Lands End to John O'Groats - 2010

 Diary

Day 49

 

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Diary

Sunday, 20 June 2010 - Crianlarich to Bridge of Orchy

 

 

Weather:

Sunny and warm with a cool breeze

Accommodation:

Hotel Bunkhouse B&B (£28)

Aches:

None really.

Kilometres Travelled Today:

22.3km

Total Kilometres Travelled:

1577.2km

Nutrition:

Continental breakfast; cheese & pickle sandwich and sausage roll for lunch; soup, fish and chips and peas, and sticky toffee pudding for dinner

Pictures:

Here

GPS Track (.gpx format):

Here

Website:

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Journal:
Knowing I had an easy day, I seemed to take longer to have breakfast and get going, and didn't leave the hostel until 8:45am.  It was already bright and sunny, though cool enough to make for very pleasant hiking.  For the first 20 minutes, I had to retrace my last steps from yesterday, back through the pine forest, to rejoin the West Highland Way.

For most of its route after leaving Loch Lomond, the West Highland Way follows the 18th-century military road built by General Wade to pacify and control the Highlanders which makes for easy and very pleasant walking.  The grades are not too steep and the surface firm, if a little stony underfoot.  After a kilometre or two in the forest, the rest of the day was mostly in the open along the floor and sides of valleys bordered by high treeless mountains.

I reached Tyndrum, half way for the day, late morning and stopped outside the store there in the sun enjoying a sausage roll and flavoured milk for a while.  There were a lot of walkers out making the most of the weekend's fabulous weather.  For the rest of the day, the pyramid-like Beinn Dorain (1074m) dominated the way ahead, but the scenery all around was classic Scottish Highlands and the easy walking meant that I could maintain a good pace, while still savouring the views.  Around 1pm, I found a shady spot by a bridge and had lunch, before walking the last 5km to the Bridge of Orchy, my destination for the day.  I checked into the hotel's bunkhouse at 3pm and had time for a quick shower and clothes rinse before returning to the hotel and enjoying the last hour of the Italy v NZ game over a large Diet Coke.  It was a good game and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

After the game, I got on the phone and booked some places to stay after Fort William, finding out whether they would provide packed lunches as well as dinner, bed and breakfast.  There will only be one shop in the last 10 days, and only about five hotels, and I want to minimise the amount of food I will need to carry so, knowing whether I can get lunch helps the planning.  So far I have been able to get a room everywhere there's the possibility of accommodation, though a couple were a bit expensive.

Tomorrow morning, my friend, Ian, drives up from near Glasgow and will meet me at the local station where he will leave his car and join me for the last two days on the West Highland Way to Fort William.  From there, he will catch a late-afternoon train (there aren't many on this line) back here to retrieve his car and drive home.  I'm grateful that he's taking the trouble to do this and I'm sure we will have a good few days, especially if the weather holds.

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