39 days later - Brenda does Ben Loyal.

Wednesday 12th August - Ben Loyal

Manny, the boys & myself headed north on Monday afternoon after having spent the morning packing the van. This was after me trying to clean the cooker & wash down the shower as the rest of the van had already been cleaned by a friend. We headed to Inverness to do some Tesco shopping and a visit to the cinema as the boys wanted to see the new Harry Potter Film. We spent the night on the short cut road between Alness & Bonar Bridge as we thought the road would be a bit quieter.

We had a long lie on Tuesday morning then made our way up to Tongue with lots of cups of tea stops, a bit of reading and taking in the scenery. This was very different to what I was last used to as every stop normally involved around making tea, rolls, complan, pasta etc. We arrived at Tongue late afternoon just as it started raining so we went to the pub for a quick pint hoping the rain would stop to at least get a bit of fresh air before dinner. We had a quick walk to the castle in Tongue then headed off to find a nice place to park up for the night. We found a nice quiet spot overlooking Ben Loyal.

Wednesday morning the alarm went off and yet again we heard rain, so back to sleep for another long lie in, well I am on holiday…. We get up in time for brunch, get organised as the rain had stopped so we headed to Ribgill Farm for Ben Loyal. We headed off late afternoon passing 3 folk on the way up and got to the top where the views where magnificent and then we hid out of the wind and have a bite to eat. A couple of pictures were taken and then headed back down the hill. A couple of light showers came in but nothing serious. Back to the van to have tea, when we realised that the Scotland game had already started so we abandoned dinner and headed to the Tongue Hotel to see if the game was on and yes it was but unfortunately at that time it was 3-0 down. Had a couple of pints, and now it was 4-0 to Norway then back to the van for tea. Got another lovely parking spot for the night. We all had a game of monopoly in the van.

Thursday morning, well yes another long lie in, getting used to having everything done for me, this trip has gone complete reverse. Manny driving, cooking, washing, cleaning, shopping – well just about everything while I just sit back & relax.
We spent the day just chilling out, lots of stops & a visit around Smoo Cave at Durness. Then from here on it was rather strange as it brought back memories of the accident as I passed the Spar shop where Chris had to go in and ask for the dialling code for Durness so he could phone the out of hours as the Surgery had just closed. We then passed the Surgery and out onto the road which was a bit familiar, more single track roads. We found another quiet spot that night but the midges were a nightmare.

Friday morning we were heading home as I had a Physio appointment in the afternoon & on the way home we passed the parking space where I was parked & saw the track that I was on but did not want to go and check out the “accident spot”. I could remember bits of the journey on the night I was taken to Raigmore especially when Chris just about had us both in a ditch as he was trying to stay awake. Chris had the music on/off, heater on/off, windows up/down as he only had a few hours sleep the night before, he thought he had food poisoning.

Thanks to all who joined us on the trip, all who followed the blog & all who turned up for the surprise party, it was a very memorable trip & I am just pleased now that I made it up Ben Loyal & on road to recovery.

Thank you all once again. Brenda