WHW - Day 5: Bridge of Orchy to Crianlarich (13 miles)

Another day, another full Scottish breakfast! As we were going from accommodation to accommodation today I wanted to use one of the baggage services to take our rucksacs and give us a break. I called one and asked if they took bags from North to South and he told me that they wouldn’t as "nobody walks it that way: the mountains are the wrong way round; there are no views and the wind is in your face all day". It was then that I told him I was halfway through the walk and heading south no matter what. How we laughed! I managed to do a deal with a local taxi driver who took our bags down to Crianlarich for a reasonable sum.

We set off with the wind at our backs, our packs in the taxi and feeling great. I think we had toughened up after the initial warm-up stages and were now feeling much stronger. We set a decent pace until we found a herd of about a dozen highland coos in our path. We slowly and gingerly eases passed them (mind you, I do everything gingerly) trying to steer clear of the big horned beasties. Shortly after that I bumped into a former colleague who was walking the Way in the "right" direction and we stopped for a good chat. After all that excitement the rest of the day’s walk was pretty uneventful. We got a sense that we were leaving the wilder country behind us and approaching some easier walking (not strictly true!). This probably contributed to the decision to stay for a few more pints than necessary once we reached Tyndrum at the halfway point. The pub was playing tunes full blast and had a pool table and so was the perfect antidote to all that scenery and nature. It was hard to drag ourselves away but I noticed Kathleen’s pool playing was getting erratic by Stella number three so we pushed on to our final destination. The walking was noticeable slower post-pub but we got into Crianlarich soon enough.

After checking into the Youth Hostel, showering and sorting gear we headed to the pub for dinner. We spotted the other couple heading south that we had seen yesterday and invited ourselves to the table beside them. It turned out that the girl was struggling with the walking and they were calling it a day at this point and heading back home so we had a couple of pints together before they got on the bus. Another couple took the table they had vacated and we got chatting to them. They were an Austrian couple who had come to Scotland for a few days to do some climbing. They had just got off the bus and were planning on walking into the hills that night and finding a camping spot. So it probably wasn’t a good idea to keep them out drinking until 1am, but I didn’t really need to twist their arm that much, well not the bloke's – Tomas – at least. We had a great, impromptu night of drinking, playing pool and ripping the pish out of each other. When we staggered out of the pub I insisted that we tried to sneak them into the hostel, but they were dead set on camping. Kathleen dragged me away and pointed me in the direction of the male dorms.