It was a lovely sunny start to the day.

After a delicious breakfast of fruit and yoghurt we chatted for a while and decided to do a hike to one of the tallest points in the Smoky Mountains.

Bob drove us up to Clingmans Dome which is 6,643ft high and is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The views on the way up were amazing. It was a little bit chilly when we arrived and it was also a little bit hazy.

We headed off down Andrews Bald trail through the pine forest. It smelt so lovely, just like Christmas.

After a couple of miles of up and down hiking we made it to Andrews Bald. From here you had a 360 degree view across the mountains. The photos really don’t do it justice as the views were stupendous.

We stopped at the top for our lunch in the beautiful sunshine.

The way back seemed longer for some reason but was still a lovely hike.

Once we were back at the top the mist had cleared a bit so I took some more photos of the views.

On the way back down we pulled into a lay-by for a beer stop.

I tried to take some photos out of the window on the way down but they didn’t come our that well.

After arriving back at the lodge, Ali, Sherrien, Sarah and myself decided to get an Uber into town so we could have a look around. The town is all decorated for Halloween.

We stopped off at the Ole Smoky Moonshine bar to do some moonshine tasting. We were given 9 different moonshine to taste and I liked them all apart from the nutty ones.

We ended up buying 6 bottles between us! Moonshine is a high proof alcohol that used to be produced illegally, and in some places it still is. It used to be distilled at night to avoid detection which is how it got its name of moonshine.

America’s first legal moonshine distillery was launched in 2005. The origins of moonshine can be traced back across the Atlantic to Scotland and Ireland where making and drinking whiskey were time-honored traditions. When Scottish and Irish immigrants made their way to Appalachia, they used local corn to distill whiskey for their community to enjoy. Around 2009, changes in Tennessee state law paved the way for the creation of legal moonshine.

We felt we needed a beer to wash down the moonshine so we headed to the Ole Red bar.

We had a bit of an issue getting back to the lodge as there were no Ubers available and some of the taxi firms were going to take over an hour to pick us up. Eventually we found a taxi that could come and pick us up within 10 minutes but it was expensive.

Jim cooked us all a curry which was delicious and we headed to bed shortly afterwards.