Kinlochleven to Fort William
I had a lovely evening at the campsite last night. As I was pitching my tent, I bumped into Christina. Christina and I met at a navigation day ran by the Peak District section of the Mountain Training Association. Since we’ve bumped into each other in the Lake District and last night we were on the same campsite for our final night on the West Highland Way. It was lovely to see her again.
Whilst washing up I met a fellow LEJOGer. It turned out that he was the LEJOGer who went through the bothy ahead of me a couple of days ago. We compared routes, people that we’d met and our journeys so far.
I set off from the campsite, nice and early. I wanted to beat the trail traffic into Fort William (I also didn’t sleep very much last night, because I was too excited to see my sister!). The clouds were grey and tempting rain, but it wasn’t raining just yet!
The West Highland Way left Kinlochleven and climbed up through some woodland. The woodland was lovely and there was a lovely mix of birdsong.
The trail soon opened out into a moorland track. I turned around and could see the view back down into Kinlochleven. I’d been enjoying the woodland and not realised that I’d climbed that far already!
The trail wound its way through the hillside, and I passed the site of the Battle of Inverlochy. It’s really interesting to read about Scottish history.
The rain had been a bit on and off, but I managed to choose a dry moment to have some lunch. Ben Nevis was starting to come into view, it’s top covered by cloud.
There was a nice camaraderie walking along the trail today. Everyone knew that they were on their last day on the trail, and we all chatted and congratulated each other along the way. One chap encouraged me on and challenged me to beat him to Fort William! I stopped a couple moments later to take my waterproofs off and he passed me again, but I passed him again a little later!
For the second half of the day, the West Highland Way took me through Nevis Forest. The timber woodland had a mixture of trees at different stages of their cycle. Some gaff recently been felled, some were ready to be felled and others were somewhere in between. This was nice though, as I occasionally got a view down the valley and towards Fort William – not far now! Ben Nevis was still in the cloud though!
After dropping down through the woodland I joined the path to the Glen Nevis visitor centre.
I’d hoped to get a West Highland Way badge, but they mostly sold Ben Nevis ones. I got a callipo instead.
After my pause at the visitor centre, I continued along the road to Fort William. I once again passed the same chap as earlier. After some mutual words of encouragement, I continued along.
As I came into Fort William, I passed the original end of the West Highland Way, before it was moved to the high street.
I’ve been to Fort William before, so it was nice and familiar, walking down the high street.
After a short walk, I was soon at the official end. It felt great to have made it. Fort William was a massive check point on my walk. It was a reason to keep on schedule, for a very exciting reason.
My sister was only a couple of hours away on the train. I was so excited to see her. I’ve got a couple days off walking, so we can celebrate our birthday together.
I started by finding our flat for the weekend. I checked in and had a very long shower, before sorting out some of my kit before my sister arrived.
Finally, her train was almost here and I went to the station to meet her. She got off the train to be greeted by the biggest hug! Then we went back to the flat, before going for tea in the evening. It was so lovely to be with her.
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