Kathleen and I completed the 95-mile stretch of walking paths known as the West Highland Way which joins Fort William in the North of Scotland to Milngavie near Glasgow. What follows is a really quite lengthy account of our trip. Good luck to all who attempt to plough through it!
Sunday 9th April would be a bit of a practice session for the rest of the Way. We took the train to Fort William, heaved on our packs and took them for their first walk of the trip. The target would be Glen Nevis Caravan & Camping site just down the road and sitting under the shadow of Ben Nevis. The walking was fine as we were both in good spirits and really looking forward to the challenges ahead. Our first navigational hiccup of the trip occurred when I took a wrong turn when coming to a junction and took us about a kilometre out of our way. The bonus being that we got to see the not very famous Wishing Stone of Glen Nevis. Not really knowing the ritual for unlocking the powers of the big rock, Kathleen gave it a hug and made her wish. We set of back down the road and quickly found our campsite. Maybe that was her wish?
It took a good while and some additional guy ropes from the site shop to get our new tent up, but once it was done we had our wee home for the night. With this job complete we moved onto dinner, which was a rubbery Dolmio Express Pasta and Sauce. We had great fun reciting the various catchphrases from the spoof Dolmio Ads while cooking up. We had dinner with a bottle of red wine and a view that not many restaurants can compete with.
We crawled into the tent to escape the cold, lit our wee candle lantern and read up on the day ahead before going to sleep. Inevitably, after half a bottle of wine I had to get up to answer the call of nature at around 4am. I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and tent to see a perfectly clear sky with thousands of stars shining and the snow on the Ben lit up by the moonlight. It was amazing enough to wake Kathleen up for, but thought better of it knowing how much she likes her sleep. I also noticed at this point that it was very, very cold!
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