Category: 2013 West Highland Way — Scotland, UK

                We ate breakfast in the hotel and made use of the gift of porcelain once again.  There was only one other tent camper last night and no one in the cabins.  I got my stuff packed up and sat on one of the cabin porches while Pam finished her morning duties.  The midges are not as thick here.  We hit the trail a little after 10:30.

                The hike out of town was almost as steep and tall as the Devil’s Staircase.  Pam was hurting bad (mainly because her calves are so tight and she doesn’t stretch them regularly).  The climb was slow and painful for her and made worse by the blister (think inflamed anus) on her heel.  There were amazing views of the town to our backs which we stopped to admire often to give us breaks.

                Once we gained elevation, we had a nice level walk in Lairigmor.  We walked by some old farm ruins and could see foresting practices in action.  There would be large tracts of clear cuts next to un- harvested woods.  We ate lunch at Tigh-na-sleubhaich (an old ruin) so we could get out of the wind.  The best part of the wind was the absence of midges.  At one point, we were able to watch a shepherd round his sheep up on the opposite side of the valley using a four wheeler and a couple of very smart dogs.

                Shortly after Blar a Chaoruinn, we came to a bulletin board with directions into Fort William.  Pam started acting a little strange and nervous.  I asked her what’s wrong and she pointed to a sign on the board I hadn’t noticed.  It read “Danger, Poisonous Monkeys ahead”.  She was genuinely scared and wondered if we were safe.  I explained that there are no monkeys in Scotland and that she was fine.  Later we found out that Poisonous Monkeys are a local band.  Nonetheless, Pam walked with extra caution in her step.

                This was our longest day of hiking since our first day on the trail.  After about 11 miles, the guidebook we had said we were less than a ½ mile from Glen Nevis Youth Hostel where we were planning to spend the night so we could climb to the top of Ben Nevis the next morning before finishing the WHW.  This was the longest ½ mile I’ve ever hiked.  I genuinely liked our guidebook, but if Charlie Loram had been around, we would have had a throw down.  Pam threatened to spank me if I didn’t calm down but I said pleasure would have to wait because I wanted to finish hiking for the day.

                We finally, made it to the hostel and checked in.  There were only a few double rooms and they were all booked so we had to sleep in the dorms (our first night, and only time we were apart the entire trip so far).  We had no choice.  We claimed our bunks, got showered up, and went out for supper.

                We were both in pain and tired.  Dinner was nothing special, just some diner that was cheap and close to the hostel.  We were back and in bed by 8:30.

                We had breakfast in the hostel and were bumming.  The day was overcast, foggy, and a slight mist in the air.  The forecast called for possible clearing in mid-afternoon.  We skipped the Scottish breakfast of haggis and opted for our usual porridge, toast, and coffee.  Pam even ate a chicken abortion or two (aka egg).

                The plan was that we would pack up and leave our packs at the hostel while we climbed to the top of Ben Nevis, but the hostel attendant said we should wait until the weather clears because people have gotten hurt climbing in the fog by walking off the trail and falling off the mountain (not a great alternate ending to the trail).  We finally decided to just skip it and head into Fort William and finish the WHW.

                From the hostel, it’s just a road hike into town and not very spectacular.  Unfortunately, the town portion of the trail isn’t marked very well and there’s confusion as to where the end of the trail is.  The first shopping center in town claims to be the original ending so we stopped to get a stamp for our passports but they didn’t have one.  It was just a scam to get us to shop.  We came back out to find the actual end.  About a block down, we saw an elder crossing sign—it was the image of an old couple using a cane to walk.  It could just as easily been a tired WHW couple which we were.

                We eventually got directions to the real end of the trail and made our way the final mile through town to the statue of a man rubbing his sore feet.  Like every other hiker of the trail, we imitated the pose.  We completed the WHW on 9/11/13, the fourth anniversary of our first date.  (Man tip—if you’ve got to remember relationship dates, I like them to have multiple meanings so it’s easier for me to recall.)

                We had a few days to kill which we had intentionally built into our itinerary just in case we had any problems along the way.  It wasn’t quite lunch time, so we made our way to the train station to see about getting to the Isle of Skye.  There was a train in a bit heading to the Port of Mallaig where we could catch a ferry to the island.  Once on the island, there was a car rental spot at the port and we’d get a car for a couple of days—we’re done with walking.

                While we were waiting for the train, we popped into the grocery store to pick up some snacks for the ride and then we got a warm drink (it’s still cold and misty).  On board the train, we got to talking to an older couple from the area.  This line was the line the Hogwarts Express used in the Harry Potter movies so that was exciting to see more scenic views we recognized already.  Once we got to Mallaig, the steam train from the Harry Potter movies was there.  They run dinner tours in the evenings.

                In Mallaig, we went straight to the Ferry Terminal and caught a ride out to the Isle of Skye.  The older couple we talked to on the train came out to wave goodbye to us.  It was a short ride out to the island and the sky cleared a bit.  We got off and went to the car rental place.  There was, however, one small problem.  What we thought was a car rental turned out to be a car repair garage.  We walked another mile (dam, turns out we’re not done walking after all) up to the MacDonald Castle because there was a bus stop there.  We checked the schedule and had enough time to go look at the castle.  We got back to the stop and waited for the bus.  Then we waited another 30 minutes past the scheduled time and gave up.  We went back to the castle and asked about the bus.  The cashier informed us that in the best of times, the bus was iffy and if the driver was tired or wanted off early, they just wouldn’t come down that far.  One of the waiters heard us lamenting about not having a way to get to Portree and told us he was getting off in less than an hour and he’d give us a ride to town.  We gladly accepted.

                Tom was an Englishman relocated from south of London to the Isle and had a wife a small child.  He gave us an excellent guided tour of the island all the way to Portree where he dropped us off at the bus station.  We found a hotel right next to the bus terminal (apparently, they do run on the island just not to inconvenient locations for the drivers).  We got the last room in the hotel.  Even though we had showered the last 2 nights, we showered yet again then walked around Portree.  This is a very picturesque town where the majority of the residents on the island live.  There are colorful shops and a fine selection of restaurants here.  We stopped by a the visitors center and they hooked us up with a rental car where the guy would come into town in the morning to pick us up then take us out to his lot.

                All we had to do now was eat.  We found the “Prince of India” and this was the best Indian Food we have ever had (or maybe we just still had a hiker appetite, but it was good).  We were both worn out and I was starting to get a cold so we just headed back to the hotel.  Unlike most men, I’m an easy going ill guy as long as I get the proper pampering (back massage, food delivered in bed, and general empathy from my partner).  Since I wasn’t getting any of that from Pam, I went to bed a little cranky.

 

                After our usual breakfast, the car rental guy picked us up and took us to Mr Motors.  He agreed to pick the car up from the Ferry Lot by MacDonald Castle tomorrow evening so we didn’t have to hitch back down there.  I remembered Chris’ trick of “keep left” while driving.  I thought I’d be ok as long as we avoid congested areas (which are only in Portree).  Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the roads are very narrow with only one lane in most places so you don’t really have to think much about keeping left.

                We first headed north to Uig.  It was a cold and rainy day so we just drove around and saw what we could without getting out of the car.  The mountains on the Isle of Skye aren’t very high, but they are very dramatic because they come right out of the ocean to 2000’+.  We made our way to the north coast and stopped at the Skye Museum of Island Life.  It had stopped raining enough for us to get out and look around.  Next we headed back down the west coast into Portree.  We stopped at some overlooks of the west coast and the formation of Old Man of Storr but it started raining on us again so we didn’t go very far up the trail to the Old Man.  We stopped in Portree for some coffee and a meal then made our way across the island to the south east coast.

                We ended up out at Neist Pointe Lighthouse.  We were driving down what we thought were roads rarely used to only end up at a crowded parking lot.  We walked out to the lighthouse and imagined staying there in a storm.  The lighthouse has been converted into a bed and a breakfast and it was raining steady now so imagining a storm didn’t require a lot of imagination.  On our way south, we ran by The Three Chimneys Restaurant where the English couple we had dinner with at the Drovers Inn were going for their anniversary dinner.  They had to make reservations over a year in advance.  We stopped to look at the menu and were amazed at this 5 star restaurant and retreat on a back road of the Isle of Skye.  Our last stop of the drive was at the Talisker Distillery.  By this time, they were getting close to closing so we opted to skip the tour and tasting since I didn’t want to hear Pam have another hairball.

 

               The real goal of our trip to the Isle of Skye was to go to the very colorful and enchanting Fairy Pools.  To that end, we drove down into the Brittle Forest to go camping for the night on the beach at the end of the road.  We drove all the way to the end of the road and it was raining harder and it was getting cold.  On the way in, we had passed the Glenbrittle Hostel, so we decided to drive back a few miles to see if we could possibly get in there for the night.  When we got there, it wasn’t officially open for the evening yet, but we talked to some people waiting that said there was space here.  We ate our lunch we had bought for tomorrow while we waited for the attendant to open the place up.  We were able to get space in the bunk rooms (four days in a row with showers!) so we stayed up as late as possible playing cards (8:30 for us being old and tired).  Pam stayed up with the attendant and took care of getting us reservations tomorrow evening in Glasgow at a Holiday Inn using my points for a free room.  Around 9:30 she woke me up to get info she needed to complete the reservation and I was very disoriented but she managed to extract what she needed.  I was back out before the dorm door closed.  It rained and the wind blew hard all night long shaking the building—perfect sleeping weather.

                We set a new record today, we got up at 7 for breakfast and were on the road by 8 to spend some time at the fairy pools.  We walked about 3 miles back to the pools near the base of the mountains and for the first time in several days, the sun came out.  It was great to be healed up enough to enjoy walking again.  Not to mention seeing the sun on the Isle of Skye, we definitely would like to come back here again.

                After the pools, we went back to the MacDonald Castle for lunch and to thank Tom again, but he wasn’t there yet.  We then parked our car at the Ferry Lot at Armadale and shopped at the stores there for some last minute souvenirs.  We really enjoyed the photography at Grumpy George’s. 

                On the trip back home, I think we covered every possible form of transportation.  Walking, driving a car to Armadale, ferry to Mallaig, train to Glasgow, bus to hotel near airport, walk to Holiday Inn (where we unpacked everything and dried it out in the room), shuttle to airport, plane back to Chicago via Philadelphia, “El” from O’hare to downtown, Amtrak to Carbondale, and car once again to Sikeston.

                In spite of all of our eating, during and post trip (desserts every meal) we managed to lose over 10# each.  In total, we hiked 95 miles on the West Highland Way plus an extra 10 on the Kelvin Walkway to get to the WHW from Glasgow.  We also hiked another 10 miles on side trips on Inchailloch, to Rob Roy’s Cave, to Drover’s Inn, etc. for a total of 115 miles.  Not a spectacular distance, but not bad for a couple of 50 year old novice hikers and the first long distance, multi-day hike ever for Pam.

                Overall, the West Highland Way is a great hike.  You have several different ways that you can hike ranging from day hikes from inn to inn with a luggage service all the way to carrying all your own gear.  I will say that there are not a lot of backpacking food options along the way, but why bother when you can eat at 300 year old inns and meet locals along the way. 

                As a follow up to the hat that changed our lives—we have become great friends with Peter and Marcia and have gotten together with them at least once a year since.  We talk regularly and have learned a lot from them.  They both have through hiked the Appalachian Trail which is on our bucket lists.  The hat was great for us, but may have been a curse for them.