Walking to Cape Wrath, Day 18, May 28, 2022

The walk out of Glen Feshie to Kingussie was uneventful.  Typical cloudy day with occasional showers but no strife like the previous one. I was off before anyone woke up (and I think I was sufficiently quiet for the one person who ended up sleeping in the room I was in).

The only real observation I made, apart from the mass of firewood all the houses on the way into Kingussie had stored) was the river itself. Though not a particularly long river, the Feshie is a stunning geological feature. On the South Island of New Zealand, you regularly encounter braided rivers— extreme flows of water that wash the gravel scree from adjoining mountains, forming and reforming channels almost overnight. You can never know what a river crossing might be on any given day because of the astonishing speed that channels are re-arranged, particularly in spring flood-time. On the Te Araroa, crossing braided rivers was always a time of stress and often a time of failure— knowing that failure meant walking miles out of your way to find a ford or a bridge (or failure could be drowning). I didn’t have to cross the River Feshie and unless the weather was much more severe, I doubted it would be difficult. Still, looking down on those braids brought back memories and some anxiety.

The day finished early with my arrival in Kingussie which began with late breakfast at the Sugar Bowl, then I wandered to the Duke of Gordon, a fine old hotel I’d secured cheap lodging in, and a long hot bath.

T. Hugh Crawford