Fourth day – a sudden halt to proceedings
Last night, in the Drover’s Inn, we had ordered veggie haggis (which was delicious), as well as a pasta dish which was kind of cold and didn’t taste so good. We really should have sent it back, but I at least was too hungry to care at the time. I do remember feeling not so great immediately afterwards, but put it down to eating too quickly.
This turned out not the case, unfortunately. Both myself and Astrid woke up feeling really ill in the the night, and had to rush in the darkness to the camp site toilets. I ended up being sick and Astrid wasn’t much better. When we eventually managed to get to sleep and woke up quite late in the morning, it became clear that neither of us was in a state to walk anywhere. It seemed that we both had the same symptoms – aching limbs, feeling hot and cold, in fact quite a lot like flu. I am convinced that it was from the dodgy food last night.
The question came of course as to what was to be done about it. We are on a fairly tight schedule to finish the West Highland Way, and there was not time to take any extra days in doing it. Not only that, but I had booked accommodation for tonight and the last night in a cabin and bunkhouse respectively, which could not be so easily moved.
Therefore the decision was taken to miss out the walking that we would have done today, and take a bus to our intended destination for this evening, at Tyndrum. This was really disappointing to have to do, but it seemed like the only reasonable option. Because we had a room in a wooden cabin arranged there, we could hopefully stay in bed all day and try and shake off our illnesses, ready to begin again tomorrow. There are after all three more days after today to be walked.
This is what we did. Certainly not what I had planned, and not something which had featured on the list of things to be concerned about. Midgies, rain, my dodgy knee from earlier in the week, yes, but Scottish restaurant cooking, no. How annoying and ironic that it was also the first time that we had not cooked for ourselves.
Let’s hope that we are both feeling better tomorrow.
