The river Oykel is one of Scotland’s finest salmon rivers and the Oykel Bridge Hotel gave us a warm welcome, even though it was that dead quiet time between breakfast and lunch.
I seem to remember a hearty bacon sandwich lifted our spirits no end and a little liquid refreshment didn’t do any harm either.
Then the track got rougher underfoot as we set off for Benmore Lodge and the long walk through the trees was complimented by the River Okley tumbling alongside us.
We finally settled to camp past the lodge on a nice flat pitch, just below Black Rock with the most magnificent surroundings.
It was a warm start to the following day, which allowed us to dry out the damp tents and I steeled myself to have a cold ‘refreshing’ wash in the river to wake me up. Well that certainly did the trick!
The route continues to Inchnadamph and the very friendly hostel which has fishing rights for the loch next door, so it is extremely popular with salmon fishermen. On this occasion the lodges were full of fishermen from Glasgow, who after a few sherberts spoke louder and in deeper thicker accent. Hard to follow at the best of times 🙂
A great breakfast set us up for the day and the memory of the wet miserbale weather from previous days was soon forgotten.
Lee has finally had the epiphany moment and finally changed from his size 12 heavy boots into Inov8s. And what a difference it made to his journey.
The vista as the track passes though the Glenn Bhienn massive took us both by surprise, and the landscape which opened up before us made us stop and enjoy the moment. Such an honour to see it on a clear day.
The guide used for this trip was by Cicerone Press. Check it out for updates and more detail.