Day: 012
Date: Sunday, 12 June 2022
Start: Laggan
Finish: Fort William
Daily Kilometres: 35
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 360
Weather: Cool, breezy, mostly overcast, with occasional rain and occasional sunshine.
Accommodation: AirBnB
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli bar
Lunch: Cheese & mayonnaise roll
Dinner: Kebabs & chips, icecream
Aches: Dave - feet still sore but maybe improving a little. Julie - feet tired near end.
Highlight: Finishing The Great Glen Way walking trail which runs between Fort William and Inverness and which matched the very positive reports we had heard. The scenery was magnificent and varied and the trail well-maintained and well-marked. Thoroughly recommended.
Lowlight: Two for today.
Firstly, I was woken at about 5:00am by someone in the bathroom our wing of the hostel shared with a terrible and almost continuous hacking cough. It went on for about twenty minutes and they sounded really sick. Julie and I were sleeping in different beds in our room (for logistical reasons) and I could not see her bed from mine. I was pretty sure she was the person coughing in the bathroom and that she must have COVID. I lay there, unable to go back to sleep, with all sorts of trip contingency planning going through my mind. Finally, I heard the person leave the bathroom, and when they didn’t come to our room, deduced it wasn’t Julie after all. We both wore masks when later using the bathroom.
Secondly, we had 35km to walk today and made a good start by walking three hours non-stop after leaving the hostel, partly because it was raining and there was nowhere protected to have a break. We finally settled down on a grassy spot next to the trail and were almost immediately enveloped by hordes of biting midges. It was hard to take a bite of food without ingesting multiple midges and anybody who knows Julie, knows she doesn’t tolerate swarming insects well. After just a minute or two she had had enough. Julie: “Let’s go!” Dave: “But we’ve only just stopped!” Julie (the highly trained ultra runner): “We can eat and drink while we walk!” Dave: “But what about my feet!” We left.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
The hostel was stirring as we left at 7:00am with a number of the rowers already up and getting their breakfast. Most of the hostel beds were taken by the male and female rowing crews from a university in Edinburgh finishing a week of pre-regatta season training on nearby Loch Lochy. There were some strapping athletes, but we suspect that at least one was seriously ill (see above) and hoped they weren’t contagious.
After a short roadwalk we crossed the Caledonian Canal at Laggan Locks and began a long walk down a forestry road that bordered the northern side of Loch Lochy. It was raining much of the time, but the trail was relatively easy walking, the scenery spectacular, and we made good time. There were a few kilometres of active logging along the road and we were lucky it was a Sunday morning, or we would probably have been delayed, as the signage warned. But nothing was happening and we had the road to ourselves. It was sad to see the large clear-felled precipitous mountainside, but there was also evidence of new plantation forest in other previously cleared areas and we do use paper and wood products.
We made such good time, we reached Gairlochy Locks (21km) at noon after a final section of pretty lakeside single-track trail. There were now plenty of walkers and cyclists on the trail going in the opposite direction, not to mention some kayakers, paddle boarders and a rower on the Loch. We found a picnic table at the locks, in the wind which prevented midge swarms, and had a nice break watching the world go by.
On cue, it began raining again as we left for the long walk into a strong breeze along the towpath towards Fort William. We saw more walkers, cyclists and kayakers, but only a couple of boats using the canal. To our left was the hulking mass of Ben Nevis, summit in the clouds and a few bits of snow visible on the middle slopes. We reached the long series of Banavie locks, busy with Sunday afternoon sightseers, at 3pm and, after a break, left the Canal and walked 5km along roads to our accommodation near the centre of Fort William. Although check-in was from 5:00pm, the host let us check-in when we arrived at 4:15pm. It had been a good day’s walk/work!
Julie, the carer, again made the trip into town to buy some dinner, while Dave rehabbed his feet on the bed. But, the feet are finally improving, slowly, and it will soon be his turn to go and get dinner and supplies.
Day off tomorrow, and then we follow the renowned West Highland Way southwards.
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