Tue 8th June - Day 53, Crieff to Aberfeldy (26 miles)

Today was to be quite hard, I had 3 hill ranges to cross to Aberfelday, so I left early at 06:30, it was overcast with low cloud just above the hilltops.

From Crieff I went past the distillery and up the road to the dam at Loch Turret Reservoir.

From here I walked along the track by the side of the loch up into the hills, the higher I went the lower the cloud and mist became.

By the time I got to the end of the glen I was in the mist, there was no path now so I had to use the compass to get me north-north-east over the saddle and down into Glen Almond to find a place to cross the river.

The map showed a short track crossing over the river to a track on the north side, this was only a ford with stones along the one side, luckily I managed to get across without soaking my feet.

I walked along the track bypassing the farm at Auchnafree, I could hear too many dogs barking there, then turning onto another track on the north-east side of Glenshervie Burn.

There was a faint path going through Glen Lochan to get me over into Glen Quaich. It was now raining and having to walk through heather there was no way to keep my feet dry. Once I reached Lochan a' Mhuilinn it was a track down to the road by Loch Freuchie.

It was two miles along the road to Wester Shian then a track along Shian Burn took me part way up the final range of hills.

There was no path on from where the track ended and it was an hours slog in a straight line over the heather to meet up with another track going in to Aberfeldy on the other side, fortunately there were pylon lines going my way and whilst the mist was too thick to see the pylons I could follow the cables above my head.

The weather had been miserable all day and I arrived at Aberfeldy at 17:30.

It had been an enjoyable day, in spite of the weather, but I was feeling very tired after 26 miles. After I pitched the tent in the campsite I went out for a meal.

I had a two course meal in a hotel and then as I was walking back to the campsite I stopped in a chip shop for a bag of chips, back in the tent I had 4 small apple pies and custard and finished off with half a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits and a mug of tea.


935 miles completed.