WALK DIARY
A journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step !!!
(old Chinese proverb)


The West Highland Way ~ 15th / 22nd May 2010

Scotland’s first official long distance route links Milngavie to Fort William – a distance of 152km (95 miles) - from the northern outskirts of Glasgow, to the foot of Ben Nevis at Fort William.

Boss Woman and Big Guy have decided again (they never asked me first ~ they never do ... ) that because they like mountain walking and long distance walking, they would like to walk the West Highland Way in May 2010. Seemingly I will be going with them. It's a 95 mile wak from Milngavie (near Glasgow) to Fort William. If you want, I could send you a picture of me doing the walk. How cool would that be ? Just ask and Boss Woman will send you one.

Boss Woman said that if people would kindly sponsor me then we could donate the money to either SBT Rescue or Scottish Staffie Rescue. If you are interested ~ no pressure mind ~ then please fill in the sponsorship form. Don't forget to enclose the completed SPONSORSHIP FORM with your donation, stating which rescue you would like your donation to go to. If money is received and no Rescue is specified, then the said money will be equally split between them both.

We have done many long walks before and camping as well and I liked it very much ~ I cuddle up to the Big Guy at night to keep warm and except for his snoring it works out fine. Well this time because it's a longer walk than we have done before in one go, and it might rain and spoil the walk, we are going to go Bed and Breakfast and not go camping. I like camping, but it does get cold at night and sometimes when it rains a lot and we get wet and we can't get everything dry in the tent. I am really looking forward to it. When we do our long walks, we get to see loads of stuff we wouldn't otherwise see and also get to meet loads of different people and some other dogs.

Last time we all did a long walk together, I raised £157 for the Scottish Staffie Rescue.


LOADS AND LOADS of really kind people are sponsoring me, the money will help my fellow rescue dogs no end. Doggy kisses to everyone.

Thankyou .....

SPONSOR MONEY (West Highland Way) 2010
Name
Amount £
Paid
Andy 20 20
Bob 5
James 10
David 10
Anna 10
Dean 8 8
John 3 3
Teresa 5 5
Terri 10 10
Auntie Tracie 10 10
Elaine 10
Leslie 10
Diane 5
Dan Grace 20 20
Amber 20 20
C. Winters 10 10
L. Swaine 10 10
S. Buck 11
T. Edwards 10 10
T. Weight 10 10
Barry 10 10
Angel 5 5
Tommy 5 5
Nichol 5 5
Brennan Family 25 25
Kate Rowen 25 25
Marie-Anne Martin 20 20
Jane Godfrey 5 5
S. Wilson 5 5
J. Harkess 5 5
P. Kearns 10 10
Bright Paws 10 10
A. Kilner 10 10
Thomson Family 45 45
S. Singlehurst 30 30
Lance & Jemima Mushet 20 20
Joanne Milner 10 10
Anthony Redpath 50 50
Nikki, Paul, Lilli 50 50
S. Spencer 5 5
Trudie 5 5
J. Bennet 5 5
L. Weight 5 5
M. Riches 26 26
Waldock Family 95 95
S. Wilson 10 10
Alfie & Beckie 10 10
Balchin Family 50 50
Ann Kelly 5 5
     
TOTAL
768 697

Thankyou everyone who has sponsored me so far.
Sponsorship form here

Nepal ~ March 2009 Polly did not do this walk with us. Not only would it have been difficult logistically to get her to Nepal but we didn't know how she would have acclimatised if indeed we could get her there at all. The money we raised once again, will go to Scottish Staffie Rescue where we got Polly from.

SPONSOR MONEY (Nepal) 2009
Name
Amount £
Paid
Diane 5 5
Christine 10 10
Kirsty 10
James 10 10
Anna 5 5
Bob 5 5
Ronnie 10 10
Julie 5 5
TOTAL
60 50

Thanks everyone who has sponsored us.

The Great Glen Way ~ May 2008
This brave little dog walked the whole Great Glen Way 73 mile route. At the end of each day her routine would be to have her tea and settle down into her bed for a well deserved long sleep. Each morning, despite having walked a long way the day before, she would wake us up at 6 a.m. with big licky kisses and needing a pee, then she would be raring to go walking again.

First of all, I would just like to thank all those kind people that sponsored me on this LONG walk. Thankyou a lot, everyone. Boss Woman is going to collect it all in then send it to Tracie at the Scottish Staffie Rescue.

I really enjoyed this walk and got to spend plenty of time with the Big Guy ~ I think he was more tired than I was at the end of the day ! I met loads of interesting people and saw loads of interesting things that otherwise I would not have seen. I was really hoping to see the Loch Ness Monster but it kept a low profile when I walked passed Loch Ness. Pity ~ I think we would have got on just fine

SPONSOR MONEY (Great Glen Way) 2008
Name
Amount £
Paid
James
10
10
David
10 10
Gaye
2 2
Sandra
5
5
Jon's Hairdresser, Stonehaven
20
20
Steph
10
10
Vicky
5
5
John
5
5
Lesley
5
5
Jenny (Bestdogs) 20 20
Leeann 20 20
Diane 5 5
Kirsty (Canakey) 10 10
Polly 10 10
Cerina 10 10
Michael 10 10
TOTAL
157 157

 

 
Inverness Castle
Drumnadrochit
Alltsigh
Fort Augustus
North of Clunes
Fort William

2008
Wednesay
14th May

Last night Big Guy set up the big tent at Fort Augustus, I think this is going to be our base for the next 5 days. Because City Link buses wouldn't let me on their buses (no dogs unless in pet carrier !) Boss Woman had to drive me and Big Guy down to Fort William, then she drove back to Fort Augustus to leave the car at the campsite then catch the bus back to Fort William so we could start the walk. So .... off we go.
It is really warm and sunny and there is a lot of water for me to go paddling and have a drink, in fact everywhere I look there are huge lochs full of water. When we stopped for a snack, a big Retriever came over for some of my biscuits but Boss Woman sent it packing. Further on I met Dino the Boxer x Labrador and we played chasing round and round really fast. We walked 17 miles to Clunes, passing Gairlochy, then we stopped to camp in a Forest at the side of Loch Lochy and have our tea. There are a lot of signs that say no camping but Big Guy and Boss Woman just ignored them ! Just hope they don't get arrested.

Thursday
15th May

I was a bit cold last night, so I was glad that Boss Woman had taken my bed coat. It was so peaceful where we camped at the side of Loch Lochy, but this morning there was a lot of midges that kept biting us. I could smell something I didn't like in the bushes so I barked at it to let it know I wasn't scared ~ Boss Woman said it was probably a Pine Marten or something. Boss Woman washed her face in the loch ~ she was very brave because the water was absolutely freezing ! We did another long walk today ~ 19 miles to Fort Augustus. We stopped at Eagle barge on the Caledonian Canal at Laggan Locks and had a drink. I had water and Big Guy had a beer. I think he was really thirsty because he drank it all at once. We met Paul and Steph from Canada. I think Steph likes me, she keeps smiling at me and stroking me and said I was a lovely little dog. She sponsored me £10 for doing the walk. ~ Thanks Steph. We also met someone from Hawaii who told Boss Woman all about her dog that had died at the age of 12. I think she liked me very much because she made a real fuss of me as well.

Friday
15th May

Big Guy aches a bit this morning luckily we are only walking 13 miles today, from Aultsigh to Fort Augustus and they are not carrying their big heavy rucsacks. I met Toby the Labrador today, he is doing the whole walk with his Boss Man. He is in a bad way, poor Toby. He has a very sore foot and is limping badly and walking really slowly. Boss Woman put him some Tea Tree Ointment on (she carries it everywhere) to help make his foot better. We saw Paul and Steph again and Big Guy got them all a cup of tea from the shop at Invermoriston. Poor Steph had huge blisters on her feet. We met loads of other people that we meet every day walking the Great Glen Way as well. Everyone makes a fuss of me. We walked at the side of Loch Ness but I never saw the Monster. Boss Woman said she had been walking with the Monster all the way ~ I hope she doesn't mean me ! The walk was lovely, through some nice Forest. For some strange reason, I haven't seen one single rabbit on this walk. Almost at the end, near Fort Augustus, Big Guy heard a lot of growling and snarling so he put me back on the lead. When we got round the corner, there was a slack jawed, gormless fool (Boss Woman called him that) there with his 2 Rottweillers who were fighting with each other. When they saw us, the 2 Rottweillers jumped straight on the top of me and one called Finlay nipped me on my back. I turned and bit him back and growled really mad at him but they both still kept jumping on me so Big Guy picked me up and Boss Woman hit one of them with her stick. They were really big and nasty dogs and their gormless moron Boss Man tried to pull them off but they weren't obedient at all and ignored him. I think that Big Guy and Boss Woman would have gone mad with the guy but they were worried in case he set his dogs on them (and me) so we just got out of there as quick as we could.

Saturday
16th May

A really long walk today ~ 18 miles from Drumnadrochit to Inverness. We walked through Abriachan Forest and there was also a lot of walking on the road and we even walked on an old Drovers road that had been walked on a long time ago by Bonnie Prince Charlie ~ Cool !!! I had a sniffy sniffy with a farm dog but he didn't want to play, even though I asked him to. I had a pee on his grass just to remind him that I had been there. We all were really tired, hungry and dirty when we got to Inverness. We didn't like Inverness at all, it has a lot of nasty people there. On the way down there was a strange man in a leather jacket and a rucsack sat at the side of the path ~ he looked dead dodgy. When we got to the park, there was a group of 6 men all drinking beer who were following us and saying nasty things to us, they even took someone's guitar off him that he had been playing. At the bus station we saw Paul and Steph again. There was another nasty man came up to us and asked if he could 'borrow' Big Guys mobile phone if he gave him 20p for the call. Big Guy got quite mad and told him to clear off. I think if Big Guy wasn't so tired he would have sorted the nasty man out. I was glad when I got to go in my comfy warm bed back at the tent.

Sunday
17th May
8 miles walking today from Drumnadrochit to Aultsigh and this is the last day. On all the days of our walk, it has been really hot and sunny. We walked through some more interesting Forest and still at the side of Loch Ness. I kept looking for the Loch Ness Monster but I never saw it. Boss Woman said that it usually comes out just before the Tourist Season ~ that way loads more poeple come for their holidays on the off chance of seeing it. I didn't fancy going for a swim in the Loch. Not only was the water very deep and cold but I didn't like the idea of the Monster being in there, just in case it did exist and it got me !! We met a guy from Belgium who was wearing a kilt. He needed some water so Big Guy gave him some of ours. On the drive back home, we called at the Fish Shop for some Fish and Chips. We were all starving and I got a whole fish to myself.

Put mouse over picture to enlarge
Loch Eil (start of walk)
Are you sure it's this way ?
Forty winks at Laggan Loch
Toby with sore feet
Loch Ness behind me
Go on ~ let's have a stick fight
 

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