 |
| Looking back towards Kinlochleven |
The drying room
had just about done enough to get the wet out of the boots, over-trousers and
jacket. After another good breakfast (I can’t
recall a poor one all week) I was out and ready to go by 8.20. As I walked towards the centre of Kinlochleven
I spotted Runner John and Angela. He
mentioned that he’d seen the mystery tent-girl popping her head out of the tent
as he went back to his pod. He didn’t
speak to her though, which was just as well really. It could have been a bit awkward. We walked towards the start of the trail for
the day, bid John farewell (he assured us he would pass us at some point during
the day) and then set off. 2 minutes
later, once again, the rain started falling and I was pulling out the
over-trousers. We were joined by MC and Taylor as I struggled to
sort my pants out. Eventually I was
ready and we set off.
 |
| Ballachulish |
The climb out
of Kinlochleven seems to drag on forever but it does reward the walker with
great views back over the loch and the town as you make the ascent towards
Lairigmor. The rain was intermittent and
would often stop to allow the sun to shine through on the mountains. This gave some great views down the valley
towards Ballachulish.
About an hour
in and the first couple of miles under our belts the path led us to the old
military road which we would follow for another 6 or 7 miles. MC and Taylor told us to go ahead as their
pace was slower than ours so we pushed on, trusting they would not be too far
behind us when we finally got to Fort William.
 |
| It was sunny but not for long ..... |
I don’t know
why but Day 6 seemed to have loads more walkers than any of the other days. I recognised very few of them. And of all the walkers we passed the only one we
knew was Mike, an older guy from the Isle of Man who’d set off early and was
taking his time on the final leg. We
debated whether there were some glory hunters on this leg who were out to cross
the finish line at Fort William without having done the rest of the walk.
 |
| Views at Lairigmor |
The sun put in
an appearance as we got to Lairigmor, giving some great views of the valley but
soon the weather turned very grim. The
clouds came over and it started to rain heavily. Rain that wouldn’t stop until well after we’d
actually crossed the finish line. As we
continued down the military track we were caught by John. He stopped to chat for a few minutes,
advising MC and Taylor were making good progress behind us before checking the
correct route with us and heading off on his last few miles to the finish line.
 |
| A brave guardian of the glen |
 |
| Ben Nevis in the cloud |
With 5 miles to go there are 2 routes
into Fort William. One option is to
continue to follow the track in a straight line on a slow but steady descent
right into the town centre. However,
the ‘correct’ option is to take the right hand path that ascends up the side of
the glen and which provides a much more interesting and scenic route. Despite the rain, as we headed our way
through the Nevis Forest we got our first proper glimpse of Ben Nevis. It stood huge and steep-sided and the top was,
as is often the case, shrouded in cloud.
Only 1 in 10 days give a clear view at the top and even throughout the
summer the average temperate isn’t much above freezing. The annual rainfall is 171 inches per year
(this compares to 24 inches in London) so the chances of a dry and sunny day
are very rare.
The path eventually joined
a vehicle access track at the top of Nevis Forest and started to zig-zag down
towards the main road that runs from the car park at the top of Glen Nevis down
to Fort William. In order to try and cut
out one of the hairpins we decided to go off-road, but we soon found that the
ground was steep and extremely slippery underfoot – it was fun to do for a
short while, but we did decide to stick to the track after that.
 |
| The original finishing point |
 |
| The feet weren't that sore, tbh..... |
We were now only
about 3 miles from the finish and it was just about all downhill. The pace quickened as we knew we were within
touching distance and then about a mile later we hit the main road. 20 minutes later we passed the original
finish to the WHW at Ben Nevis Bridge roundabout and then we just had the last
mile through the town centre, up the pedestrianised precinct and there at the
end was the new, official finish line. The
finish line was moved in 2010 to the far end of the town centre in order remove
a degree of anti-climax and provide a better backdrop for selfies at the finish
line than a glorified road-sign by a roundabout. Cynics would argue it was to encourage spending
by walkers in town centre businesses. To
be honest the new finish is much better, with a plaque, a bench and a statue of
a weary walker. Angela and I took a few
obligatory pictures and then moved out of the rain and into the Great Glen
pub. We found a table, ordered a drink
and sat down. It felt odd knowing that
there was no more WHW left to do – the Way had been mastered.
It wasn’t too
long before Taylor and MC came in, Taylor’s knee having survived the 16 miles
from Kinlochleven. Then John joined us,
fresh from a shower at the railway station (only £3.50) and a little later
Kieran came. The decision was made that,
if any of Kieran’s friends came in, they would be snubbed for disloyalty and
hounded out of the pub.
The chat was
flowing well and then suddenly at the table was a face I didn’t recognise. John introduced us to Heli, who turned out to
be the girl with the tent from the previous night. He must have plucked up enough decency to ask
her what her name was, as she struggled to pack up the tent in the heavy rain that
morning, whilst he sat in his hobbit pod, admiring his fridge, microwave and
heater and smoking the cigarette that would open his lungs ahead of the run. Who
said chivalry was dead?
We decided to
eat at the pub and so ordered food. We
were then joined by Will, Ross and Ned, the 3 American lads, and spent most of the rest of the
evening chatting through how we’d all found the week, many funny stories and
general banter. During the course of the
evening we discovered that Ross (I think it was Ross) had spent 6 months hiking
the Appalachian Trail (covering over 2,000 miles across 14 different US
states). Now that really is a serious ‘walk’.
 |
| "Little John" |
There was a
slightly strange end to the evening. We
were joined by a man from Nottingham who introduced himself as “Little John”. We first noticed him as he stripped down to
his vest in the middle of the pub. He
said he was very hot. Heli pointed out
that it might help if he removed the scarf he had under his vest. Little John told us that his Dad was Big John
and that was why he was Little John. His
hands were anything but little – they were absolutely massive. Little John had been up Ben Nevis that day
and was soon telling us stories about Tony Morrison, a man who ran from John O
Groats to Land’s End with a fridge on his back.
That made our 96 miles with a small rucksack seem a bit of a poor
effort. Whilst Little John knew a stack
of interesting but not very useful information (for example the name and order
of all the A roads between John O Groats and Land’s End), he very often forgot that he was Little John and not Big John. He also wanted to show his hat/snood
combination that he had used at the summit of Ben Nevis. He was a nice enough man, albeit a bit odd, but he provided us with some
interesting conversation as he pulled random facts from his memory in the style
of Rain Man. We ended up giving him a
pizza, for which he was very grateful and which he demolished extremely
quickly.
 |
| Taylor, myself, Angela, MC and John |
And then it was
time to go. People swapped contact
details, shared plans they had for their next adventure and then wished each
other all the best and headed off to their accommodation. Runner John and I had time for one last drink
with a couple of locals and then we too parted.
It has been a
great adventure, a tough challenge but very pleased to have completed it. And also very
pleased to have been able to raise funds for Mental Health UK.
Thanks for reading the blog – I hope you enjoyed following it. And if
you want to drop me a line then feel free to write to me at st04say@gmail.com.
Cheers, Stokesy
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