Their story, in their words…
Our hike consisted of walking the Great Glen Way, a 124km path from Inverness to Fort William, and finishing on our final day walking up Ben Nevis- all in six days. Along our 5-day walk, we wild camped in many locations along Loch Ness, Loch Lochy, and the Caledonian canal joining them.
Starting off our hike in Inverness allowed us to immediately experience the Scottish Landscape, but with our pace on the first day we had to reevaluate how far we could walk originally. We had to camp before our first planned destination and make up the extra distance on the next day. However, this was a useful experience in planning and taught us a further depth of the area and how we could adjust our previously rigid hike plan.
For the days afterward, our most important tool was the Caledonian Canal Key, which allowed us to access facilities such as toilets and showers, as well as clean water from both Laggan Locks and Gairlochy, at either end of Loch Lochy. While the walking was more difficult than anything any of us had done, the feeling of accomplishment that we got at the end of each day may have propelled us right to the end of the hike, if nothing else could keep us going.
Our summit of Ben Nevis was by far the most incredible day of all, leaving us triumphant at a huge feat we’d thought many times might beat us in the end, even completing it in below average time despite being exhausted from our previous days. The views from the top of Ben Nevis made the entire walk worth the wait.
