SNT (day 17) - Loch Ailsh to Loch Glendhu (Cape Wrath Trail)

Amazing day with the most unexpected ending.

I started early and did the first pass next to Conival and Ben More Assynt mountains, it was find your own way kind of ascent, both gps apps were showing different paths one left the space blank at the top with the line suddenly ending. It took me good hour to get to the other side, descent was steep but at least the trail was there to follow, on my way down I've met few people going to climb mentioned above Munros, they didn't realize CWT was running along their path.

Second pass of the day just after Ichnadamph was massive, way to the top though was fairly easy as the trail was visible, view from the top was simply spectacular and well worth the climb, I've seen a female Ptarmigan with few tiny yellow chicks on the way up, a lot of birds were raising their young now, they were mostly ground dwelling and they would raise the alarm every time I was passing near their nest.

Descent from the pass was long and muddy, so was walking next to the river towards Loch Glencoul, the landscape was well worth the grind though, wether was also excellent. Once I've reached Bothy Glencoul at the bank of the lake, another long ascent begun towards Loch Glendhu, you could see the entire valley from the top and the landscape was slowly transitioning from one lake to the other. There was a small birch forrest and a boulder field which drew my attention along the way. Once the path descended, you could see a lot of rubbish, plastic, bits of rope as this lake was connected to the Atlantic Ocean, the magic slowly fading.

At the Bothy Glendhu I've met Dave from Liverpool, he was living in Canada for the last 30 years but every time he would come to see his 90 year old mother he would go for a hike as well to "cleanse himself" as he said. He hiked CWT twice already once with his son and second time with his wife, this time he was doing it solo. Dave was a natural storyteller and told me about what's ahead for me on Cape Wrath Trail. I decided to push on for few more miles and said goodbye to him.

Trail was running along a nice, narrow country road now, tucked between the lake and the hills. I've passed next to an enclosure with four horses, there was a hole in the fence but I didn't think much about it. After a mile I decided to set up next to a gate leading to a pasture, ground was flat here and fairly well sheltered from the wind. As I set up the tent and opened my food bag to have dinner, I've heard galloping behind my back, it was the four horses who escaped from their enclosure and came right to the gate I was camping by!

The comedy of errors commenced now, I've opened the gate to let them back into their enclosure but of course they were not interested to go inside. So I locked myself inside and tried to convince them to change their mind. Instead they got interested in food bag I left by my tent, so I went outside grabbed it and again tried to convince them to go in, two did go in (following the food bag) the other two remained outside. Now they took interest in my tent, and they started to gently nibble on it. That was too much for me, I couldn't risk damaging the tent at this point, so I went outside, unpegged the tent and moved it still all set up inside the horse enclosure (which startled the horses in the process). I've locked the gate behind me, folded and packed all my gear back to the backpack. At this point I've tried one last time to get the horses inside but they just wouldn't listen, so I've shut the gate and left them standing outside. Luckily there was another gate nearby on the main road (accident, I don't think so) which made the final escape of the horses impossible, I've managed to find a decent camp spot right behind it.

Overall a densely packed with adventure day, I will definitely remember it and chuckle for a long time.