The wedding has been and gone, Callum and Selena's teeny tiny honeymoon has been and gone. Damn it, I am going to have to walk the last 50ish miles to Fort William in three days of straight walking. I'd need to carry a pack with all my stuff. I had to get to our destinations before food stopped being served if I wanted to eat something more substantial than sandwiches and bananas. Yeah, I was nervous and downright scared.
You know how somedays you just love your family, that you could spend all day with them and it would be a never ending day of fun and laughter? Yeah? Well this was the opposite of one of those days. I don't know if it was nerves, the walk, the pain (I suffer from excruciating pain in both my ankles due to old injuries for the first 2-3 miles, it was particularly bad that day), my bad mood, a clash between family (hey, we are normal!)...who knows. This won't go down in my mind as one of the best days ever but it wasn't awful either.
In terms of walking it was reasonably straight forward. The climb back onto the Way from Crianlarich (yes, extra miles) was described by the guidebook as "pleasantly serendipitous". Having now walked this section of the way I can only suggest that the definition of that is "steep, springy underfoot, twisty, potentially midge infested"... if you ever walk it, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the matter.
Other than that initial climb the way was reasonably easy going with odd little distractions to keep you distracted from the number of miles to go, and people pretending to be raptors. No I don't know why they were doing it either.
Including the welcome sight of the Green Welly. The last real place to pick up supplies before Kinlochleven (which would be half way through the last day). By this time though, the welcome sight of the Green Welly wasn't enough to consider taking on extra weight- our packs were heavy to us, used to only carrying day sacks- so we had a coke and a calippo and before we were ready to head out, it was inevitable that since the Green Welly is the stop for bikers in the area that my brother would meet someone he knew...sadly he could not be convinced to take our packs to Bridge of Orchy for us so it was onwards and upwards.
Straight out of Tyndrum it's a long slow climb up into the valley. The way follows the line of the railway more or less all the way to Bridge of Orchy. It's the first time you really see the drama and sheer size of the Highlands, the stern and barren look of those giant hills. It's quite a scary thought knowing that that is what we were up against all the way to Fort William. There is no "easy" terrain in the Highlands...
This was a fairly simple walk onto Bridge of Orchy, once we were up at the height of the valley it was more undulations than hills all the way. There were one or two tunnels under the railway line- known locally as "sheep creeps" which allow people and anaimals to cross to the land either side of the single railway line. My brothers were super keen to turn mum upside down and put her feet on the ceiling on the tunnel. Sadly, despite the number of opportunites in the 96 miles she never once allowed them. I would suggest that this just means it'll happen when she least expects it.
It was a long, sore, hot, slightly bad tempered day and we were all glad to get to Bridge of Orchy. To a hot dinner, to a supply of hot coffee or beer, a hot shower, an opportunity to put on flipflops not boots and a bed of sorts. Before bed things were better between us and we had a plan for the next day, we had reassured mum that there were no ridgewalks or truly terrifying things in front of her tomorrow, I was distinctly less grumpy and Kris and Callum were their usual buoyant selves.
Night All, Glencoe tomorrow.
