Day: 011
Date: Saturday, 11 June 2022
Start: Fort Augustus
Finish: Laggan
Daily Kilometres: 17
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 325
Weather: Cool, windy, overcast and spitting with rain of varying intensity all morning turning to occasional showers in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Hostel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Breakfast pastry/Sausage roll
Lunch: Egg & watercress sandwich/Chicken & mayonnaise sandwich.
Dinner: Burger & chips
Aches: Dave - feet still very sore. Julie - no problems.
Highlight: Perhaps not getting as wet as expected given the forecast for rain all day.
Lowlight: We picked a lunch spot sheltered from the wind, not realising that it was also a lunch spot for midges, the tiny voracious Scottish biting insects. Our Australian insect repellent wasn’t up to the task and we didn’t linger.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Knowing we only had a short distance to cover to Laggan (17km) today, and knowing that the hostel’s published check-in time was 5:00pm, we slept in and didn’t leave our Fort Augustus hostel until 10:00am. (Just before leaving, Dave called ahead to the next hostel to confirm what meals and groceries were available, given there will be nowhere to purchase supplies today or tomorrow, and the friendly manager said we were welcome to arrive early and that she would leave our room key out for us on the reception desk.)
From our hostel, we walked the short distance into the Fort Augustus village store/service station and bought some supplies for today and tomorrow, including some hot pastries for breakfast which we ate standing under cover outside watching tourists and locals going about their Saturday morning business in the light rain. It was busy.
We then headed down to the Caledonian Canal, which joins Loch Ness at Fort Augustus, and walked upstream past a series of locks on the next leg of the Great Glen Way. After the lochs, we left Fort Augustus and civilisation behind and followed the very quiet canal towpath for a few hours into the teeth of a strong wind and varying intensities of rain. We were glad we were wearing our full rainwear ensemble and managed to stay warm despite the conditions. A couple of pleasure boats passed us, not going much faster than we were walking, and we met some walkers and cyclists going the other way.
The towpath lay between the canal and the fast-flowing River Oich to our right. Around us were farms backed by cloud-shrouded mountains. Very Scottish. Eventually, at Aberchalder and the historic Bridge of Oich, the two water bodies merged to become Loch Oich. The towpath ended and our route joined a very picturesque old rail easement along the southern side of the loch. Many waterfalls cascaded down the mossy rocky escarpment to our left as we hiked along the pretty trail meeting more hikers and cyclists.
Near Invergarry railway station, which was being restored despite no longer having rail access, Loch Oich ended and the Caledonian Canal resumed. We followed it along another very pretty walking trail for just a short distance before diverging onto the nearby road and walking to our hostel for the night. It was only 3:20pm, which was a welcome early finish, and our room key was waiting on the unattended reception desk as promised.
We had plenty of time to shower and do a load of laundry before buying dinner at the hostel and having an early night with a long day planned for tomorrow.
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