The next morning the clag bite was even bigger than before; it covered my whole hind leg now. The only thing to do now was to find a doctor, before it started to get even worse. Walking was becoming very painful now, because the bite was right on the muscle and every time I stretched my leg, the muscle tightened and the bitten part of my leg became really sore. Every thirty minutes I needed a break, because walking up the hills was very difficult, and it was really hard for me to breathe. At this time, I knew that I was having a severe allergic reaction to the clag bite, and that, if I didn�t go to a doctor, breathing was getting even more difficult, especially with 20 kilos on my back.
The weather was quite hot for Scotland as well, the hottest summer in about 30 years, so we heard. Walking on these conditions wasn�t easy, but my friends helped me a lot. They encouraged me to go on, and together we arrived in Drymen, where the Rob Roy Way would start. First of all, we went looking for a doctor. Luckily, the Drymen health centre wasn�t very far away. When I arrived there, I was sweating all over, because it was so hot. My t-shirt was all wet, therefore some people in the health centre looked a bit curious at me. The doctor was just back from an operation, and the receptionist could just squeeze me in the schedule. The doctor looked at my leg, frowned a bit, and told me that I had an allergic reaction to the clag venom, and a severe infection in my leg. He prescribed me some antibiotics and told me to carry antihistamines at all times, to prevent this in the future.
Very relieved I hobbled out of the health centre, to tell everything to my friends.
We decided that we would walk a bit further to find a good camping-site, and to stay there until I was able to walk again. The walk uphill was very difficult. The antihistamines weren�t working yet and I even felt more miserable than before. After an hour walking, we went looking for a place to camp, because we all really needed it. There was no empty field around, only some peat areas. Finally, we spotted a very small spot, just big enough four our two tiny tents. We set up camp there. It was up a small hill, downhill was a small loch. Above us, there were some electricity masts. At first, we didn�t want to camp there, but since there was no alternative, we chose this spot. The little loch was actually a water reservoir and was used for fishing. It was a bit muddy when we went downhill, but there was a small quay where we could sit on. |
