Day 5 - climb Ben Nevis

The day began with a rude 7am awakening in the shape of a Scotsman demanding money, not what you want really. As we had arrived so late last night, we were unable to book in and pay on arrival. After I informed him we were staying 3 nights, and promised to go to reception and pay up within an hour he buggered off and let me catch a bit more sleep.
As last night had dragged on so much I had missed the opportunity to see my wife and son, so was doubly excited to see them this morning. I arranged for them to walk from the b&b a mile up the road to the campsite and after the best hug in the world....ever, we had a nice cuppa, chnaged into the clean clothes she bought us, before stocking up supplies and heading off to "the Ben".
Our legs were still pretty shot from yesterday and so we decided to do what we could, maybe a little extra, and then call it quits. Off we trundled to the tourist path in what actually was glorious sunshine. Evidently my wife thought we were in short supply and so brought some from down south. After crossing and impressively bouncy suspension bridge over the Nevis river we set off to the mountain. The path quickly became rocky and steep, and our thighs quickly let us know we were taking the lucky! Still we had decided we would like to do half way if possible and pressed them into painful service. My son marcus (12) pretty much demolished the path on front of him, whilst us invalids (and my wife) struggled along behind. After a couple of hours we stopped on some rocks for a high altitude lunch and discovered about the loch half way up, and decided to make that the target. Another 30 mins or so and were were there. In agony but accomplished. Shame we still had to get back down! That part was agony tenfold, progress was so slow. Added to the achy legs was a partial twisted ankle for chris and blisters for me. Rachel it seemed was escaping the agony today as she led the way unwaveringly.

Once that was over we ate a nice meal at the restaurant just outside the site. Thankfully tents are already pitched and gear unloaded, so we just took the opportunity to do our, frankly, pretty minging washing. Soo nice to have clean clothes again!

Miles cycled: none.
Biker nods reciprocated: none
Mountains climbed: 1/2