Day: 015
Date: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Start: Kinlochleven
Finish: Tyndrum
Daily Kilometres: 46
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 431
Weather: Cool and mild at different times, breezy and mostly cloudy.
Accommodation: Camping pod
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Egg & cress sandwiches
Lunch: Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/Chicken & mayonnaise sandwich.
Dinner: Fish & chips/Burger & chips
Aches: Both have tired feet.
Highlight: Our very early hiking above the treeline was magic. There was no wind, occasional bird sounds and we startled a couple of deer. The clouds were wispy in the valleys and covered some peaks, but other peaks were visible. We felt like we had the whole world to ourselves.
Lowlight: Having started extra early at 4:50am to give us the best chance of reaching Tyndrum, our goal for the day, in time to shop for tomorrow at the store which Google said was open until 6:30pm, we discovered, when we arrived at 5:40pm, that it had closed at 5:00pm. However, we were able to get enough for our needs from the nearby service station.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 4:00am to give us the best chance of reaching Tyndrum, where we had accommodation booked, in time to shop for dinner and for tomorrow. We crept out of the hostel at 4:50am and after passing through the very quiet village joined a forestry road that climbed steadily, and occasionally steeply, up into the mountains.
After an hour, we cleared the pretty woods and crossed the heath towards a col which, at 548m, is the highest point on the West Highland Way (WHW) and probably of our whole journey from John O’Groats to Lands End. We reached there around 7am after two hours of steady climbing without any stops, a testament to our (maybe Dave’s) increasing fitness and improving feet. There were fabulous views from the col in nearly every direction and there were a couple of hikers tents near the trail, their occupants presumably still asleep.
From the col we descended the Devil’s Staircase, which wasn’t nearly as intimidating as its name suggests, into Glencoe, famous for the treacherous massacre of members of the MacDonald clan in 1692. The trail then paralleled the main road for a while before crossing it and following a very old droving road which continued to give spectacular views to the mountains all around and the valleys below. There was no rain and intermittent sunshine making for excellent walking conditions. Once again we were passed by many walkers travelling in the opposite direction. Mostly we would just exchange greetings, but every so often had longer conversations with our fellow hikers.
After the locality of Forest Lodge we climbed over one more hill and descended to the pretty hamlet of Bridge of Orchy before following the Old Military Road again for another few hours through sheep and cattle farms to Tyndrum. For the last three or four kilometres we were close to the road which was the scene of a massive traffic jam. Cars, buses, trucks and motorhomes were parked and not moving and looked like they had been there for hours. Groups of people had formed and camp chairs were out. When we finally reached Tyndrum, we could see a helicopter and lots of emergency vehicles up on the hillside in the distance and understand there had been a serious vehicle accident.
We were too late for the Tyndrum store but found most of what we need for tomorrow at the adjacent service station and bought some take-out for dinner on our way to the hostel where we had been “upgraded” to a “Posh Pod”, something like a tiny caravan.
Another long day in prospect for tomorrow, so another early start.
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