West Highland Way Day Six Low Down
Day 6: Kinlochleven to Fort William: Songs from A-Z
Miles: 16
Time: 09:30 – 16:30
Weather: One sideways downpour
Climbing out of a Valley
Leaving Kinlochleven was one of my favourite parts of West Highland Way ’14, not because the town is basic (the Co-op is nice enough) but because we had the opportunity to see this…
It may be raining at the bottom, keep walking, there’s sunshine at the top
As we ascended, the rain started, as we reached the top, the rain had stopped. Although that was not the last of the rain. The trek made me think of the Highland Clearances, I found it hard to imagine communities living in this vast space.
Into the Valley, The Skids
Horizontal Rain
We met a group of lads a couple of times today, between them they could not have had more than a couple of plastic bags. They obviously hadn’t read my packing list. It did get me thinking that we probably overthink the packing process. To keep us motivated through the horizontal rain we selected songs titles from A-Z and sang them in their entirety (or as much as we could), this was rejuvenating.
Fin – Fort William
As we reached Fort William (where the famous Harry Potter train leaves!) my parents met us with Buck’s fizz which was just what we needed to scrape ourselves through Fort William. Seriously, who moved the goalposts? The traditional end to The West Highland Way would have been manageable, I genuinely thought I was going to have to get a piggyback from my Dad through the high street. But we made it…
After a post celebratory pint we parted ways. My Dad then drove home, unintentionally, through the route I had just walked (taking me six days). Did you know that some hikers then go on to climb Ben Nevis?
