Alone

This summer I will be travelling to Scotland solo for my summer holiday. For the last 16 years since my oldest son Christopher was a baby we have gone on a family vacation but not this summer. Christopher my oldest son will be attending Camp Thunderbird in Sooke BC for nine weeks as a volunteer camp counsellor. He has attended Camp Thunderbird as a camper since age ten and it has always been his ambition to be a counsellor. Cheryl and my youngest child Madeline will be heading to Scotland in August with her Scottish dance club Celtic Ceilidh to take in some dance competition and attend the Edinburgh tattoo before heading to Ireland. Andrew my middle son was going to come to Scotland with me as he didn't want to go with his sister's dance group. When he realized that I wanted to hike the hundred mileWest Highland Way over 9 days he ditched me to attend the Mountain Adventure School in Nordegg for two weeks at the beginning of July before heading to Camp Thunderbird in August. This summer I will be alone for my holidays.

I will be flying out June 21 on Iceland Air through Reykjavik Iceland and then onto Glasgow. Normally there has been a tight connection in Reykjavik but this year I have a 3.5 hour layover. Maybe flying through Toronto wouldn't have been that bad. I'll spend 4 nights in Edinburgh before travelling to Milngavie which is the start of the West Highland Way just a little north of Glasgow. I will hike the 100 mile WHW over 9 days. I'll be staying in B and Bs and having a luggage transfer service move my luggage but it is still a lot of hiking. The WHW finishes in Fort William. I will rent a car for four days and drive 2 hours up to the Isle of Skye which is Northwest of Fort William for three nights. I had considered going to the the Isle of Mull which was a little closer however this would have meant a visit to Duart Castle home of the clan McLean. Duart Castle has unfortunately fallen into ruin because the clan members have not been able to support. I didn't want to develop negative feelings towards the clan McLean for allowing this to happen. Skye therefore seemed like a better option. After Skye, I'll stay one night in Glencoe before dropping the car off in Fort William. After that I will spend one night in Glasgow and two in Manchester.

I have been doing a lot of walking these last 6 months in preparation for my hike. Saturdays I have been hiking between 16 and 18 km, Sundays I have hiked 10 km, Monday has been a rest day , Tuesdays I have walked and LRTed to work for a total of 14 km, Wednesdays I have run 10 flights of stairs at Grandview, Thursdays have been walk and LRT to work for another 14 km and Fridays have been a rest day. I have listened to a lot of podcasts during this time and seen a lot of the Edmonton river valley. I'll post some photos with this blog of some of my favourite things I have seen hiking over this time. My longest day of hiking will be 24 km which they recommended one get up to in their training but alas I didn't have the time to hike for this long. I still had children to drive around yard work to do, work to go to and violin practicing to do.

I found that last year people assumed that they would get email notifications when I posted a new footprint but unfortunately Finding Penguins doesn't work this way. Starting June 21, I will try to post at least every other day so please register for the website and check in every few days.

to end this foot print I thought that I would quote a Scottish travel blessing which you can say to wish me farewell on my journey.

"God be with you at each stop and each sea;
At each lying down and each rising up;
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of 
 the billows.
Each step of the journey you take."Read more