Dan H: the world traveling saxophone holder: LEARNING TO LOVE SCOTLAND - West Highland Way

West Highland Way - Days 5-6

West Highland Way - Day 5 - Tyndrum to Kingshouse Hotel - 19 miles/30.5 km

Once again the weather was quite perfect and the scene was set for yet another great walk. I left the small village of Tyndrum in high spirits and before long I in one of the remote areas of the entire WHW, the bleak but beautiful Rannoch Moor. This part of the walk was not only remote but also nearly deserted, with very few other walkers sharing the route with me. I later discovered that this was due to my little break in Glenoe. When I set off on the WHW it was the weekend and that is apparently when most walkers start. For the first four days of the walk it was hard to escape the crowds but after my time in Glencoe I had given the crowds an opportunity to move ahead. Now I had some peace and quiet and solitude, something I hadn't bargained for! Take note of this if you're considering walking the Way and you want to escape the crowds, set off mid-week not at the weekend.

The path continued through remote scenery all the way to the Kingshouse Hotel, a very scenic little building in the middle of nowhere, situated right next to the main road through Glencoe and overlooking some incredible scenery, including the mighty Stob Dearg which I had climbed just recently. I found the ideal location for the tent, a small field just behind the hotel and next to a small river, a perfectly scenic place to wake up in the morning with a postcard worthy view of the mountains. Once again I couldn't resist the temptation to sojourn into the bar and polish off a few pints of quality local brews. After a great sunset I retired to my cosy (ie. tiny and utterly cramped) little tent for the night.

the very scenic Kingshouse hotel

sunset over Glencoe

West Highland Way - Day 6 - Kingshouse Hotel to Glen Nevis - 22 miles/35.5 km

Today I set out from the beautiful Kingshouse Hotel towards the town of Kinlochleven to complete was was originally supposed to be the penultimate day of the walk. It was another beautiful day in the perpetual heat of this freakishly good week and I was making good time. By the time I rolled into Kinlochleven I was feeling frisky, energetic and still raring to go. I sojourned to a nearby pub and weighed up the pros and cons of heading on all the way to Glen Nevis on the same day, something most would usually wait until tomorrow to do. The only real con was the possibility that I might just take on more than I bargained for, but I still felt I had it in me. The benefits were obvious. If I settled down in Kinlochleven I would get bored, after all I had the entire day here and there wouldn't have been all that much to do. Not only that but if I got to Glen Nevis early then I could climb Ben Nevis tomorrow! Perfect. I had already booked the bus to Skye the day after so I otherwise wouldn't have been able to do this!

So off I went, continuing on from Kinlochleven to complete the West Highland Way a day ahead of schedule. By the end I had walked over 22 miles and with a fifty pound pack on my back I might also add so it was fair to say I was quite exhausted. I encountered a couple of German lassies who had hiked from Kinlochleven but had stopped a few miles away from the end mainly due to exhaustion. They asked me if I knew how much farther it was to the end of the Way because they were just about ready to give up and pitch the tent. They seemed enormously impressed that I'd walked all the way from Kingshouse, though I made sure to hide how bloody knackered I was feeling, plus of course casually mentioning that I was going to climb Ben Nevis the next day!

One of the highlights of the walk near the end of the day was the emergence of Ben Nevis in the distance. For quite a while it couldn't be seen and as I approached the end of the walk I began wondering where the hell it was. I mistakenly started to wonder if it really wasn't as big and impressive as I'd heard, after all if it's the largest mountain in Britain surely it would be visible by now. It turned out that one of the smaller peaks had been positioned in just the right place so as to obscure the mountain until I was relatively close to it. Suddenly it began to appear on the horizon, it was huge! I couldn't wait to climb it, I could even see the path leading up the mountain that I would be taking tomorrow. But first I had to sleep! It was a hell of a long day and I couldn't wait to get some sleep, in a real bed no less!

Eventually I reached the hostel I had booked earlier in Glen Nevis and I dropped my pack and settled right in for a good nights sleep. Technically I didn't finish the West Highland Way that night, in finished about 2 miles up the road in Fort William but I figured I would do that tomorrow. After all it was originally supposed to take seven days, now it would be seven days, but with a Ben Nevis climb as well!