Journal:
We woke at 7am, packed, and walked across to the
same pub where we had dinner last night to get a
cooked breakfast. After that, we hit the trail
at 8:45am and almost immediately encountered a stiff
climb out of Kinlochewe. It was a real heart
starter after a big breakfast, but maintained a
steady pace and soon levelled off above the treeline
and high above the valley to the left. We were
back on the old military road, which we could see
following the hill contours far into the distance in
front of us. The grades were now easier, but
the road was very stony and hard on the feet.
In other places, there were loose rocks and stones
which made walking awkward. However, the day
was again perfect for walking and we had sweeping
views up and down the valley.
We picked up a few walkers
we recognised from yesterday and also slowly passed
a spread out group of about a dozen French hikers of
similar age, greeting each as we went by. The
path then climbed slowly up a branching valley and
over the crest of a col to descend slowly into
another valley. We knew we had a relatively
short day, so we planned to take a break half-way
and then walk into Fort William for a late lunch.
After three hours and
about 12km we stopped by the trail for our break and
enjoyed the view over a remote valley with a couple
of farmhouses and a lovely small loch. We were
on our way again after 15 minutes and climbing up
over another col that then led us down into Glen
Nevis. The path passed through some pretty
pine forest and we had views of the huge Ben Nevis,
highest mountain in the UK, directly in front of us.
We could see the path climbing up the side to the
summit. Both Ian and I had climbed on several
occasions in the past, and it's a great hike.
We finally reached Glen
Nevis and followed a track along the southern side
of the valley that gave us a clear view of the
campground down there where I had camped with my
family some 45 years ago, and I can still clearly
remember climbing the mountain I was now walking
along the side of. The day had become quite
warm and, although we were able to maintain a good
pace, the hard stony surface added to our fatigue
and we were both happy to reach Fort William around
2:15pm. We split up and Ian went down to the
railway station to check on his train time and I
found my B&B and dumped my pack there before joining
Ian at the station cafe for a late lunch.
After that, it was a long list of admin chores for
me in this last significant town on my walk. I
had to collect maps from the Post Office, mail back
the used ones, top up my prepaid mobile wireless
internet, buy various pharmaceuticals, buy my train
ticket from Thurso (near John O'Groats) back to
London for the day after I'm scheduled to finish,
and a few other things.
I finished in time to have
a last drink with Ian before he caught a 5:30pm
train back to where he had left his car and then the
2-hour drive back to his home south of Glasgow.
We had a good time and he certainly kept me moving
at a good pace. I returned to the guesthouse
for a shower and clothes wash, booked some more
accommodation and then returned to town for dinner.
I ran out of time to buy the three days of food I
need to carry and will have to do that on my way out
of town tomorrow. I have now worked out
exactly where I will be staying and where each meal
will be coming from for the next 12 days.
There are some inns I can stop at where I can get
meals, but only small stores where I can buy food to
carry on days 4 and 11. I will also be doing
quite a lot of hiking cross-country including,
apparently fording a lot of streams, so I have
bought a water-tight pack liner to keep my stuff
dry, including this laptop, in case I slip and fall
in. Mobile phone and internet coverage may not
be available at all during this time, so these may
be the last updates until I finish on July 4th.
