The first thing I changed was the overnight stay with Graham and Clare. The thought of a 4 hour train journey followed by 14 miles walking up hills left my legs feeling colder than a sheep in a tub of formaldehyde and out of fashion in deep storage.
I say the first thing because there were so many changes. Planning time is good but when its open ended you really do spend far too long second guessing every choice.
The truth is if you haven’t walked the west highland way before then its difficult to envision how far your legs will want to take you. With so few stopping place it makes it even tougher. Then when our mate says we’ll walk it backwards the planner throws all the pieces of paper in the air and prays that Maradona will walk out of the Maracana with some magic words for the highland meanderers.
We drove to Crianlarich and abandoned the car. It was also an excellent opportunity to book into another hotel, leaving us only one night left to book.
Booking hotels and bunkhouses is easy but the critical part is getting Friday and Saturday done – or should I say, Saturday and Friday, as the main night is Saturday.
It also makes sense to avoid the Caledonian challenge. It’s a 54 mile through the morning noon and night walk, which should be sponsored by the Thompson family from Dundee Utd fame. Old Eddie, bless him, would’ve been a great sponsor.
We planned to miss it but mixed up the dates with the 2008 version. They decided to move it a week back to and we experienced its full force at Bridge of Orchy. By the time we reached Tyndrum the next day they had started dismantling the finishing line.
The train to Fort William took us less than 2 hours and we still felt alive on arrival. We strolled out, turned left down the hill and expected to see the fabled end of the west highland way, but as ever its 15 minutes before you finally get there. We set off at 1.00 and by 1.30pm we had reached the fork to turn right angles. We would’ve been there at 1.20pm if we’d had confidence in our map reading skills but we had the smallest map where an inch = half an hour, a pied. Once you suss your walking pace everything falls into place but we’d got up at 7am and driven to Crianlarich for 10am, got a train at 10.50am got off it at 12.43pm and were already claiming top have done a days work.. By 2pm we had walked uphill for ½ hour and wee discussing little and breathing like bairns waiting for santa, if it carried on much longer we’d be bawing like bairns Santa had forgotten, we were unfit.
At this point the path goes into shade and does a big chicane, double backs on itself and climbs steeply. I remember it well, I had two sticks and was thanking Dave for giving me them. Simon was blowing hard and at a loss as to why he’d sneaked in another couple of fags before we started. We continued climbing and finally reached a summit or som’it that looked like a summit. We were going downhill and into Nevis forest and it was 2pm. The path goes in and out, up and down but generally a bit more mixed so you can put up with it.
After a few stiff climbs – 20 steps on a ladder is stiff enough now we break out into the open air and are walking through a recently fallen forest. They like to manicure the trees here and its glorious in its remoteness this glen. We turn a corner, take a rest for 10 and then its off into a big long glen with a house at the end. By the time we get the its not a house any more, but it looks like it might be until we’re 100 yards away. We rest up again as its now 5pm and its been a good surface, just a shame about the patches of rain. We carry on until we can finally see the signs of life and the long walk downhill to Kinlochleven. At 6pm we pass a collection of tents and a wee stream which makes a modest waterfall. 6.35pm we’re drinking our first pint, 7pm we’ve checked into our hostel. Callum’s a gentleman. Tells us we’re up there on the hill, we panic, then he explains he’s giving us a lift to the bunkhouse.
The bun khouse is the traditional middleway between hotel and camping. £12 gets you a bed, there are showers and cooking facilities and in our case we were sharing with 2 others. We snore pretty loud so there’s no point in observing others characteristics, we smell pretty bad too un til we’ve washed! It served its purpose. Our ablutions concluded we wandered down to town. There was more life left in these legs than I expected. We only have 9 miles tomorrow so today’s 14 should’ve broken the back of the sleepy legs issue.
The pub was busy – no surprise there, it was the only one in town. There was the hotel too but it was a longer step away. This pub did food, people seemed to be scoffing the curry with gusto, so I feel hook line and stinker for the ‘homemade’ tag. Yes, it was a vesta fresh from the freezer. We ate then drank, then went out so the fat one could fuggle a fag. We lasted 8 seconds and 87 bites later we were back indoors much to the merriment of the locals. “you lasted longer than we expected!” came their hoots of highland hysteria. “Hoots man, were we that stupid” I thought. Back up to the bunkhouse and into our top bunks. We were there before our roommates. This is usually a good sign as you get to sleep first, alas not. I lay awake for 5 hours and when our friends finally arrived they tip-toed successfully into their beds, and joy of joys didn’t snore as loud as Si, or even men!
At first light they were away. Up here in June that’s about 5am. They’d be in Fort William by the time we got out of bed. We got breakfast at our pub the Tiprace. Another fresh from the freezer. I’d rather have less than something that bounce round my plate, so I did and Si finished mine. We got off before anymore of the toast landed butter down.
We’d been warned it was another stiff climb and stiff it was. We admired the steel tubes coming from high on the mountain down into the Ice Factor. An old smelting we presumed or some fancy hydro electric scheme. We were too busy thinking I hope we don’t climb that high to worry about what the pipes were. 2 hours later we’d climbed higher than the pipes and were still climbing!
On our ascent we met Callum again he’d been out walking the dogs with his wife and explained to our puffy red faces it was only another 2 hours uphill. This hurt the big man. He’d already left his fags in the dorm and had no intention of smoking but his breathing had long since passed the heavy stage and merely sounded like a woman’s match at wimbledon, a mixture of mis-timed grunts and high pitched shrieks.
Two hours later we were at the top and he rested again. I was feeling so good I’d bought a bag of bananas and 2L of water in the shop and putting down the rucsac to consume some of these things was making my day get better and better. I offered the walkers coming down the way a selection of bananas but they all looked far more organised and their faces were normal in colour, suggesting they didn’t need any assistance from the banana doctor.
The views here again are superb, perhaps the best of the walk. We continued along to the Devil’s staircase and took in some rays for lunch. I managed to finish the bananas and my bag felt great. The devil’s staircase isn’t that bad, but it does have a great name. It’s a bit rough underfoot and I hate downhill paths but I took the shortest route and then it was a bit more like climbing and that doesn’t hurt my knees. Gradients of 1 in 10 are bad 1 in 6 terrible but 1 in 3 is ok. The big man just walks through these downhill segments as if he were an 8 year old.
Once at the bottom you follow the road around to the Kingshouse, deviating a wee bit uphill. The deviation on the path is most bizarre. The route takes you across the front of it to avoid a big bog and you feel you are half a mile away for over 15 minutes until you finally come in from the opposite side the road does. If you were doing it for speed – take the road every time!
The Kingshouse welcomed us at 2pm and we welcomed their approach to – ok you booked the only room left, a double, but we’ll give you a rollaway bed too. Hooray, there’s a bath!
Boots of – I’m in.
A nap is only a nap because someone wakes you up! In my case it was Jackie – 3.30pm. I of course woke the fat guy in the roll away bed and advised him it was time to get shed loads of Rioja into us. I’d thought lager would be fine but as the afternoon moved into evening and our three courses, spread over 4 hours the bottle Rioja needed to be purchased and consumed. We succeeded in both. Much merriment as we watched the others come and go, not least those who had booked the wrong hotel.
Top tip – the Kingshouse hotel has a doppelganger near Calendar – watch as they are smarter at the on line stuff!
