Day 4 - Monday 11 May

Because of the sloping tent, Lisa and I both had trouble getting a really good sleep Sunday night, even though the weather held out and was great, and otherwise the camp site was good. The first thing we had to do was continue slogging through the boggy path, now moving away from the allt, until we had climbed to reach the road to Cougie. This was still really pretty hard going, and was compounded or at least certainly not helped by the relatively poor sleep the night before. We did make it to the main track to Cougie (about 0.3 of a mile further) in reasonable time, but it wasn't a great way to get started for the day. Lisa, especially, was already pretty well worn out. The main track was quite a lot better, although there were some frequent wet spots that needed to be avoided, but it seemed to keep going on and on. We reached the lochan (small lake) where we had originally planned to camp on the second night, and it was quite beautiful and we spotted at least one good campsite there, but we still weren't quite to Cougie yet.

Pretty soon we saw a sign put out for the TGO Challengers stating "Cougie Lodge 2 miles", with the promise of food and refreshments available on arrival, so this was hopeful, but still the walking seemed to take a long time. Lisa began having more and more trouble with the back and leg pain, and also started becoming nauseous (didn't actually vomit, but it seemed like she might). She was clearly quite exhausted, and at around that point she decided that she was not going to walk any farther than Cougie (and she was hoping that she would actually get there!).

We did make it to Cougie by mid afternoon, around 1400 (I think), and it was a very welcome sight. The owner, Val, and her daughter, Tina, and daughter-in-law, Sasha, who were there to help Val handle the influx of Challengers, were extremely hospitable and made us feel very welcome. A cup of tea and some scones didn't hurt, either. Lisa perked up pretty quickly and started to feel quite a bit better, but she still knew that she was done with the walking for now. Since we are from Utah, Val told us the details of her "dream trip" to the Southwestern US that she and Tina took in 1998 (or 99). They went through 4 or 5 states, getting as far into Utah as Green River, and had a wonderful time.

Eventually, the food, drink and stories were done, and it was time for us to get on with our new plans. We were scheduled and had a reservation to spend the night at The Caledonian Hotel in Fort Augustus, where I had also stayed in 2007. Tina graciously offered to give us a ride there, which we accepted. That evening we had a wonderful multiple course meal (which I had fully expected, given my previous experience there) and then had the luxury of a wonderful room and bed. Further planning would wait until the next morning.

Our total distance traveled from Shiel Bridge to Cougie was 23.1 miles.