Their story, in their words….
We left London on Tuesday the 13th of July. We arrived in the afternoon, giving us time to walk around Glasgow a bit. On Wednesday, we visited a few museums and remained in the city before going out into the wild the next day.
We started our journey across the route on the 15th of July at Milngavie, and it took us nine days to walk from there to Fort William. We had hoped originally to do the route in just seven days, which we soon realised was a bit too hopeful. We planned to walk around 15 miles a day, but a couple of days in, we found that what we consistently managed was between 9-12 miles. Fortunately, we had given ourselves four days leeway to ensure that we made the coach back, so we still managed to walk the whole West Highland Way as we planned. Most mornings, it took us a while to get walking and leaving earlier could have probably allowed us to walk further. Taking less time to get going is something we would aim for next time.
One way in which we got exceptionally lucky on this trip was the weather we experienced. We prepared for rain and cold weather; all we got was scorching sun for every day we walked! The sun made certain parts of the journey much more enjoyable. We got to take some stunning photographs thanks to the sun and clear sky giving magnificent views. The weather was also especially a blessing while walking on the paths of boulders with sharp drops into Loch Lomond. We found these tough enough without dealing with slippery surfaces since we almost battered our knees walking up and down boulders. As a result of the heat, we got thirsty often, so on some days, we even got to experience fresh water straight from the streams of the Scottish highlands!
In terms of food, we bought it along the way whenever we reached a shop, allowing us to carry less at a time. We planned out how much we had to buy each time so that we had enough until we got to the next town on the map with a shop. Some days we ate dinner at pubs when we didn’t manage to buy food to cook ourselves. There were a couple of close calls where places were unexpectedly closed and a couple of extortionately priced sandwiches which we stubbornly avoided. However, thanks to our plans for emergency food, we managed to get through the trip without going hungry. By the end, we even ate enough from a certain brand to know that we weren’t planning to buy from them again!
Still with an extra day and high spirits, despite having walked all 96 tiring miles of the West Highland Way, we decided to walk up Ben Nevis to round off our trip. It took us 3 hours 20 minutes from the start at the bottom to reach the summit. However, our teammate Tomas decided to take the climb a bit more seriously and went ahead, making it in 2 hours! Once we were all at the top, we enjoyed a well-deserved lunch of sausage sandwiches and chocolate rolls before taking some beautiful photos.
We had a great time, made fantastic memories, and learnt many new skills, such as pronouncing Crianlarich, the name of a town by the route, or even fixing a broken tent pole. We met a lot of kind people along the way, including locals and other walkers. One of us even left
with a contact for discussing career plans! All four of us are hugely grateful to the Mark Evison Foundation for helping to fund the travel costs and food. We feel much more confident with planning future trips like this, and we hope to do the Great Glen Way in the future.
