Author: DanielleWatson

Fort William to Glen Gour

After a lovely weekend, it was time to set off, back on my adventure. When planning my trip, I planned a half day for today, so that I didn’t have to rush and we could enjoy the morning together.

I started by getting the 10.30 passenger ferry across Loch Linnhe. It was a lovely little ferry, and a bargain at £2 or £3.50 if you had a bike! I was joined on the ferry by a group of cyclists from America, who were on a cycling tour. They asked me where I was going, and I told them about my journey. They were very impressed, it was nice to hear their words of encouragement. One of the women asked me how old I am, I replied 28, before remembering that I’m now 29 and correcting myself. This was followed by birthday wishes from the group.

I set off walking from the ferry, along the edge of the Loch. The road was lovely and quiet. Technically an A road, it was single track, with passing places! The cyclists soon passed me, with a chorus of “enjoy the trail” and “happy birthday”. It was lovely to get their encouragement, as I walked along.

I stopped along the edge of the Loch to have some lunch. As I sat there, the midges started to come out, which meant that the midge net came out. Thankfully, I’m quite skilled at eating in my midge net!

As I walked along the road, the views across the Loch were beautiful. The road made it easy walking, and I made good pace walking along.

I had originally planned to get the ferry back across the water and stay in Corran hostel overnight. However, I was making really good time, and decided to continue further. Instead, I took the path through Ardgour wood. The woodland was really peaceful and had a very well placed bench.

At Sallachan, the road to Strontian was very busy, so I decided to take the public path. The path goes up Glen Gour, starting on a track, then goes boggy, before joining a track through woodland. I decided it would also give me an opportunity to find a good wild camping spot.

The track was lovely. I was first accompanied by some cattle, but I soon left them and it was just me and the hills.

The track continued until a river crossing, then petered out. I’d decided to continue until the river crossing before camping. My logic was, that if my feet got wet, they could dry overnight!

I crossed the river with ease and found a camp spot on top of a little hilloch. Just enough wind to keep the midges off and the ground was a little drier too. It was so wonderful to be out in the hills, surrounded by such beauty. It really reminded me, why I love Scotland so much!

A Birthday Weekend in Fort William

Growing up with your best friend is the best thing about being a twin. I am so privileged to have someone who will always be by my side, totally understand me and always be there for me. Sharing a birthday is the icing on the cake. We often explain it to people, that it is like having an anniversary. It’s a day to celebrate our connection and love for each other – another year has gone by, that we have spent on the planet together.

When planning this trip, it was a condition that I was somewhere accessible, for our birthday weekend. We’ve never spent a birthday apart, and neither of us wanted this to be the first! As I was planning, it just so happened that I would be in Fort William.

I’m so grateful that my sister travelled up to meet me. True love really is getting the 6am train! (I’m the morning person between the two of us!)

We’d had quite a few discussions about what to do for our birthday. I’d suggested that we could climb Ben Nevis. We could sing happy birthday on the highest mountain in Great Britain. That was very quickly vetoed! It’s important that we both enjoy our birthday and it is a special day for both of us.

We started by opening our presents, with our parents and brother on video call.

The walking pole saga had developed and the shop in Peebles had a second customer with a faulty pair. It turns out that it was a manufacturing fault that caused the issue. (It’s good to know that it’s not me!) They very kindly agreed to refund me, without me posting the poles back! So that meant we popped into town to buy a new set of poles. I brought a nice Leki pair from Nevis Sport, so hopefully they’ll last me for years to come! We then popped into Mountain Warehouse so that I could buy another can of camping gas. You have to be over 18 to buy gas. We both burst out laughing when the guy at the till asked us for ID, on our 29th birthday! I did sympathise with him, it took me back to the days when I had to ID customers in the Co Op.

For the afternoon we had booked a cruise on Loch Linnhe. The cruise takes you around the Loch, shows some local attractions and hopefully some seals!

We had a lovely time on the cruise. There were beautiful views across the Loch. We sat on the top deck, which was a little windy at times!Unfortunately, Ben Nevis was shrouded in cloud. Just as we’d hoped, we got to see seals! It was amazing to see them flopped on their backs, resting after their latest search for food.

The skipper was really knowledgeable about the local area and took us around the shoreline, regularly stopping to show us parts of the local heritage. It was really interesting and I’d never realised that Fort William had such an industrial past.

The cruise also doubled as a little recce, I was able to see some of the road along the Loch, that I’ll take towards Ardnamurchan on Monday.

After our cruise, we went back to the flat and watched some Homes Under the Hammer. The flat had a Samsung TV, which didn’t seem to have normal channels, but instead had individual channels which showed different TV shows on repeat. There was a Come Dine with Me channel, Homes Under the Hammer channel and even a Total Wipeout channel! We had a bit of a rest, watching some Homes Under the Hammer, before heading out for a meal.

Along the high street, there was a little Italian pizzeria. We went there for pizza, which was delicious.

We then headed back to our flat for birthday cake. Our Dad had baked a lemon drizzle cake and lovingly packaged it, so that it could travel to Fort William! We sang Happy Birthday to each other, then spent our evening relaxing together.

Sunday was a much more relaxing day. We pottered about in the morning, then went for a wander down the high street in the afternoon. I’d wanted to take Georgina into the Highland museum, but we’d not realised that it was closed on Sundays! There were loads of lovely little shops. I bought some badges for completing the West Highland Way, and signed the completers’ book. In one of the art shops, there was this little lichen book. Each lichen has cute illustrations and a description which gives them a personality – I couldn’t resist buying it!

The rest of the day was spent watching more Homes Under the Hammer and relaxing – enjoying just being together.

It’s been so nice to take a couple of days, away from the trail and spend  time together. I feel refreshed and ready to head into the wilds of Scotland!

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.