Eriskay Trek 2014 Day 0

Day 0: the trip up

As usual I was trying to catch up with myself and not entirely managing it. I had the whole day off work so was relieved that we didn't need to arrive til late afternoon. I was mostly organised by the night before but needed to finish my packing, load the car, hitch up the trailer, and get Rosie ready.

I was going to be travelling by myself, towing a trailer, into unknown territory. I've always resisted Sat Nav but was loaned one some months ago for a trip into Edinburgh to see War Horse. I realised that the need to check numerous bits of paper output from online route maps while also towing a pony was not a recipe for low stress. So I gave in and invested - but of course only on the same morning so didn't have time to check out the user manual. This meant that I ended up needing to ignore the sat nav for the first 30 mins of the trip as it was determined I should go via the A9 and kept trying to turn me around and head me that way. Luckily the route was fairly simple. I did find the information on when the next change was coming up useful as it meant I could relax for the next X miles (20, 50...) and enjoy some of the amazing scenery (Glen Coe !).

Note to self - learn how to set a route "via" somewhere !

Even though I left a bit later than I had planned, the drive was uneventful and we arrived about half four at Old Pier House. Our host Jenny is a long term friend of the Eriskay breed and it is a lovely place to spend a few days. 

Thrift and Brogach already there and in their respective paddocks, so I turned Rosie out with Thrift to reacquaint themselves. (They/we did a couple of endurance taster rides together last year).

We were lucky that a local endurance rider had offered to help us out with route planning; Vivien arrived and we discussed options for each day, taking into account the expected weather.