May 8, 2025
2 Thursday
It was 10 AM and I had stopped in Kilberry, a hamlet of a few houses and a church and checking the map, I saw I was off the route. I forgot to check the map and missed a turnoff from the small single-track road that follows the coast around the peninsular. But not to worry as the blue line of the route rejoins the road a couple of miles ahead.
An hour or so later, however, having rejoined the route and gone right off the road up a farm road that gives out to forestry gravel road that climbs steeply before levelling out alongside a reservoir before plunging downhill, the next I check I am away off the blue line on the Komoot map again, as its difficult checking and seeing turns when careering downhill on loose gravel.
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In any event, I was still on gravel forestry road which soon descends to join the sealed road where I go right and continue in the general direction of travel. There was still a long steep hill to get over, much of which I thought would be avoided on the road and this was extra strenuous as it is clear blue sky, no wind and in the heat of the day.
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It was good to have climbed the main hill of the day and be descending toward the coast, but before joining the main road along the east side of the peninsular, I pick up the blue signposted NCN 78 aka The Caledoninian Way, leading me to the head of Loch Glip and village Lochgliphead reached at 4 feeling drained. The heat of the sun reflected of the masonry buildings while walking with the Kona as I wondered what next. Two cafes had their closed signs up and there didn't seem to be any other. Such is my dependency on a electronic device which I use for navigation of coarse, for photos and I like the radio of an evening, so it needs charging. I saw a shop open which sells ice-cream and was about to entry when I saw a cafe on the opposite side of the street, clearly open as there are people sat at a table outside, so I cross over, park the Kona and enter. The man aged about forty with a Polish accent behind the counter served me a large glass of really refreshing coffee which quenched my thirst, then I had a another. An elderly couple who'd come in and sat in the corner, the wife says to me this cafe is a big service to the community.
I continue upon a canal towpath followed by a quiet single-track road flanked by pasture and leafy mature trees, stopping at an ancient stone burial ring along the way. I was still following the NCN 78 signage, taking me along a bridleway, followed by an uphill gravel road, levelling out by a field of brown bull rushes to the side with level well munched grass in-between the rushes. I was soon in the field and pitched the tent when a territorial horse comes along and starts snorting at my tent.
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