Day 2 - Balmaha to Ardlui

Woke up to glorious sunshine in Balmaha and were all feeling reasonably ok after a good night's rest. After breakfast, we hit the trail again with the goal of walking the length of Loch Lomond. From Malcolm's stepometer it turned out to be ~50,000 steps on a journey that started just after 9 am and kept us busy till 7 pm! Although deceptively easy in principle (how hard can it be to walk along a lake after all?) we found the going very tough at times, with lots of scrambles along the river bank followed by easy periods of walking. The rewards for all this hard work are plentiful, however, with amazing views of the loch (photos to follow tomorrow!) throughout a sun-beaten day. We made good time in the morning, covering the first 10 miles or so pretty easily and lunched at the Ben Lomond park (resisting the temptation to climb up Ben Lomond) and thinking that we'd be at our Hotel in Ardlui by 5 pm. How wrong we were, though, as the afternoon was much tougher with lots of tricy tree roots and rocks to negotiate as the train snaked its way up and down the hillside for the next 6 hours! Everybody did brilliantly, though, especially Dad who kept motoring along all afternoon. Around 4 pm we made it to Inversnaid and stopped for some liquid refreshments (lager and lime for me and lime and soda for Dad and Malcolm). Around 4:30 we hit the trail ready for the last 5 miles and thinking we would be back by 6 pm. It took us much longer to negotiate all the winding paths that hit us, and by 6 we were still nowhere near the end. After another hour, we were finally rewarded with a view of our hotel for the night on the other side of the loch. Malcolm was telling us this while reading the guide book at the time and tripped over, niggling his ankle in the process. It's a bit swollen but hopefully will be ok for tomorrow. Finally made to the jetty and called the ferryman over to pick us up. We were mightily relieve to hit the Ardlui hotel just after 7 pm where a hot dinner was waiting for us. Dad and Malcolm both turned in by 10 pm. I stayed up a little bit longer writing this up. But it's time to turn in now - my knees are screaming like small babies and it's time to put them to bed. Tomorrow we have a change of pace ahead of us as we leave Loch Lomond and are bound for the Bridge of Orchy. I think all of us a quietly confident at this phase, and hopefully all will go well tomorrow as we push on past the half-way mark. Will post some pics tomorrow night!