Category: WHW 2018

We’ve finished! – but with a bit of a whimper rather than a bang. We knew it was likely to rain this afternoon, and the people in the room above us at our nice B&B started crashing around before 6 in order to make an early start. We set out rather later, with dull skies and a cold easterly wind. Kinlochleven is a funny little town, with some lovely azaleas in neat front gardens between the AstroTurf and the gnomes.

It was a long pull out of the town then we picked up the old military road, very stony underfoot so you had to watch every step. The valley was deserted apart from a derelict farmstead, but once or twice I was sure I could hear marching footsteps behind me – many echoes of the past here.

Around 11 the drizzle set in, and continued for the rest of the day. On the map the path ran through conifer forests, but most of the trees have been felled recently so we were exposed to the wind, and it was a bleak and uninviting landscape. Finally Ben Nevis appeared – we knew it must be around somewhere. After far more uphill stretches than we’d expected, we joined a forestry track which wound downhill and was soft underfoot, to join the road which we followed into Fort William, after a brief stop to enjoy today’s Snickers.

The finish in the shopping mall certainly didn’t match the walk into Robin Hood’s Bay on the Coast to Coast, nor our welcome at the caravan last year. But our final B&B is relatively luxurious and we can have a lie in tomorrow.

I was going to add that we had finished without any crises being reported either by the builders at home, or by our family (Zoe’s baby is still hanging on in there). But sadly sister Ro’s cat needs complicated medical treatment. Next stop Aberdeen.

The night in the hobbit house was interesting, cosy once the heater had been on for a while but I got rather tangled up in my hired sleeping bag liner and woke several times hoping it would soon be over. Each time we got close to nodding off, something small, fast and presumably furry scuttled noisily under the decking or over the AstroTurf roof (orcs? Shelob?). By the time we packed and emerged for breakfast when the cafe opened at 9, the car park was already filling again with Monday morning skiers keen to get up to the snow. It was a beautiful crisp clear morning and I almost envied them, but it was great for walking too.

We headed down and across the busy A82 to Kingshouse, once the only accommodation in the area but now a building site, with just the shell of the old drovers’ inn remaining (or a rebuilt pastiche? Hard to tell). A 60-room hotel is being added on the back. The plans have met with much opposition, but from photos, the one that was pulled down wasn’t particularly scenic either, but just what everyone was used to.

I knew the next major feature was the Devil’s Staircase, but in spite of having read the notes and looked at the map, I had forgotten we had to do a couple of miles parallel to the road first. If you ignored the traffic, the views were amazing as we funnelled into the top of Glen Coe.

Finally we started the pull up to the Devil’s Staircase – just a steep stony track, zigzagging as it gained height. We took frequent pauses to admire the view, and get our breath back of course. At one point we could see two birds circling, quite possibly eagles, but by the time I’d extricated the binoculars from Ian’s backpack (he’d carried them over 70 miles for this very moment) they had soared out of view.

Over the top and the scenery changed again, with narrower valleys between the peaks. The old military road swung up and down along the side of a valley before heading downhill fairly steeply, through silver birch trees just coming into leaf. It took longer than I’d expected to finally reach Kinlochleven, and we were pleased to find our guesthouse on the way into town. At some point we must venture out again for food, but happy to relax in our own proper room for now.

We were relieved to get away from Tyndrum where the hotel continued to live down to expectations. We knew we had a long and potentially difficult day ahead of us, and got up good speed on the straightforward 7 miles to Bridge of Orchy, where we had elevenses at the hotel (which looked far nicer than the one in Tyndrum).

Refuelled with coffee and cakes, we climbed up the hill the other side of the bridge, only to descend again in a couple of miles, but with such wonderful views of Loch Tulla that it was worth every moment of the climb. Very quiet apart from the scrunch of our feet, at last we were a good distance away from the A82 which has been within earshot on and off for much of the walk.

We didn’t stop at the Inveroran Hotel, the last outpost before Rannoch Moor, but continued on, now on an old drove road built by Thomas Telford. It was hard-going underfoot as it was cobbled and no longer covered with the layer of gravel to protect the animals’ hooves, but there was no chance of losing the way round the edges of the Moor. On windy or rainy days this section can be a real trial, but today we had intermittent sun and little wind, with just a couple of brief hail showers to get everyone hustling into waterproofs only to overheat in them 15 minutes later.

One long last hill and over the ridge to drop into the eastern end of Glencoe, and then, er, up again through the car park of the Glencoe Ski Resort, crowded with skiers finishing for the day. We are now tucked up in our hobbit house, and will soon go and see if the skiers have left any food in the cafe.

Ooh nearly forgot – 18 miles in all today.

After a good night’s sleep, uninterrupted by the live music and the ghosts, we set off this morning for a fine day’s walking. The path took us up the valley alongside the river Falloch, then after a couple of miles of old military road, up and down through a lovely forested section with distant views of mountain peaks.

We were slightly hindered in our stride by runners doing the Highland Fling – not a kilted dance, but an ultra marathon. They started at Milngavie at 6 this morning, following the WHW (including the tortuous section along Loch Lomond) and the first runner passed us at around 11:30, having covered in 5 and a half hours what had taken us 3 and a half days. The finish point is here in Tyndrum, 53 miles from the start (though somehow we’ve done 57). I don’t know how many of the 800 starters managed to finish, we came in probably around the 150 mark but I don’t think it counts!

Tonight we are in a large hotel that is obviously aimed at the tour bus market, with decoration reminiscent of a 1980’s static caravan. I hold out no great hopes for dinner, but at least we have our own bathroom.

15 miles yesterday, 13 today. Tomorrow will be challenging!

We had a lovely evening catching up with Sheila and Eddy, who retired to the west of Scotland before we went to the west of Wales, but managed to get out of our welcoming Airbnb in good time for the ferry back to Rowardennan. Loch Lomond was tranquil, the sun was shining and all was set fair for a good day’s walking.

The first section was straightforward, and we took the high road which got us to Inversnaid about an hour before the couple who took the low road, which twisted along the side of the loch. Over lunch at Inversnaid I made the mistake of reading the guide book, which said that the following section was the most difficult part of the entire West Highland Way. We spent the afternoon clambering and sliding up and down boulders and tree roots, with plenty of mud and innumerable streams flowing down the hillside. I find this terrain challenging as there isn’t much spring left in my legs, but Ian happily charged off ahead leaving me whimpering in the rear having banged my head on an inconveniently placed tree.

At one point it was warm enough to strip down to t-shirts, but while we were having a restorative cup of tea it started hailing so we put a few extra layers on us and our bags and set off again. Eventually we reached the top of the lake, finishing the day in a lovely valley, in the evening sunshine, with snowy peaks ahead of us.

Tonight we are in the Drovers Inn. Stuffed animals everywhere. The Haunted Room is next door, but since ghosts can allegedly walk through walls, who knows what might happen? We have the Argyle Suite: 3 single beds and a washbasin. Facilities are somewhat basic but it is happily trading on 300 years of dodgy history.

Well here we are, ten months after finishing our Home from Home walk, and a few months ago I started to think about where we should go next. Ian was slightly surprised to get a guidebook for the West Highland Way as his Christmas present. I’ve booked the usual random collection of accommodation and we set off north tomorrow, hoping to get there before the midges.

Rather worryingly, our initial reaction to a 95 mile walk was ‘only 95 miles?’, though the hills may be slightly higher than in Southern England. It’s a popular trail and there are lots of baggage-transfer services which we could use, but having got used to carrying everything (and having reduced ‘everything’ to the minimum) we won’t be using them. Unless the hills are really really steep!

Our training has consisted of a few ambles around the Pembrokeshire coast, getting sunburnt on Saturday when we couldn’t believe that the sun was shining for once. Looking at the forecast, that is unlikely to be a problem in Scotland.

So we start from Milngavie on Wednesday and should reach Fort William the following Tuesday. Wifi permitting, I’ll keep posting.