A week to be thankful.....

 

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 the local bus to Balmaha. A major concern was that this would take approximately 2.5 hours, and, we had to catch the last bus back to Inverarnan to Tyndrum.

We had booked three nights at Tyndrum Holiday Park, as we journeyed there on Tuesday evening, we continued to be concerned about travel our arrangements. 

On checking in, I asked Steve, who was on duty in the reception, if he could tell me where the bus stop was, as we were taking the first bus in the morning to Balloch. Oh, he said, "it's my day off and I am heading to Dumfries in the morning, if you don't mind sharing the back seat of the car with our big dog, I'll drop you off".

Would we? Of course not, as it would cut our travel time drastically. I made my way back to the van with a spring in my step and when I said to Shona we acknowledged, once again, this was a clear indication of God's Angel going before us. The following morning (Wednesday) our walk commenced at 9 am at least an hour before we had expected it to.

The first day, Tuesday, of the WHW from Milngavie to Balmaha had gone reasonably smoothly and the weather was fair. This would change drastically on day 2, when we arrived at Balmaha it had already started to rain so we suited up with the wet weather gear and set off. 

It was a fairly easy walk towards a place called Rowardenan, this is where the tarmac road ends, from there it is walking along the eastern side of Loch Lomond, a very, very, very rough, boulder ridden track, with multiple areas where the walking becomes a scramble. 

We then made our way to the middle point of the Loch shore, from there the path, if you can call it that gets worse, and on this occasion so did the weather. Since we last walked it in 2021 it has become more eroded and, in my opinion, unsafe. However, there is no turning back from here we must plough on.

Obviously, we were getting tired, and unfortunately Shona lost her footing, slipping on a wet rock and in horror I watched her fall, as if in slow motion, down the slope where she landed flat on her back, head down the slope. As I rushed, as best I could, over she said she couldn't sit up. 

Making sure there was nothing broken and that she had not hit her head. It became apparent, fortunately, that it was the angle coupled with weight of her rucksack that was pinning her down.

To say we both got a fright would be an understatement, nevertheless, knowing everything was ok, we stopped and simply prayed, thanking the Lord that, without doubt, His Angel had been watching over everything. We also want to record, again, our heartfelt thanks to all who have been praying for our well-being as we have undertaken the walk.

This situation reminded us that, in life we, even as believers, are not immune to difficulty or trial. We can take comfort though from the words found in the Bible that say: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose". Romans chapter 8 verse 28.

We are happy to close our blog by affirming that, apart from a few muscle aches and pains all is well. We are also happy to say that on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the weather was much improved, and we enjoyed some stunning scenery, the photo below was taken as walked over the river at Bridge of Orchy.  

Shona making her way along West Highland Way towards Buachaille Etive Mor

As always, we thank you again for reading our blog, and thank you for all your encouragement and support in prayer. Please feel free to visit and share the "Shona and Mike Take a Hike" fundraising page at:

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/shonaandmike-giving-page-2298439   

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