Shona and Mike Take a Hike

  Week 13 When we announced the Shona and Mike Take a Hike challenge to our Church family at Miller Hall, there were three reasons we outlined.  The first was that we saw it as a work, and whilst we knew that works could not earn us favour with God, we believed that by our works we could show our faith. Secondly, we said that we were very much aware of the warning that reminds us that we could, or should, not boast about what we will do, for none of us know what tomorrow will bring. Thirdly, and most importantly, anything we were able to achieve we must, in accordance with the words we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 that say: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God".      Today, Wednesday 24th July 2024 we reached John O'Groats, and for being able to walk 1131.5 miles we simply give God all the praise and glory, for the fulfilment of His promise, given to us on 28/4/24, the day we left Falkirk to travel to Lands E...

  Week 12 With the Great Glen Way completed on Saturday last week, we were looking forward to our rest day on Sunday and, as is our custom where possible, it was our intention to attend a local church. On this occasion we had made arrangements to attend Culloden and Balloch Baptist Church. The reason for going to this church was to meet a lovely lady and her husband, who had contacted us through the article about our challenge that had been in the Caravan and Motorhome Club magazine. Oh, what a welcome we received from everyone and, the more we think about our visit, we are very much reminded of the words found in Psalm 133:  "It is good and pleasant when God's people live together in peace, and unity! It is like perfumed oil poured out on the priest's head and running down his beard. As it ran down Aaron's beard and on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Mount Hermon falling on the hills of Jerusalem." (Youth Bible) We would also like to say a huge tha...

  Week 11  Monday On Monday we completed the last leg of the West Highland Way from Kinlochleven to Fort William and w e were, without doubt,  thankful it was now behind us.  This  photo was taken at the original finishing post, which is just before the turning that would take us towards Inverness, Banavie and the Great Glen Way.  As this is a Lands End to John O'Groats challenge there was no need for us to walk another mile to the new finishing post, or to the official start of the Great Glen Way, which we have also previously completed. Tuesday It was an early start, on a glorious morning, as we faced a 24 mile walk from the Glen Nevis Caravan site to Laggan Locks. The photo on the right was taken from the top of Neptunes staircase. Neptune's staircase is an amazing feat of engineering, built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822, it is the longest staircase lock in Scotland.  It raises the Caledonian canal by 19 meters over a quarter of a mile and...

  As we begin our blog this week it would be remiss of us to be anything other than thankful to God  for the promise of "His Angel being sent ahead of us to guard us along the way". As we have mentioned previously, on the day we were to leave Larbert, Shona's daily scripture reading was taken from Exodus Chapter 23 verse 20,  it is a promise we have been aware of many times over the last 10 weeks however, this week it has been more relevant than ever and there are two specific reasons. We knew this week would be a tough one for we had previously walked the West Highland Way (WHW) on four occasions. It wasn't helped by the weather, which was atrocious, especially the day we walked the toughest section, almost the full length of Loch Lomond, from Balmaha to Inverarnan. Logistically, this route was also going to be the hardest to arrange public transport to / from our motorhome. We worked out that it was possible to catch a Citylink bus from Tyndrum to  Balloch, then th...