WHW: Day 2 COMPLETE!!

Celebrating: NO RAIN, NO MIDGES, NO MOSQUITOES!! Disappointed by : No views from Conic Hill. =( I'd heard the views are spectacular from this hill as it sits right on the faultline between the Highlands and the Lowlands, and if you look East, you literally see a nearly straight line with the rugged mountains of the Highlands to your left (the North) and more gentle terrain of Lowlands to the South. That would have been so incredible to see!!! But wasn't meant to be. I even spent an hour at the top, waiting and hoping for it to clear, but it just got worse. Incredibly low-laying clouds that ended up enveloping the hill. I didn't get to see this spectacular view. I must settle for simply standing on the faultline and crossing over it. Today, I started at 9:30 am and I got to my next destination at 7:15 pm. Overall another brilliant day, but I must say, I was really ready to get to my next stopping point. With an hour at the top of Conic Hill and about 45 minutes in the Visitor Center (Did you know that Scotland used to be part of the North American continent hundreds of millions of years ago??!!) that left a lot of hours for walking, most of which were fantastic, but there was more climbing than I was expecting and the last couple of hills were not the most welcome sights. Ha, but when I say hills, I mean baby hills. They were really very reasonable, I just was sick of walking by the end! =) OH! And I provided a good laugh for a hotel owner. I stopped in to double check my route and my expected distance left, and when I thought I was about 1 km away, he tells me I'm about 5 miles and should be there in about 90 minutes to 2 hours. WHAT??!! Such sad news! I apparently had missed something drastic. But it turned out he was kidding and just likes to get his laughs in with us tourists. The upside to this is that I was ECSTATIC when he told me I was only 10-15 minutes away!! One of my favorite moments today was meeting a guy who had done the WHW from South to North, hiked Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond and was now completing the way back South. We stopped and chatted for about 20 minutes and he is doing a similar travel sabbatical, having quit his job almost exactly a year ago. It was a lovely interaction! I also ran into my two companions from yesterday and we did quite a bit of leap frogging today and ended up walking together for a few miles again. They're great fun! Unfortunately no animal sightings any more exciting than yesterday, today. Actually the exact same list as yesterday. I kept trying to spot an otter by the water, but no luck. We shall see! One of my favorite random discoveries was this bright bright orange mushroom on the trail. At first I thought somebody had littered because it was such a bright orange, it looked artificial, but no - it was gorgeous! Taking a shower and eating a real meal have never felt so utterly amazing!! Especially when I massage my feet a bit in the shower as I wash them. Glorious!! I think I would pay big money for a foot massage when this is all done! And dinner tonight was scrumptious and perfect : pasta with mushrooms and eggplant. Although my baby food of "spinach, pea and pear" and "carrot-apple" was fantastic as well!! I'm super excited to have Day 2 done and am just as excited for Day 3!