Lairg to Allt an Inne Bheag
After a lovely and restful stay with Waggy and John, I was ready to set off from Lairg.
I started by climbing out of the village, on the road to Saval. The road was lovely and quiet, and the gorse bushes gave off their coconutty scent. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day – perfect walking weather.
I then left the road, and followed a field boundary, cross country to reach Dalchork Wood. (A path was marked on the map, but it wasn’t visible on the ground, so I elected to follow the boundary instead.)
At the edge of the woodland, I was greeted with a 6ft deer fence. I was successfully over the top, when my phone case got caught. This resulted in me being on one side of the fence and my phone being on the other! I climbed over wearing my bag, as there was no way to lift it over, so at least I could take my bag off to hop back over the fence and grab my phone back.
I made my way through the woodland, to join the track.
I stopped for a snack, and Barnaby had his bear snacks too!
The track was lovely and wide, and not too stoney underfoot! Some of the woodland had been harvested, which meant that I got beautiful views over to Loch Tigh na Creige.
I was most of the way through the woodland, when I was greeted with a sign: “No unauthorised personnel beyond this point”! Uh oh! Going round would have meant a big diversion. I’d only seen one lorry in the woodland, and not even in this part, and I couldn’t hear any work going on, so it was likely that there was no work going on today, but I decided it was best to double check. I rang the main office, who gave me the number for Adam, their harvesting manager. I gave him a call and left a voice message. Meanwhile, I sat and ate a selection of snacks. (If I was going to need to divert, I might as well be well fuelled!) 15 minutes had passed and I was just about to decide to try my luck walking through, when Adam called back and gave me the all clear – phew!
I made it through the woodland and headed towards the Dalnessie estate. The main track had a big sign saying private (it did head straight to their houses), so I followed the boundary around. This was today’s third bit of excitement, which included having to climb another 6ft deer fence. I made it safely over, and was very glad to reach the track on the other side. Hopefully, that would be all of the excitement for today!
The track took me along the river, before turning into a grassy vehicle track. This was lovely to walk on – spongey underfoot, but nice and dry. It was wonderful to be surrounded by the beautiful rolling moorland. Walking along, it was amazing to think how my scenery had changed so dramatically since leaving Oykel Bridge.
I continued walking up stream along Allt Crom-allt, before joining Abhainn Srath na Seilge. I found a lovely camp spot, just where Allt an Inne Bheag, came down to join the River. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was shining and there was a light breeze. I laid my socks and boots out to air, then got tucked up into my tent.
After his first day on the trail, Barnaby got himself ready and tucked into his sleeping bag too!
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