Their story, in their words…
Day 1: The first day was an even split of travel to the route and hiking. We took a 13-hour coach from London Victoria to Inverness and arrived at around 12:00 PM.
Following this we had planned to cover about 30KM of distance and reach Drumnadrochit before wild camping. This day was especially tough as sleep was hard to come by on the coach and this section of the route was physically intense.
This led to us underperforming and only covering about 23KM. The highlight of this day was without a doubt seeing the loch for the first time. About half of the terrain, we covered on this day was quite bland and so the view of the pure blue water of the loch was extremely refreshing and provided motivation for the upcoming days.
Day 2: We had planned to cover about 20 KM and reach Invermoriston on this day. The experience of wild camping went much smoother than we had expected in terms of getting sleep. However, we encountered heavy rain, and this made all our equipment extremely heavy. The weather in Scotland was quite unpredictable as the rest of the day was bright and warm.
The processes of pitching tents and cooking food were very enjoyable although the food did end up being quite bland. The town of invermoriston had a small shop that provided us with snacks and drinks.
Day 3: Our plan for this day was to reach Fort Augustus which would mark the halfway point of our journey. This section almost entirely bordered the loch and so the route was quite flat. This was much appreciated as all our legs and shoulders were in pain at this point.
Days 4-6: We didn’t struggle due to the distance we had to cover, we had issues with navigating the route. Over the first three days the route was well signposted. However, the route back consisted of many much smaller routes and so we got lost more often.
The highlights of the way back were the fall of foyers, an unnamed mountain we climbed and the Dores beaches. These were all experiences that are impossible to find in the south of the UK and so were very special. We underestimated just how long 130KM and we had quite a few injuries. This varied from blisters to large bruises and many pulled muscles (only minor injuries though).
We all collectively agreed that this trip was worth all the planning purely for the experience we gained. We can all confidently say that we can now respond to stressful situations in a more efficient and effective manner after encountering many setbacks during this hike.
Also, the experience of first going on a trip with just friends and not your parents is quite surreal as the freedom you have is unprecedented. Also, we have gained skills in both planning and research when preparing for this trip and have gained greater understanding about the way in which travel across the UK works. We feel that these skills can all be applied to various situations in the future such as our personal statements for university and when coordinating in teams in potential workplaces.
