{"id":1198,"date":"2020-07-17T08:23:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T08:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/?p=1198"},"modified":"2020-07-17T08:25:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T08:25:26","slug":"steaming-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/2020\/07\/17\/steaming-along\/","title":{"rendered":"Steaming along"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 93 of the End to End in 2019 began early at Roy Bridge Station. Hannah was travelling south and we were waving her off. Roy Bridge station is very small, but it has now been used for arrivals or departures by all three of us (I used it in 2012).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The West Highland Line has several small stations. Another is Banavie, at the foot of Neptune’s Staircase on the Caledonian Canal, which was also part of today’s walking route. So it was good to know the Jacobite Express, a fairly well known steam train, was coming by around 10.15 am which was about the same time as I was due to be there. I was able to get some good photos as it chuffed through the otherwise deserted station on its way to Mallaig.<\/p>\n

Day 93 was also a good day for free biscuits. I was given some at a small cafe near the bottom of the staircase and they kept me going for a bit along the side of the Caledonian Canal. I was walking up the Great Glen and this would be my route for quite a few days, longer even than on the WHW.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the walk, during which I’d seen quite a few butterfly orchids, it began to rain on the green landscape surrounding me. But what is rain except not yet vapourised water. I kept on steaming along towards Loch Lochy.<\/p>\n

Last year I chose this remembered psalm: From Psalm 68
\nHoly One, you made abundant rain fall and restored your worn-out land.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The psalmist was writing in an arid landscape for which rain was essential to life. It’s also true here in the Highlands: temperate rain forest and, as we shall see later, blanket bog all need rain. Earlier in the Spring of 2020 it was very dry in Derbyshire but since June the rain has returned and the reservoirs have filled up again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yet quite often we see rain as something to avoid. I’m not that keen on walking in the rain, something that would not decrease in my time spent walking on the wet Great Glen Way. But I do admire water. Our ancestors would have made offerings to water. Clean water is a basic essential for life. Solid, liquid or gas: water is the stuff for me.<\/p>\n

In this landscape, water makes its mark:
\nstreams flow, pools fill, leaves drip.
\nAs I walk through the rain,
\nI see the green land and rejoice.
\nI am grateful for water.<\/p>\n

JAL: 17.07.2020 in Longdendale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 93 of the End to End in 2019 began early at Roy Bridge Station. Hannah was travelling south and we were waving her off. Roy Bridge station is very small, but it has now been used for arrivals or departures by all three of us (I used it in 2012). The West Highland Line … Continue reading “Steaming along”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalms","category-remembered-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1201,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/lejogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}