Their story, in their words…
On the 18th of August we started our trip to the West Highland Way. Due to a small accident, we started the hike late night. We walked a small distance from Milngavie into the trail and set up camp not soon after due to it getting very dark and it was raining hard. It was a long night as the wind was so strong one of our tents couldn’t withstand the strong wind and broke, the other tent we later found out, had a small hole on the top, which allowed water to drip in the tent. This soaked our sleeping bags and caused us to have little to no sleep.
We packed up our stuff early in the morning and started the trail on the 19th August. Aiming to get to Drymen, we continued hiking. On the trail we witnessed multiple beautiful sceneries; however due to the harsh weather it made the trail very hard, as it made the road very slippery and we tripped a few times. In the end we set up camp at a fair distance away from Drymen. It was also a hard night as we tried to sleep in our wet sleeping bags from last night, which made it hard for us to fall asleep.
The 20th August was a relatively easier day as we finally arrived Drymen and had a rest there at noon. We replenished our supplies at a local convenience store and continued on our journey. We walked our way towards Balmaha and arrived there in the evening. We set up camp that day near Loch Lomond and called it a day
The 21st August was the hardest part of the trail, as we had to pass through various terrains such as bumpy, rocky roads and muddy slopes, which took a toll for us as we were not used to walking on this type of terrain. Our goal was to get to Rowardennan, but on this day we made the least progress. The night was horrendous as midges infested our tent and, for some reason, our counters such as bug spray had no effect on the midges as they continued to feed on our blood in the night.
The previous nights of sleeping in soggy sleeping bags showed its consequences as one of us had a fever on the 22nd August. Eager to get to Rowardennan, we continued to stride through the hellish terrains; we were often rewarded with beautiful scenery, but it was not long until we got tired and fatigued. With still a fair distance to get to Rowardennan, we set up camp, coming to realisation that we are not going to finish the challenge.
We came up with a plan on the 23rd August; in order to get to Fort William on the 24th, we bought bus tickets from Rowardennan to Fort William in the morning at the 24th, which meant we had to reach Rowardennan by the end on this day. We started walking mindlessly along the path, with only the thought of getting to Rowardennan before the night falls. In the end we got there at late night and settled down at the campsite there.
In the morning on the 24th August, we took the bus to Fort William and spent a while there. We eventually took the coach back to London in the afternoon.
This challenge made us realise our limits and our lacking of hiking experience, as in the campsite we were told we carried our bags wrong the whole time, which had a large toll on our backs. We believe that we will attempt this challenge again in later stages in our life. The discomforts we experienced in the challenge also made us appreciate everything we had in our lives, such as having a cozy bed to sleep in. In an all, we believed this was a meaningful challenge and were grateful we had the opportunity to participate in it.
