A somewhat unplanned rest day, today was meant to be the day I climbed Ben Nevis (and frustratingly it was great weather for it!) but I desperately wanted to see an osteopath and the only appointment available was 11am today. I thought I might be able to see the osteopath and then go straight to climb the mountain afterwards but when I woke up I wasn’t feeling great so decided I would take it steady and try to climb Ben Nevis tomorrow instead. Definitely the right decision, as after seeing the osteopath (who was great) I felt exhausted and sick. I wandered slowly back to the hostel, climbed into bed and napped for a couple of hours!
It was a nice afternoon so I took myself out to the garden and draped my tent over the chairs to dry out. It was soaking wet! So glad to be able to get it dry before I next use it, and so I’m not carrying it around wet. Once the tent was dry and I’d caught up with some friends I popped into town to Cotswold Outdoor (one of my favourite shops ever!) to replenish my stock of camping food and to replace my hydration pack which was growing all sorts of horrible things and definitely needed to go in the bin asap! I also finally gave in and bought an anti-midge headnet. I’m hoping I’m past the worst of the midges now but given I’ll be camping by a loch for a few nights I figured I’d best be prepared…
On the way back I quickly popped down to the lochside which was beautiful (if I ignored the busy road behind me). I watched a cormorant fighting with an eel he had caught, dropping it every time he tried to swallow it and having to dive and catch it again. This went on for a good five minutes and I nearly cheered out loud when he finally managed to get the right angle to swallow it down! I did feel a bit sorry for the poor eel though!
I was feeling rubbish again by the time I got back to the hostel and retreated to bed for a bit before trying to eat a little bit of dinner. I was in bed by 8:30pm feeling thoroughly miserable and worried that I wasn’t going to be up for climbing the Ben in the morning. Rest days don’t seem to agree with me! I’m unsure as to whether it would be better to take more as I get near the end or just push on and get it done before I break completely!