Their story, in their words…
Our team of six had successfully managed to hike the Great Glenn Way hike – 79 miles (127km) – from Fort William to Inverness. Over the long 6 days, we had operated with an insufficient plan that had dissipated swiftly, causing our resilience and self – reliance to be put to the challenge, alongside our navigational skills, physical and mental strength. Our goal at the end of this hike was to challenge ourselves to extents which we would have never thought we would achieve. Whilst our preplanned journey had failed due to a lack of equipment, we ultimately prevailed, making our victory over the Great Glen Way hike even sweeter.
We began our journey at our formal trail marker in Fort William, using our first day of the hike travelling through flat terrain alongside the very scenic and sublime Caledonian canal to Garilochy, where morale was higher than ever and we were sure that the hike would only go up from then – we were soon to find out the reality of this hike. This day allowed us to not only adjust to the immense weight we were holding, but also getting used to our unknown surroundings.
However, later that night, we approached a a predicament that nearly ended our entire trip, causing our almost 12 mile start to be futile. We had one less tent pole than required. This severly disrupted our nightly plans of playing football and swimming in the loch, as three of us had to find else where to sleep. To add to this devastation, the Loch had contracted an algae infection causing the water to be highly dangerous to even touch, let alone swim. Three of us slept in a tent, one slept in a bathroom and the other two slept outside, being mauled by relentless midges. It was rough.
The coming days seemed near impossible, morale was extremely low and expectations pointed towards failure. However, we did not let this stop us. After searching 4 camping shops, we finally stumbled upon our saviour. A disposable tent. Morale was replenished and spirits were high. We trecked once again along multiple scenic routes, even taking the high route past Drumnadrochit into the remote hills of Abriachan, 400 plus meters above sea level. Once we reached this point, a place to sleep was lacking. We were exhausted and had no place to sleep. Once again, we reached a point of mere failure and not wanting to continue, but we did.
We found a little hut, best described as a peat bog hut fit for gnomes. It provided us with much needed rest and shelter from the cold nights of Scotland. As we headed into day 5, success was imminent. We were on the path of victory towards Inverness, the last stretch. We thought to ourselves, surely it cannot get worse than this, we were very wrong. Later that night, around 2am, the rain was heavy and the night was cold, two of us were in the disposable tent, sleeping well. Suddenly, the tent had collapsed due to the constant heavy assault inflicted onto it by the combination of wind and rain. Ticks and midges were rife, attacking the two individuals in the tent. The others pulled one of us out of the tent whilst the other had to spend the rest of the night in there. This was bad.
Despite all of these major and minor inconveniences, we made it to Inverness, maybe not unharmed but we still made it. Once we got into Inverness, we had a victory meal at Pepe’s, which was absolutely delicious. We had made it. This expedition really challenged us mentally and physically, strengthening our group dynamic by building stronger relations and
most importantly, building our confidence out of our comfort zones. Whilst the entire hike was extremely hard, the hardest part was the coach there and back, our bodies were aching!
