Actually I have walked far more than that because their challenge only worked while I had the phone app running – the Fitbit gives a much more realistic score because I wear it all the time – it has me at about 1700 for this year.

Just to celebrate this milestone I went out for our daily walk this morning in a T-shirt and shorts and got soaked to the skin when the heavens opened. There was spectacular thunder and lightning over night so I suppose I should have had more sense…

There is a good description of it on View Ranger here http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/NjkyNDQ%3D.

I would say that it was a good walk, with some fantastic views down over the Rest and be Thankful, but not one of my all time favourites because it was so very marshy in places (though the fact that it has been terrifically wet here recently did not help), and also because I believed the weather forecast, didn’t take a coat and got soaked through on the way back.

But the sun came out when we were on the last stretch and it was fantastically beautiful, with every conceivable shade of green on display and both tiny orange butterflies and huge dragonflies everywhere.

For anyone walking or cycling from the Rest to Lochgoilhead by the way, this route is much better than following the road – particularly on a Sunday in July when there are quite a few cars about.

One of these days I am going to start this walk, get round to where the main Beinn Donich track goes up to the mountain and then go down the back of it from the summit to join back to this route. Not when it has been raining recently though….

The weather wasn’t supposed to be good today – but when we got there it was pretty nice and as well as looking at the (very small) village and the castle we walked part of the way out to Ardentinny. The castle is partly ruined but under repair and is private property. There are some lovely houses in the village as well – though unfortunately it looks as though there is going to be a new development on quite small plots which I think will spoil it a bit.

The walk is along a good path by the lochside – unlike our side of the loch where the corresponding path is very overgrown. It was very quiet and at one point a deer jumped out in front of us. As you will see in the pictures there are some great views back to Lochgoilhead, and also to the end of our side of the peninsular where there is a house which can only be accessible by boat and also a small lighthouse at the Dog Rock.

We didn’t have any provisions with us so we didn’t walk all the way to Ardentinny today – but we will certainly come back and do this again. I also noticed that the Waverly (paddle steamer) visits Castle Carrick (though unfortunately not Lochgoilhead) quite a bit during the summer – so we shall have to try to get some photos of her then.