I’m half-heartedly planning a walk from Fort William to Fort Augustus (33 miles) on the Great Glen Way this Monday.

I’d been planning to do the 66 mile Speyside Way (Buckie to Aviemore) this weekend and sleep out overnight in a bivi bag – but it’s too cold and wet (I’m definitely going to be a fair-weather bivi-bagger). Half of the Great Glen Way is a compromise, and good practice I suppose.

But there are heavy showers forecast, long stretches of the route are dull and it’s through scenery I’m very familiar with.  I could use the rare time away from my children to get on with writing the sequel to The Murder of Donald MacDonald, or to continue my search for an agent.

So, my dilemma is 10-12 hours of exhausting slog on my feet, or the same amount of time hunched over my laptop. Either way I’ll end up with a sore back – but either way I’ll feel a sense of achievement and of time well used.

I must find out if there’s a decent chippie in Fort Augustus that does white pudding suppers – that will be my decider!

On the banks of Loch Ness, the second half of the Great Glen Way, on a typical spring day.