Day 8; Rain.

We woke at 7am, it was still raining. We met another Aussie couple and they gave us Aussie muscle rub, insisting it would help, and donated to BHF. Another couple also donated £10, it was a good start to our day. Back on the Great Glen Way, heading to Fort William. Not so hilly today, a lot more pain though. The Neurofen Plus wasn't touching my little toe, so it was back to running; now up the hills aswell as down. We were in a valley walking along Loch Locty (not sure on spelling for this one) and pine trees 60ft tall shadowed over us both sides of the pathway, with mountains surrounding them. It was pretty; the shores were peacefully with the water calm and clear, while the woods were dark; the timber creaked as the wind sailed between them.

We finished our walk along a 10 mile stretch of the Caladonian canal, by this time me and Kate resembled drowned rats; I was still in shorts and T-shirt while Kate (the sensible one of the two of us) was in full waterproofs. The owners of our B&B came to be the sweetest couple we had met on the walk so far. They picked us up from the canal and took us to their beautiful home. It smelt of lilies (before we took our boots off) Scot (the husband) then drove to get us dinner while Linda ran me a bath. Linda turned out to be a nurse, she looked at my feet concerningly and asked me to visit A&E the following morning. Infection. Brilliant. (At least there was a reason it had been keeping me up.)

Dinner was on the table, I then stubbed my little toe on the chair - it hadn't been my night. Linda and Scot told us we would be staying with them for a second night, on them, as a sponsor to us. Me and Kate went to bed feeling very very lucky to have met this lovely couple.