Day 4 - Invernarnan to Kingshouse - (21'ish miles)

Thursday, November 01, 2012
Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom
I am up nice and early today the alarm was set for 06:00 and I am aiming to be gone by 07:00, especially as I don't want to get stuck out in the dark again as it's another long day of 19 or so miles. I have definitely learnt from the other day (night).

All of us who are doing the WHW have had the same thought today and have all got up early, I feel a bit sorry for the other people in the hostel as the lights are on and everyone is banging doors and generally making a noise . It feels nice to be the one awake and not the one laying in bed wishing they would shut up. Welcome to the world of hostels!

I set off from the hostel with Clive and Rosie, stopping just outside to take a photo of them in front of the hostel, it still looks dark in the photo! I guess it is as it's only 07:00.

I leave Clive and Rosie behind going up the first hill and set off on my own pace. After about 30 minutes Richard catches me up and we Spend the first 5 miles walking together which is nice but as I prefer to walk alone and at my own pace so I decide to stop for a snack and let Richard go off on his own.

Just as i finish my flapjack and get up to start walking I get caught up by Clive and Rosie and I walk with them for a little while. We walk for about a mile to Bridge of Orchy where they have made plans to have a coffee with Richard at the hotel there. I make my excuses and head off again on my own .

After Bridge of Orchy the path carries on up into the woods and around the side of Marn Carraigh and although only at a height of just over a 1000 ft it's still a bit of a slog up. once at the top and through the trees three are amazing views everywhere.

Coming down the other side towards Inveroran, and the views get even better. There is a large loch down on this side and as I approach I can see how calm and mirror like the loch is. I tack a couple of photos from the side of the mountain, check the map and decide that I have to walk off the WHW path back to the loch to get some more photos.

The walk back to Loch Tulla is about a 1 mile off track but I am so glad that I made the extra effort to head back there. As I approached I could see two people with cameras walking around the loch, so I decided to head their was as they must have already had a look around for the best spots . The two guys were photographers that had come down from Edinburgh for the day just to take some photos of the Loch, as they had heard what the weather was going to be like. It's a day like this that I wish I had brought my digital SLR, lets hope I can make something good of the pictures I have.

I am really loving this panoramic feature of the new iPhone, I am just hoping that they look as good on a big screen as they do on the iPhone itself. I take a selection. F photos with my camera and the phone and then take a video of the loch so that you can see and hear how peaceful it was down here today.

This little stop has made the pain of the last three days all worth it. This is why you come to Scotland and this is one of those days you only see in photos rather than in person. 60 miles walking was definitely worth it. This is AMAZING!

Unfortunately I can't stay here forever as I have still got a long way to go, just at about the half way mark for today . So I walk away from the loch and just as I rejoin the track I catch up with the 2 Belgian girls and Clive and Rosie. They have decided to have some lunch here and I carry on leaving them behind.

Having all these amazing panoramas everywhere doesn't half slow you down whilst walking, I keep finding myself stoping every 5 minutes or so to take a photo. Must stop taking photos and get moving. The 2 photographers said that I should take the path beside the forest lodge Dow to the loch at the end of the track as it's beautiful down there too, but I'll have to save that one for next time.

Just past the forest lodge there is a gate warning that there is no campsite for 10 miles along the Drover's road and also a message saying "please keep to the track", another flash back of "An American werewolf in London" pops into my head.

The path climbs gently for about 2 miles and once I can see that I have climbed the worst of it and as I leave the trees behind and head out on to the moorland, I stop and have some lunch . Today I didn't gets packed lunch so I am eating the cheese, chorizo, oatcakes and the leftovers that I have been carrying around for so long. It makes quite a welcome change from a sandwich. As I am eating the two Belgian girls pass and I quickly finish up and get going again.

I soon pass the girls and I am off walking alone again, slowly increasing the distance between us. I am now on Rannoch Moor and this feels like it is the most remote we have been so far. I can imagine that this could be a really horrible stretch of the WHW if the weather is really bad but luckily for me the weather is perfect today.

This moorland seems to go on and on and on, and the old saying popped in to my head and now i cant get rid of it!!! "On and on and........... Ariston"

At the end of the moorland, there is another climb of about 2 miles and then a 3 mile decent down to Kingshouse. Just passing the Glencoe mountain resort, I stop and talk to Mike (Clive's brother-in-law) who has just arrived to join up with Clive and Rosie for the last 2 days of the walk . He is heading up the path with his dog Bentley to meet up with them, I said I hadn't seen them since they stopped for lunch so other could be quite some way behind me and it looked like some rain was moving in. I wished him good luck.

I know it's not a race, but it's great to get to the hotel first, unfortunately my GPS stopped
tracking at 17.5 miles but with the additional mile or two I did going to the loch and back for some photos, I am guessing that I did about 20 or 21 miles today.

I got to the Kingshouse Hotel and checked in at about 15:00, tonight was going to be expensive as I could only book a double room at £65. I went up to my room and headed straight for the bathroom where i found a roll top bath. Perfect, just what a tired walker needs. After about 5 minutes I gave up, it was far too slow to fill up, so I decided to go and have a shower instead.

All clean and fresh again, I grabbed my iPad to try and update some of my blog and headed for the bar to grab a drink and then went to sit in the lounge which has these massive windows looking out into Glencoe . Wow! I was somewhat distracted by the view to write my blog and then Mike came to join me, so I had very little time to do any of it as we sat there chatting, more like Mike chatted to me (he has a lot to say), and we did the Guardian crossword.

As I went back to the bar for my second cider, I met up with Richard who had been in the other bar (walkers bar) waiting for me to check in, but somehow we had missed each other. We grabbed the bar man and we asked if I could change my double room to a twin room. He agreed and said that it was possible to swap to a triple for £70 as they had no twin rooms left. I grabbed my gear out of room 5 and moved in to room 15. At least sharing means that I can split the cost and not have to pay £65 just for my accommodation tonight. More money for food and drink now!

Once moved rooms, I went around to the walkers bar and Richard introduced me to the 2 Belgian guys who had been doing the WHW but camping along the way. Now that is quite hardcore for this time of year.

We ended up having quite a few ciders tonight and the 2 Belgian girls who had been doing the WHW who had kept themselves to themselves all week so far, actually joined us and had a chat. It was quite a big group of us and was good to get to know everyone. One by one people decided to go to bed and at the end of the night it was Richard, Krystal (Belgian girl) and myself left up drinking. Late night for us tonight, as we went to bed at around 22:00!!! LOL

Good job we don't have an early start tomorrow, just a short 9 miles to Kinlochleven.

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