The 2016 Challenge, day 6: Picking up the Pieces (1)

On Wednesday, I stuck by my decision to take a day off and do no walking with an expedition pack. Alvar had tried to persuade me to use the day to go back and walk the "missing" section of my crossing, so that I should have a complete crossing when I reached the East Coast; but I wasn't ready for that. I also found, no I'd had a good night's sleep and the adrenaline had subsided, that my right knee was rather painful - particularly up and down stairs. I had evidently done it rather more damage in the glissade than I had at first realized. (Or, more likely, I did the damage when arresting the glissade: it's a bit like the old observation that falling off a horse never hurts, but hitting the ground immediately afterwards often does!)

Laura was walking to Aberfeldy, and then on to Grandtully (pronounced "Grantly", obviously - these Dull Scots really can give Norfolk a run for its money!). I had said I should walk with her as far as Aberfeldy and then turn back, and that was what I proposed to do. Carrying no gear. Just to see how I felt about it all, and how the knee performed. Plus, when I got to Aberfeldy I should be able to do a bit of shopping. My resupply list had grown a bit, due to various equipment failures. My watch strap needed replacing, and the zip of my camera pouch was broken so I needed to replace that, too, in addition to buying new batteries for my GPS.

Laura was a sport and posed for this picture before we set off; but there was still one more thing we needed to do before hitting the road!