25.09.12: Gairlochy to Invergarry

The final day of the walk. Leaving the B&B at about 0930 saw us actually starting to walk at roughly 1000; our host had ferried us in the car back to Gairlochy to pick up where we had left off yesterday. It had started raining already, so the gaiters went on at the start. By the time we had arrived at the water's edge of Loch Lochy, it was blowing a hoolie. It stayed that way for the entire day. At times the loch looked exactly like the ocean, whipped up into white horses by the gale. Many trees were down in the forest as we trudged north. And yes, it was a headwind. Thirteen miles has never seemed so long.

Eventually we arrived at journey's end, had baths and showers, and have come round enough to get the blog done. Regardless of some unwelcome weather on a couple of stages, the days when it was important for it to be clement were glorious. The West Highland Way is a splendid undertaking, and we are so pleased we took it on. Do the same if you get the chance.

24.09.12: Fort William to Gairlochy

So, yes we have officially finished the WHW. Interestingly, there are currently two finishing points for the walk. Firstly Shiona is pictured at the 'original' end marker, out at the junction with the lane leading to the foot of the Ben Nevis climb. Seems a good place for it to be. The other, new, finish point is to be found right at the other end of town, requiring walkers to go another mile or so, taking them through the main shopping precinct. Now, you know me, I'm no cynic...

So we took ourselves off to have a photo with the bloke on the bench, taken by a passing Dutch couple we had last met in the forest descending from yesterday's walk. We didn't really mind going into the shopping zone, because we needed Boots & Tescos anyway.

The back streets of Fort William were a bit of a pain as we crossed town to join The Great Glen Way at Banavie, where the path begins to follow The Caledonian Canal. From here we would be walking the rest of the day on the towpath up to the hamlet of Gairlochy, which would be our endpoint for today, leaving the final 13 miles to Invergarry for tomorrow.

23.09.12: Kinlochleven to Fort William

Yes, I know it says Fort William in the title, so we should have finished this West Highland Way thingy, but we haven't. Yet. Our billet tonight is Achintee Farm, which is pretty much clinging to the lower slopes of Ben Nevis, and is therefore a mile or two out of town. Thus we don't get to the official end of the WHW (we think it's a fibre-glass fellow sat on a bench or similar) until tomorrow morning, as we pass through Fort William to get to the start of The Great Glen Way. Regular readers of this tripe will know that we are to walk two days of the GGW to get us to Invergarry, where we left our car a week or so ago at The Glengarry Castle Hotel. We will then be having six days R&R at the hotel to get us back to near normal.

The walk today seemed to last forever. After climbing out of Kinlochleven, which took an hour or so, we entered another absolute wilderness with just a military road passing through it. Shiona felt that this expanse of raw emptiness was even wilder and more remote than Rannoch Moor, which is certainly saying something. Fortunately the weather was wonderfully kind once again. To end, just like yesterday, we spent interminable miles coming down forestry tracks and similar into civilisation which had been in our eyeline for what seemed like hours. All four feet are complaining like crazy tonight. The bonus was that the pub, for evening meal, was no more than 100 metres from the B&B. There is a god!

22.09.12: Kingshouse to Kinlochleven

This morning's breakfast was sumptuous, everything that a Scottish full-house breakfast should be, and more. No sooner had we left the table and got our day's gear together, than the ever-obliging Drew, our host, appeared to get us in the car and take us back to Kingshouse to take up where we left off walking yesterday.

I guess it was 1020 before we got going, but not before a young family of red deer showed up to take their breakfast out of Shiona's hand. A band of noisy Scandinavians ruined the moment, and we set off, fortunately in the opposite direction to the Swedes. The early half mile of the walk was along the old road towards Glencoe, now superseded by the A82. A surreal five minutes was provided by the appearance of a whole coachload of German tourists, immaculately dressed in their best street clothes, walking towards us down this uneven track. They had been dropped off at the main road and were walking to Kingshouse to be picked up again. The most incongruous sight of the day.

After following the A82, uncomfortably close at times, for another half mile or so, the WHW then swung away at a right angle towards The Devil's Staircase, twisting its way sinuously to the top of the ridge. Strenuous, and quite warm, work, but the reward was tremendous. As was the utterly empty and beautiful world to be found over the top. For the best part of two hours, there was not a building or even a fence to be seen. If I live to be 99, I shall never picnic in a more remote and beautiful spot.

The final part of the descent into Kinlochleven was, in truth, fairly tiresome. The WHW shared its route with a rock-strewn track, gouged out by rainwater, designed for Land Rovers to be able to get to the HEP plant high up on the mountainside. It probably took the best part of two frustrating hours to get to Kinlochleven, which we had first spotted from right on the top. Arriving in the main drag, again we bumped into couples and family groups which we have been accidentally shadowing for the last seven days. And it will happen again tomorrow, I guess.

21.09.12: Inveroran to Kingshouse

Today The Highlands really started. Rannoch Moor is The UK's greatest expanse of wilderness, at 50 miles square. Kingshouse is roughly halfway across it. Knowing that traversing this barren landscape can be utterly vile when the weather is spiteful, we decided to plan only half of it today, and stop at Kingshouse, rather than push on another 9 miles to the next village along the route, Kinlochleven, just in case the weather gods weren't smiling.

We are not, in fact, staying at Kingshouse tonight, but have taken up the offer from our following B&B (in Kinlochleven) to be fetched by car from Kingshouse, and be taken back there after breakfast tomorrow morning to pick up from where we left off. Thus we are actually staying in the same bed for two consecutive nights. And the B&B we have chosen is superb. Result!

Anyway, back to those weather gods. We have seen Rannoch Moor in some atrocious conditions, even in Spring & Autumn. There are probably only a handful of days per annum when it is bathed in sunshine. We got one. The views all around were spectacular and crystal clear for the entire way. Another result! We were both anticipating dripping into King's House Hotel and hiding from rain until our lift appeared. Now, of course, we would like more of the same for the second section of the moor tomorrow.

20.09.12: Tyndrum to Inveroran

Scotland 2, England 0 is how our B&B stops have worked out so far. Those owned and run by Scottish proprietors have both been superb. The one in Tyndrum, run by an English couple, was utterly dire; we were tumbling over ourselves to get out and on the trail this morning. If anyone should ever be thinking of overnighting in Tyndrum, have a word with us first!

The 3 hotels we have used have all, by the way, been just fine. The one we have just arrived at, in Inveroran, has to be one of the most isolated we have ever seen. It is one of three buildings huddled together in the lee of hillsides all around, three miles along a road to nowhere. Exactly as you would imagine a Scottish Highland hotel from an era before Henry Ford starting clogging up the roads with production-line metal boxes.

The walking today was really very undemanding. Most of it - in fact all of it from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy - was on drove roads or military roads, all of which were metalled or similar. Hard on the feet, though, after a mile or two. The final three miles took us up and over a crest on rocky paths, before dropping down to the tiny hamlet of Inveroran. As I write this, along the hallway from the kitchen, the captivating smells of my dinner tonight are drifting my way. Can I last until 7 p.m.? Oh, I didn't mention the weather. The whole day featured Scottish mizzle, except for when it was raining. True to form, it stopped pretty much as soon as we stepped through the front door of the hotel.

19.09.12: Inverarnan to Tyndrum

We expected today to be rather less stunning than yesterday. Much of the earlier part was just that, because we had been so completely spoilt yesterday. Today's first half shared its route with the A82, the Oban railway line and electricity pylons. At each point we could see at least one of those. Then the road turned away to the east as we climbed higher to enter a forest, and all was well until we dropped down again to enter Tyndrum and find our B&B, which wasn't the best. Put it down to experience, I guess.

A roadside diner provided us with our dinner, Irn Bru and some of the best haddock ever tasted - only Mallaig has surpassed it - then back to the B&B to find that the central heating had been turned off. It's mid-September and it's been chucking it down for days and days in this neck of the woods, so you can probably imagine how welcoming the bed linen feels at this juncture. We have higher hopes for tomorrow's accommodation.

Rowardennan to Inverarnan: Our Best Day So Far

Shiona here. After yesterday's consistent rain, I so wanted a dry day
for our longest day yet, and probably the longest of the whole trip.
During the night there was even more rain but, thanks be, we woke to a
dry one and it stayed that way, allowing us fabulous views all day
across Loch Lomond. The WHW is very popular and we are meeting fellow
walkers who have come from Germany, Israel, USA and Australia, plus a
large group of charity walkers for Kidney Research.  We also chanced to
meet some feral goats living on the crags above the loch!

The route took us through some really beautiful places, along forest
tracks and down on the shore next to the clear waters of the loch. We
forded stream after stream, some of them gushing down the hillside into
the loch so lots of muddy areas to get through and stepping stones to
balance on. We even had to climb a wooden ladder to traverse a
particularly large boulder on the cliff path.  Although the WHW is
generally well maintained, recent rain has caused the paths to
disappear and clambering over tree roots and boulders was a real
challenge.  Thank goodness I brought my walking pole and we both have
gaiters (we had to explain to the Israelis who thought we were talking
about alligators!)

We had a lovely half way stop at the Inversnaid Hotel, sitting at a
bench with a drink, eating our packed lunch and soaking up the sun
before setting off to Inverarnan and the infamous Drovers Inn. What a
great place to spend the night!  All of us staying there were walking
the Way so the bar was very popular.  The service was top notch, the
food and bedroom great, plus we had a sing along led by a couple of
folk singers.  We slept well!

18.09.12: Rowardennan to Inverarnan

17.09.12: Balmaha to Rowardennan

We had planned two short hops, of only seven miles each, into our early itinerary. This was the second of them. After this, we step it up a bit. After a fantastic breakfast, we got our boots from the drying room, to find them quite some way short of dry. Never mind, we won't be getting another day quite as wet as yesterday, will we? Wrong again. Even with gaiters on from the very start, the socks were wet again within two hours; the rain seemed extra-penetrating this morning. The walk to Rowardennan within touching distance of the shore of Loch Lomond should have been utterly outstanding, but the horizontal rain sort of took the edge off it. The paths underfoot are currently a series of muddy, sloshy pools, too. We are so looking forward to being able to walk without rain gear for an hour or two!

16.09.12: Drymen to Balmaha

Not a long stage today, in fact a bit of a doddle, we thought. Wrong. You'll know how folks from upland areas are always keen to tell you that 'the weather up there' can switch from glorious to appalling in ten minutes flat, and then back again ten minutes later. Well, I guess one out of two ain't bad. Sure it switched from glorious to appalling about half an hour into our walk, but somebody forgot to tell Him Upstairs to change it back again shortly after. The nearer we got to Conic Hill (the first of only two truly demanding climbs on the whole WHW), the harder it rained.

By the time we reached the foot of the climb, there was a torrent racing down the rocky path. It stayed that way for the next hour to the top. Fairly unenjoyable. Coming down the other side, of course, was even less delightful, having to take extra care not to slip off smooth rocky slabs submerged in a similar torrent. Incredibly, there were families coming up the other way clad in Tshirts & trainers for what seemed their regular Sunday-afternoon jaunt to conquer Conic Hill.

We reached our B&B at 10 to 3, dripping wet. On the dot of 3, it stopped raining, the sun came out, and stayed that way until dark. Evening meal at The Oak Tree Inn across the lane from our B&B. The haggis option was so good that Alan skipped sweet course and had it twice.

15.09.12: Milngavie to Drymen

Up at 0600 to get ourselves sorted out (no doubt we'll get slicker as the days go by) before the taxi showed up at 0710 to take us to Spean Bridge for the 0755 train south to Dumbarton 
Central, which was due to arrive at 1059. It arrived at 1059!  Incredible; this never happens in our neck of the woods, and this train had traversed all sorts of inhospitable landscape.  We got the first taxi off the rank to whisk us the 20 minutes to Milngavie, where we assembled a packed lunch in the last M&S we'll see for a while, and set off on the stroke of noon.

Today was fairly flat and the weather was kind.  Only one wet boot when Alan placed a foot in what looked like a tussock, and was in fact not much short of a swamp.  But the Berghaus held out and the sock stayed dry.  The quirkiest event today was finding a lady selling home-baked goodies in a copse near Killearn, not far from the walk end.  Her daughter is trying to raise £4500 to pay for her trip to volunteer as an English teacher in Chile, and this was one chosen method. Today, while daughter was off walking neighbours' dogs to earn a few more bob, mum was manning the stall.

In the evening, cousin Joe, who lives in Drymen, kindly picked us up and ferried us to a pub for an evening meal. On the way home, tomorrow's packed lunch was put together in the Spar shop.

NB
There are a couple of techie difficulties getting in the way of super-smooth blogging, particularly sending photos attached to the text. In the short term, it may be a case of sending photos singly.

14.09.12: The Journey North

Up early, 0500, to do all those last-minute jobbies, and try to get away by 0600 in order to get past Manchester before the M6 gets clogged with commuters. Not bad: we managed 0620, and the light was already coming up. It was also dry at that point, so the day started well. Penrith's very own Rooster Diner provided a terrific huge breakfast, and it was only the 'standard' - you should have seen the next size up!

First call after that was The Iron Chef in Milngavie, where we had to drop off our baggage for the walk; a van will take it daily from hotel/B&B to hotel/B&B so we can walk with just day packs. Then on up to Invergarry to check in for one night to our end-stop hotel. Tonight an early night after the long drive, as we are out of the hotel in the morning at 0710 to get a taxi to Spean Bridge station for the train back south to the start.

Forgot to mention: the drive from Tyndrum across Rannoch Moor and through Glencoe to Fort William was full of cyclists, and I mean full. If it's the ride I think it was, then we were following the Deloitte Ride Across Britain, and that means 1500 riders. Progress was very slow.

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08.09.12: Getting Closer

A week has passed, and it's now less than a week to go. This time next Saturday, we should have completed our first day, from the start at Milngavie (pronounced Mulguy) to the small town of Drymen (pronounced Drimmen). That's shown in the handbook as about 12 miles. That'll be plenty for that day, as we can't begin until noon; we'll be coming down on the early train out of Spean Bridge near our hotel at the end of the walk (http://www.glengarry.net) where we will have dropped off the car the day before. Our reward for arriving back at the car will be 6 further nights at this splendid hotel.

01.09.12: Preparation

It's Saturday September 1st, and we do the first stage of the WHW a fortnight today. We have been doing a minor stroll or two in the past month, but today we thought we'd better do something a touch longer as a bit of a warm-up. After leaving the car at Severn Country Park, near Alveley, we walked down to Bewdley alongside the River Severn, about 8 miles or so, which will be about two thirds of an average day's walk on the WHW. We then got the 17.04 steam train on The Severn Valley Railway back to our start. Weather superb; a great day. Oh, and Libby came too.