Their story, in their words…
Our journey started from Victoria on the 21st of May, as we got a FlixBus all the way to Inverness, where we took a bus along the beautiful Loch Ness to our starting point, Drumnadrochit.
For our first day in the Scottish highlands, we only had time to walk about 5 miles along the Affric Kintail Way and ended up having to find a camping spot in the dark, under pouring rain! Eventually though, we managed to set tents up and get some sleep. Although we did get soaked the first evening, the weather was great for the rest of the week, allowing us to dry our clothes off properly after that first night.
The next four days were full days of walking, where we managed to cover between 13 and 18 miles per day, passing stunning lakes, rivers and fields. Here we mostly followed trails and roads, apart from day 4, when we had to navigate a marshy valley with only a map and compass, as the trail disappeared and seemed to have drowned in the bog! It was great to have an authentic experience of navigating pure wilderness with no paths or technology for a day, where at one point I did think we were off our route, to then find out we were on point all along.
That night we camped near an abandoned farm, relying on our tents as we did every night, despite being tempted to sleep in the farm’s barnhouse. We were all surprised how well we could sleep in tents, even after several days of it. Getting a good night’s rest was essential to being able to complete the walk and it wasn’t an issue at all.
As the days went by, the scenery grew more and more dramatic, as we walked directly west all week, finding taller mountains and deeper valleys along the way. Our route took us from the small village of Drumnadrochit, on Loch Ness, to a larger town called Plockton on the stunning coastline of west Scotland, from which we took a train all the way back to Inverness and finally a Flixbus back to London.
We picked the perfect trail for a challenging and rewarding week of walking, having completed about 67 miles in total. It was an unforgettable week; we ate great camp food, saw packs of deer, explored an abandoned farm and had a great time in general. We won’t remember the wet feet or midges, but the amazing experience of living in true, unspoiled nature.
