We went to bed in 100% humidity and sweltered even with just the mosquito net. Eventually the sun dropped behind the hills and the tent cooled down.

We were woken at 3 am by the sound of rolling thunder - intensified, no doubt, by the valleys forming a natural echo chamber. Then the rain arrived. It pelted down and the tent took a battering from the winds. The thunder got closer and so did the lightning. Normally I would have been in awe of such a display but with only a thin layer of plastic between me and nature I was a tad worried. It went on for about an hour and eventually rolled off into the distance. At last we could get back to sleep again. There had been no mention of thunderstorms in the forecast.

Sorry.

For the first time in my life I experienced 2 thunderstorms in quick succession. This time though the lightning was less frequent and much brighter. The wind got up again and then we realised that the tent was no longer water proof and was leaking on my side. It is a double skinned tent and it relies on an air gap between the two skins to keep dry. The wind had loosened one of the pegs and the gap was no longer there. A slow drip of water settled under my ground mat and my sleeping bag got wet. I packed it away and put on my jersey and raincoat instead. That worked to a degree and finally at about 5 am the thunder stopped and I fell asleep.

Until about 5:30 when a new thunder storm rolled in. The lightening must have been very close as the thunder was deafening. At this point I gave up trying to sleep and just sat horribly bored while Sally slept on, although she also had a tough night.

In the morning we packed up the bags while sitting in the tent. A robin flew around like a fantail to cheer us up. We decided to buy breakfast at the village down the road, Unapool. After a very steep hill we discovered that the hotel did not open until 12 noon nor did the shop. Not a problem. We pushed on a couple of miles to the cafe. It was close for renovation so minus breakfast or coffee we set off for Ullapool.

Eventually we hit a brick wall and during a break in the rain we ate muesli and UHT milk. Unfortunately we were completely out of water by now and I was very thirsty. We headed over the massive pass and down into Inchnadamph where we stopped at the first house we could find and asked for a top up of the water bottles. In our conversation she mentioned a bunk house 200 m away.

We headed straight there and booked in for the night. We only covered 20 kms but we were both shattered and wet. We slept for several hours in the afternoon and dried all our belongings in the hot room. It was about 50 degrees and you sweated profusely after a minute or so. But it did have one unexpected benefit. It killed all the mould on the tent and it no longer smells musty.

The lady who worked there was very efficient , very helpful, and spoke with a beautiful Scottish lilt. I imagined her as a siren luring sailors to their deaths on the rocks such was the beauty of her voice. Except she was so gentle it would not have been possible. The hostel included breakfast in the price and we ate heartily the next morning until we were bursting.