Mountains, midges, and a milestone

Day 16: Glen Affric to Cluanie Inn

? 11.34

?242m

We left Glen Affric knowing that we only had 10 or so km to cover, with not too much ascent, to get to our overnight stop at the Cluanie Inn.  I was looking forward to a beer! ?  The route, for some unknown reason, took a marginal short cut through a fenced off area where some re-foresting was being attempted, rather than taking the river trail, which the route met with later anyway.  Perhaps the woodland area wasn’t there when the route was created.  After making slow progress through tufty ground, around and through trees, and stepping into a covered hole, around knee depth, I had a bit of a sense of humour failure!  We should have just followed the river path.

Once we had joined the marked path, we made better progress but it was still tough going underfoot, and as we walked over the pass, a visible path was intermittent.  Things improved on the other side and we were soon on a vehicle track heading down to the main road (A87).  Only 2 more km along the road and we were there!  It was a busy road with fast moving traffic and not too enjoyable to walk along.  We were thankful for a good verge and even more thankful to reach the Inn.

We were early so our room wasn’t available yet and so we sat in the bar for a couple of hours.  I had the beer I had been looking forward to, and we ate an early lunch from the bakehouse over the road which is part of the Inn.  Unfortunately both Katie’s salmon and cream cheese baguette and my cheese and ham toastie were underwhelming at best.  The ginger cake upped the game a little but the lemon drizzle needed both more lemon, and more drizzle.

The service was a bit strange so far at the Inn, whilst done up to try and be authentically Scottish, lacked soul.  I guess I was expecting a traditional Scottish Inn as we have experienced elsewhere so far.  Things improved when they made our room available around 1300 and within a few minutes the contents of our bags were strewn everywhere, clothing had been washed and was drying on radiators which had been whacked up to max level.  Katie showered and then I had a bath since there were some bath salts ?‍♂️.  Strangely I had to fill it with the shower since there were no taps.  And to be clear, the shower was over the bath. ☺️

We returned to the bar and I had another beer whilst we planned the next part of our route from Fort William, along the West Highland Way.  It’s a busy route so we opted to book some campsites which wasn’t easy as some were full, but we got there in the end.

Things started to get a bit busier around dinner time and it was entertaining people watching.  At one point the staff tried to sit two parts of separate families on one table thinking they were together.  This caused much confusion.  The food was decent, Katie had a beef burger and I had a chicken burger.  We had some fries and stir fried Asian vegetables on the side (the burgers came with crisps! ?‍♂️).  Then chocolate ice cream for Katie and Scottish Bread Pudding with extra vanilla ice cream for me.  It was good, I slept well on a well fed tummy. ?

Day 17: Cluanie Inn to Glenn Garry (Loch Poulary)

? 16.89

?524m

I took full advantage of the mornings breakfast offerings at the Cluanie Inn and had some cereals, fruit salad, full cooked breakfast with toast and the good bits from an almond croissant which I’m sure was a leftover from yesterday since the rest of it was tough as old boots.  The coffee was surprisingly decent filter coffee, and strong, so I had a few refills.  Ultimately this resulted in a pee stop every 5 minutes throughout the rest of the day.  We had a good giggle when I realised I had sprinkled Demerara sugar over my breakfast too, I hadn’t read the packet or paid attention, thought it was pepper. ??

After checking out we hung out for a bit in the lounge before getting going about 11.  We only had around 15km to go today and mostly on marked paths, so no rush.  There was also uncertainty over the camping spot with no obvious nice location as we’ve had previously so didn’t want to arrive too early in the day.  We had allowed for the possibility of having to cover 25-30km today, mostly along the busy A87, should the river Loyne have been in spate and un-crossable.  To our relief, about a week now of dry weather meant we could avoid this hellish prospect and take the shorter, cross country, route.

We made good progress on a tarmac road initially, through the Cluanie Estate, before branching off to head south over to the river Loyne valley and we crossed the river with ease.  We didn’t need to stop for lunch as such today after a big breakfast, just grazed on snacks.  Climbing again to walk over to the next valley, we passed through a fenced re-forested area, then on over and descended, filling up on water from a stream along the way.  Across the valley, the hillside was deforested and heavily scared by tracks used by the machinery.  Thankfully we were heading east for a couple of km to take a path south that looked like it headed into some of the remaining forest. ?

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Reflecting on the Cluanie Inn as we strolled along today made me think of Fawlty Towers and made me want to watch an episode.  I wonder it it’s as funny as I remember it being when I watched it as a kid…

It was about 1630 when we found a camp spot just by the river and got setup.  There was a good breeze when we arrived, but as soon as this dropped shortly afterwards, the midges were on us.  Not too many, but enough to make us dive for cover.  Things soon got fruity in the tent as the midges prevented me from heading down to the river to wash my feet and I had to have a wet wipe wash in the tent.  We played ‘squish a midge’ with any midges than managed to wiggle their way in whilst the doors were briefly open, and set about our usual routines.

Only two evenings of Firepot dehydrated meals left now, Orzo Bolognese for me tonight.  They are good and I’ll miss the ease of them.  From Fort William in a couple of days time we pass shops frequently so will get whatever we need as we go.  I was also thinking today of a hiking blog I read last year in which a hiker’s top tip was to always eat the thing in your pack that you fancy the most.  So with that in mind I polished off the rest of a Ritter Sport marzipan chocolate bar that I had been saving.

Day 18: Glenn Garry (Loch Poulary) to Gairlochy

? 24.61km

?746m

We woke up to a damp tent, and there were still midges everywhere.  We packed up and made ready to jump out and pack up the tent as quickly as possible.  We did pretty well but it was horrendous, they get right in your face and I had given up on the head net which seems to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot.  We got moving sharpish as they can’t keep up if you’re walking.  Peace at last!

We were climbing from the start, gradually up through (de)forest, then up onto the open country.  There was a decent track to follow and the higher we got the better the views got behind us.  Weather was perfect, big fluffy clouds and sunshine casting cool shadows over the landscape.  When the trail ran out we bee-lined for the pass, the Bealach Carn na h’Urchaire, which, at 648m, was the highest point of the trail.  The views were stunning and in front of us the first view of Ben Nevis.

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The descent was.steep at times, following a stream to begin with where we topped up on water, then joined a path continuing by the stream and later a gravel track down to the road along the northern shore of Loch Arkaig.  After a couple of km on the road heading east, we turned south again and joined the Great Glen Way as far as Gairlochy where the Caledonian Canal begins.  There is a spot here where camping is permitted by know of the lochs.  I guess it’s ‘semi-wild camping’, there are no facilities but it’s quiet and we are the only ones so far.  Plus the midges don’t seem so bad so far, winner!  Just as we zipped up for the night the rain started.  The first significant rain in about 10 days, we’ve been so lucky with the weather recently!

Day 19: Gairlochy to Fort William (Nevis Campsite) 

? 19.95km

?61m

A lazy start this morning, we set off around 0830 for the last stretch along the Caledonian Canal to Fort William.  The canal was nice enough, lovely views and a flat gravel path.  Not much more to say than that as it changed very little for about 12km to Lochyside. We played dodge a snail to pass the time. ? We reached the edges of suburbia, skirting it at first alongside the river, until we entered Fort William, conveniently right by Morrisons where we picked up some food for dinner.

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Continuing through town we arrived at our Sunday lunch stop.  We were an hour early after making good time along the canal path and so sat with a drink for a bit, celebrating reaching Fort William, our first big milestone.  We both had beef brisket with veggies and a Yorkshire pudding, then the sticky toffee for pudding.  It was really good, as were the beers.

We made our way out of Fort William to Nevis campsite, found a spot and did some clothes washing whilst also scrubbing ourselves.  When you only have one set of clothes, you don’t have much choice but to sit there in your waterproofs whilst things wash and dry.  Luckily it wasn’t too warm a day.  Chores done we enjoyed a dinner of broccoli, garlic, lemon and parmesan pasta.  I followed up with custard and ginger cake.  Gotta get those calories in!

Fort William concludes the first section of our journey, and possibly the toughest.  Certainly the most remote.  We should only need to carry a couple of days worth of food at a time now, since there will be shops, pubs etc. throughout most of the rest of the trip.  Tomorrow we are having a ‘zero day’ in terms progress on the route.  We need to go in to town to collect and post some things at the post office and do a bit of shopping  to top up on snacks and other essentials like sun cream, insect repellant etc. 

How things add up so far;

• We’ve walked a total of 430km (265 miles) and ascended 8250m.
• We averaged 22.64km per day.
• Our longest day was 37km and took 9 hours 48 minutes.
• We’ve wild camped 10 times, stayed in 2 bothies,  2 campsites, 1 hostel and 3 hotel/pubs.