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| still standing |
Distance: 13 miles (452.3 total)
Time: 4 hours 36 mins
Tomorrow: the ferry to Mull.
Fear of embarrassment would normally dissuade me from sharing what follows, but given that the most popular post on this blog is the one where I confessed to having walked past The Giant's Causeway it's probably a bit late in the day for me to start worrying about embarrassment. In a sense today's gentle walk felt like the end of the main body of the pilgrimage; tomorrow I take the ferry to Mull and on Monday night I start my walk to Fionnphort and the ferry to Iona. After three quite difficult days and some challenging weather, today's leg could not have been easier. As I walked I was very conscious that the final part of this pilgrimage would bring challenges I'd never faced before. I've walked thirty-seven miles and more, but I've never walked through the night. I'm trying to figure out how to re-jig my body clock over the next forty-eight hours to minimise the shock to the system, and also to ensure that I don't spend most of my limited time on Iona in a sleep-deprived stupor.
Which brings me to the image that popped into my head and for which I will no doubt rightly be ridiculed! You know that bit before a big rugby or football match, where they show the players getting off the team bus and walking to the changing room? They're all silent, plugged into their ear buds, chewing gum, barely acknowledging the eager crowds or even each other... well, that's how it felt today. All the preparations that could be made, have been made. I'm as fit as I can be. Today I was just chewing my Wrigley's Spearmint Gum in time to a bit of Taylor Swift as I disappeared down the tunnel to the changing room; you're probably thinking that I'm at risk of disappearing up something at the moment. Trust me, however much you're squirming as you read this, I'm squirming even more as I write it! It's just how it felt.
Sometimes when I ask my boys how their day has been, they'll reply, 'Mid'. So far as I can tell it means fairly average. Well, today's walking was 'Mid'. The countryside was beautiful enough. I was blessed with the sound of birdsong again and there hasn't been much of that over the past couple of days. The weather was a gentle contest between sunshine and rain, and neither particularly prevailed. At times it became warm enough for me to contemplate shedding a mid-layer, and then the sky would sweep slate-grey and the rain would fall in a hurry; by the time I'd retreated into my hood and was all zipped up, the rain would have moved on to other roads, other walkers. I was back in Oban in time for a bit of lunch at the Hinba coffee shop... Stuart Owen (@pilgrimscairn) • Instagram photos and videos
Time to shower and change, and find a suitable venue to watch the Calcutta Cup match. Do you think that people will think I'm English?
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Thanksgiving: for the hymns of birdsong.
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