Thurs 7th May
After the beaver walk last night, I returned to the Moine Mhor car park. On waking this morning, the sun was nice and warming, but I didn’t really fancy getting up early. I hadn’t made any specific plans for the day. I knew I should probably move on to the next place at some point, but also, I could do whatever I wanted! There was no set agenda, and even if there was one it was very easily changeable. So, I slept in until about 10am. I eventually got up and had my cuppa and breakfast but stayed in my PJs enjoying the warmth of the van and the beautiful setting I was parked in while I decided to update my diary. I was becoming very lax at updating it but really wanted to have a record of my journey, as I had regretted it when I hadn’t done one for my LEJOG walk.
I eventually got dressed at 1pm, after a morning of people coming and going from the car park. The sun was quite a bit stronger now and I considered cleaning my bike chain. I had been meaning to for a little while but wanted to make sure I had a nice bright day for it to dry. I got out the van and stretched in the afternoon sun, again still a slight chilly wind, but a little sheltered by the side of the van. I planned to clean my chain then have my lunch outside.
Chain all cleaned; after struggling to work my cleaning contraption, I leant the bike against the van while it dried out. I popped in the van to do something and shut the door behind me. It was only as I went to pop back outside again and open the sliding door that I realised I couldn’t! I looked outside and found that as I’d shut the door, which the bike was leaning on, it had settled against the van, so that when I went to open the door the bike was now in the way, stopping it from sliding! Ah ok, what do I do? I could open it a bit, enough to call to someone, but there was only one car in the car park, and they were on the other side of me. I’m not sure they would hear me, and I’d feel a bit foolish. OK one thing for it, climb into the front cab. I stretched my one leg over, bent double, tried to navigate all my belongings shoved on the front seat, leaning on the dashboard, then dragged my other leg through. Phew, made it, not too unladylike!
I sorted out some lunch and set up my foldout chair next to the van, settling to eat. A car pulled up as I was eating and an elderly couple got out. ‘Were you at the Beaver walk last night?’ I asked eagerly. ‘Yeeeers’ the man replied hesitantly, ‘were you?’. He commented how good it was and went on his way to walk the woodland trail, not sure if he thought me weird or not. I continued sitting outside and read my book for a short time until it got a little too chilly.
I packed up and moved on up to Kilmartin again. It was a good spot on the hill with a flat parking area, and the hotel was useful for a charge. The lady remembered me from the other day and my order of coke and prawn cocktail crisps, which I made last a couple of hours while I charged up.