SNT (day 13) - Ciste Dhubh to Loch Calavie (Cape Wrath Trail)

A near perfect day on the trail, perfect weather, path was mostly straightforward and the views were spectacular.

The trail was running next to two bothies or Scottish huts for hikers early in the morning, I had a peek in the first one and it kind of reminded me the hiker huts in New Zealand but a bit smaller and with less facilities, they were still much better than three walled huts on the Appalachian Trail.

As I progressed down the path I've met Anja, an accountant from London who recently left her job to pursue her dream of travelling and self discovery, she has spend 15 months travelling through Asia and now was on a short hiking trip here, her plan was to hike PCT next year which I've completed four years ago, so we had plenty to talk about. Anja was finishing her walk in Morvich so I wished her good luck on her travels and carried on.

At the Kintail Outdoor Centre I got offered a coffee and biscuits from a bunch of friendly horse riders who just finished their hike, I couldn't say no to that! Path was climbing up from here, until it reached one of the highlights of the trail so far Fall of Glomach, an epic, very long and dramatic waterfall, trail was going down next to it so I could see it with all its raw beauty.

From here on there was a road walk in almost country side setting, there were two houses along the road, one definitely abandoned the other potentially also empty. Couple of sheep grazing nearby made the impression that someone was indeed living in one of the them. After another climb I went along an enormous glacial valley devoid of any human activity, it was serene and I appreciated the scale of it. At the end there was a third bothie of the day called Maol Bhuidhe, it was recently renovated and I was very tempted to stay here for the night but it was just a little bit too early to stop just yet.

I've carried along yet another lake called Loch Calavie and decided to stop at the far end of it, it was a long day with nearly thirty miles covered and I was getting tired. Tomorrow the plan was to potentially reach the town called Kinlocheve and stay there for the night.