The sense of contrast of being on my own (apart from the random people I talked to), having company and then being on my own again was surprising. I was trying to preserve my phone battery too, so missed my Facebook and Twitter friends. I wandered around Tyndrum wondering what to do with myself; I needed the rest day but could feel myself getting bored and a bit low. Trying to arrest this I went into the Tourist Information Centre to find out the time of the bus in the morning to Crianlarich and looked at all the tourist tat they had on offer. Next it was a pit stop in the Real Food Cafe where I got a cup of coffee, sat in one of the large squishy sofas and started my postcards. Anything to actually do something. Fortunately there were enough people in there to be interesting to an observer!
I managed to fill the rest of the day with doing some washing, drying things out, writing a few pages of notes (that have helped me write this up!) and buying a new pair of socks. Such exciting times.
As I watched the washing machine on its spin cycle a Glaswegian man in his late 40s came in. He started to cook up some food on a gas cooker and explained that his two mates were still in the pub so had left him to cook. He was alright, a pleasant enough guy. But as the time went on and his mates came in I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. One of his friends was extremely drunk and I normally deal with people like that by being polite, reasonably friendly and try to avoid! But my washing was stuck in the machine and I needed it to dry so I tried retreating into reading the maps on the walls. It didn't work and pretty soon the really drunk guy came over, trying to tell me that Lewis was actually Shetland and explaining the philosophies behind the different factions of the Christian Church in Scotland. He went on and on.
The third guy was rather more quiet but I felt most threatened by him, especially when I heard them whispering (too loudly) something about getting me tanked up on beer. I wasn't impressed and declined a proferred beer. They carried on at me, asking me to go to a log cabin in Kinlochleven with them, all sorts of things. I am not the sort of person to tell someone to go forth and multiply and as my clothes still drying I wandered out and about, just waiting for the bloody things to hurry up and not be too damp! But I had a visceral reaction to the third man and really didn't want to go back into a confined area with any of them.
Eventually I rescued my clothes, made a joke when they started on at me again, and left for the relative safety of my tent.
It may have been my state of mind but this was the only time I felt a sense of threat on the walk. Everyone else I met was friendly and interesting and a joy to encounter. Curiously this was one of only two occasions on the walk I used a proper campsite...
After more nightmares I woke again in the night, this time to the sound of a helicopter. It was about 3AM. I could only thing it would be the SAR from Crianlarich, but out at this time? I covered my head with my quilt and went back to another fitfull sleep, dozing to the sound of the rain.
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