs the length of the falls starting (or ending for us) at a carpark on the edge of Aberfeldy.
Eve was still feeling dynamic and powering on ahead of me. I did at this point have to ask her to slow down, not least so she could look around more and I could try to get some photographs that are not all of her backpack in the distance.
We arrived in Aberfeldy early. It was only about 4 pm. We walked passed a huge area covered by snowdrops before finding where are staying this evening.
We dropped our bags off and walked to the co-op to get some dinner (pot noodles and cheese rolls).
Eve is currently sat in bed playing on a math game on her tablet although she keeps dropping hints for her cheese rolls!
I’m off to put some dinner together and chill out. Tomorrow we have just over 10 miles to cover with a planned stop at what looks to be the most epic chocolate shop in the world! Then we will have completed the Rob Roy Way! Another trail in the bag!
Have a great night and sleep well.
Ian, Eve and Sarah
