Day 10 - The highest climb yet ⛰️

I am, again, a day behind with keeping up to date with the in's and out's of this adventure!

The day began after having a fairly good night of sleep. I have to thank my wife, Cat, who normally tells me everything how it is, sometimes regardless of the time, setting or consequences. But on this day, she said there's a few hills, but I will be fine. So in my mind, u had an up and down day, but noting major to face. 💪

I had woken up feeling a bit emotional. Actually, alot emotional! The tiredness, lethargy and depletion was getting to me. The prior night was were staying in a little council flat. It was very nice. Tough to get in and out of for me. Up concrete stairs and gravel to negotiate!

After the amazing Clun visit to Lochaber rc, we went back and chucked a couple of gluten free pizzas in the oven. I definitely needed it! Unfortunately after what felt like, only a few mins, I said to Cat, 'the pizza's?' She ran to the kitchen and all I heard was 'for f#*@ sake!' Then she came in with 2 charcoal circles on a baking tray! Yep, no pizza! 🤣 It was a fan oven. We are not used to those! I ended up having museli and a protein drink, which was probably 600 kcals. Poor Cat and Pam diddnt have much at all. I did offer, but understand their decline at my gluten free stuff! I went to bed that night over 2000kcals in depletion. So not a great start to the day.

So I started, and everything was fine. The road was already hard work. A constant camber even on flat roads, which I had not faced yet. So I was using my left arm the whole way. I had Cat speaking to me the whole time because the roads were busy. She kept telling me to get move over to the left when I could. The problem was, I couldn't. The camber was too steep. If I moved , it posed a real risk of my chair tipping over. Not Cats fault, she was managing my safety and doing a very good job at it, in really difficult circumstances. But I kind of lost the plot a bit. I pulled in and was in tears. Everything got on top of me. I felt like I kept doing things wrong, and was upsetting the team. Even though I knew I wasn't, when your upset, there is no rational thought! I was tired and lethargic and the relentless cambers and climbs were getting so hard. My mental toughness cam keep going and going, but sometimes it falters!

So eventually, after a bit of reassurance (I don't do the tough love thing!), and some fuel and hydration, I was back on the road. Music playing, I was much happier. It was still really tough. I would soon learn though, that what I was experiencing, was not tough at all!

The night before, at the rugby club, I mentioned going through Glencoe and some of the looks I got were strange. They all dropped their jaws! In reality I kind of had an idea that it may be difficult, but I tend to block those things out. I don't need to know what hills are coming, or how hard it's going to be. It doesn't help me at all. I'd prefer to deal with it when I'm there. The downhills, that are steep, u do need to know about, because they're so dangerous!

So I was wheeling along the endless road with left camber! So wheeling with my left arm. Up some hills, but not massive ones.

I stopped for a wee wee! Refueled, and started on my way again up a hill. Except this hill did not end. It kept going up and up and up. I looked forward out from the peak of my baseball cap, and what I saw made my body shudder. There were mountains. Endless mountains, and a road going up as far as you could see, right through them. I could just make out in the distance, cars where the top seemed to be be. There was only one thing to do. Giving up is not an option, so I started wheeling. The camber was still there, so every inch was so difficult. The road was very busy and very fast as well. They were very respectful though. Always slowing down and often tooting, and shouting encouragement, which is so welcome. The mountain was relentless. I climbed and climbed and the end never came. Cars went passed, and some bikes... One of them shouted 'good luck!' With that tone of, omg... You've got something coming!

He was right. The climb got steeper and steeper and the camber, more acute. My left arm was burning so much. I was pushing with everything I had and I thought the left side of my chest and my left shoulder was going to snap! I had to stop a few times. Every lay by, I would stop and refuel and hydrate. I can't drink on hills that steep, because I can't let go of the rims, or my chair would roll backwards. I have never seen anything more beautiful or more terrifying in my life. Every time the end seemed to be there, it shifted into another mountain. Almost 20km of continuous climbing, and I was eventually nearing the end. I was as close to breaking point as I've ever been. Pam came out of the car at one point, and put her arm around me and said 'this is why no one has done this before, but your doing it, your the 1st person ever to wheel a wheelchair through Glencoe!'. It really stuck with me, and helped me alot. I eventually finished, so exhausted and ready to flop on the floor, after 45km.

It was the hardest day yet and I was not surprised to see my Garmin flash up at the end, saying 'you've just made your highest climb yet!'. That's the 7th time I've been told that! I'm hoping it will be the last! 🤣

I got into the car. My arms still shaking like mad. I was struggling to hold my protein drink in my hand. We went to find our accommodation. A lovely hotel a few miles away. It was quite beautiful as well. I keep forgetting to take good photos of the rooms, as so many days are rolling into one now. But it was lovely. WiFi was terrible though!

We had fish and chips for tea, which was nice, but a bit fatty for me, so I struggled to eat all if that. I'm not used to fried food! We don't fry anything at home. It was lovely though. Then it was off to the room, and thank goodness. I couldn't wait to get in there. I was so tired! I went to sleep at 11pm again, after finishing to write everything, sort videos, sort social media posts, look at messages. I'm averaging 6-7 hours of sleep atm, which isn't really enough. But there is nothing else I can do! But nearing the end of the week. Things are hard. Very hard, but going well. ❤️