That Ben Nevis almost killed us yesterday, but it was so worth it, the view stunning and the nature wonderful! Our sleeping muscles needed to be awaken, or maybe not that abruptly though, today my body feels like I have been knocked down or something. However, giving up when something is hard is simply not my style, neither is Cecilie’s. We pushed each other up the top and tried or best to keep up with skipper Lars who surprisingly didn’t seem to be affected by the mountain climbing. Why on earth is he in better condition than us!?! Cecilie and I came to the conclusion that he is taller, have longer legs that take him about 10 cm longer each step he takes and he has also more muscles than us. Longer legs or not, we have come to the conclusion that after returning home it is time to awaken those muscles for real, detox our bodies and look better than ever, haha, or at least get fit again! However, skipper Lars has been complaining about sore muscles today so he is still human! Despite escalating pulse and sore muscles today it was an amazing day, it is hard to describe the astonishing view and it is hard to show reality through pictures.

Ben Nevis is 1343 m high and UK’s highest mountain. When getting closer to the top we saw snow and glaciers and started freezing. The temperature was close to zero and the brought clothes we thought we would never have use for when sweating on the way to the top was very useful higher up in the snow. The longing for skiing was huge and I am really looking forward to real winter again with snow and skiing! After having enjoyed the top for a while and also gotten some very beautiful pictures when the fog fortunately decided to disappear it was time to start climbing down again with shaking legs. After 8 hours of climbing we decided we deserved a pizza and was recommended a take away pizza place with Fort William’s best pizzas. The restaurant didn’t only have the best pizzas, also the sweetest owner, another proof of the wonderful kindness of the Scottish people. We missed the last bus back to the boat when ordering pizza and instead of taking a cab the pizza man insisted on driving us. He is not a Scot originally, but came 40 years ago and stayed, mostly due to the friendly people!

Tomorrow we will continue up the Caledonian Canal towards new adventures! The plan is to be back in Norway and Fredrikstad, the home of Safari on the 25th, at the moment it looks like it will be possible to leave Scotland on Monday. This weekend a low will cause rough weather on the North Sea and no more lows on the North Sea please, I think I had enough of that last time I was there…

Love/First Mate