WHW - Day 6: Crianlarich to Inversnaid (13 miles)

I woke up to an absolutely shocking hangover. My throat was killing me – a sure sign that I had been snoring loudly all night and most likely pissing off the other guys in the dorm no end. I staggered to the shower to rinse the beer sweat off, packed up my clothes that were strewn all over and around my bed then went to see what state Kathleen was in. Not a good one. She looked like I felt and was suffering badly too. Not to worry, only thirteen miles to cover today! We dragged our sorry arses to the railway platform, where the wee shop opens for breakfast and slowly and quietly ate several rolls and downed a couple of mugs of coffee. We felt a wee bit better, but still in poor order. While in the pub in Inveroran, someone told us about the Inversnaid Bunkhouse where you can soak outside in the hot tub while the bar staff bring you cold beers on request. Kathleen gave me the puppy dog eyes and we agreed to try and book in as it sounded infinitely more appealing than the wild-camp we had planned. Kathleen hurried to the phone box but came back with a look on her face that said "No Vacancies". Resigned to our fate, we plodded on and rejoined the Way.

After a slow start our hangovers faded a bit and we felt in better spirits and the walking was very easy on this stage. We were still a bit shaky though, evidence of this was Kathleen falling in a stream and having to be hauled out by a teenager who was following behind! I missed the incident as I was under a bridge just up ahead, but still laughed until it hurt (two seconds – then Kathleen hit me) when she told me.

The weather was glorious all morning, but just as we pulled into our lunch stop the heavens opened. We waited in the bar at Beinglas Campsite for the rain to go off and left a bit behind schedule. Shortly after setting off we got our first view of Loch Lomond. Our route would take us along the east bank of the loch, through a difficult path crossed with fallen trees. This proved to be really hard going and slowed our progress considerably. After hours of slogging over rocks, trees and mud it was getting late and we were very tired. The feral goats looked on as we struggled on, desperate to get to the camp before dark.

We got to the place where we would be camping just before sunset and I got busy setting the tent up while Kathleen prepared dinner. Once everything was squared away we enjoyed a fantastic view with disgusting pasta that we were too tired to eat. Soon enough it was dark and we retreated to the tent.