Day 24: Strathfillan Wigwams Campsite to Beinglas Farm Campsite
? 15.94km
?397m
It was raining when my first alarm went off at 0600. It was raining when my second alarm went off at 0630. It was raining every 10 minutes that I snoozed the alarm for an hour. Eventually, at 0730, it wasn’t raining and we decided it was probably time to get moving. We packed up, used the facilities, and put the tent away whilst it still wasn’t raining. The forecast was showers all day and sure enough, within a minute of leaving the campsite, I had to put on my waterproof trousers. Soon after, we passed a sign that informed us we were in one of the wettest parts of Britain.
Shortly after leaving camp, we were climbing through some nice forest. It was probably the nicest hour or so of forest walking we have had on the whole trip and we started passing a few northbound hikers as we exited the forest and descended to Crianlarich. From there it was pretty straightforward through the valley Of Glen Falloch, following the river Falloch to our campsite at Beinglas Farm. We followed the road most of the way and the path did a reasonable job of being far enough from it not to see it, but it could be heard.
We only covered 16km today, so arrived at Beinglas just in time for lunch, a ham and cheese toastie, with a pint of beer. Taking advantage of a dry spell, we got the tent up then took showers. We grabbed a seat in the bar around 1700 and got drinks, then dinner around 1800. We both went for lasagne, which came with salad, coleslaw and garlic bread. Solid pub grub and big portions. The choc fudge cake and ice cream fitted snugly on to the pudding shelf. Back at the tent we watched the first episode of Jeremy Clarkson’s Farm show on Amazon. We had seen earlier that, unsurprisingly, an ever predictable Guardian write up had given it 1/5, in fact it was actually pretty entertaining.
Just about to get heads down at 2100 and I can smell burgers being cooked on a BBQ, making me hungry again! ?
Day 25: Beinglas Farm Campsite to Millarochy Campsite
? 32.79km
?855m
We had a big day ahead and needed to hit the shop at the campsite before we left so we were waiting at the door ready to go when it opened at 0730. We both grabbed a roll for lunch, some snacks, and Katie got some more Compeed blister plasters.
Full waterproofs were required, contrary to expectations and off we went, headed for a day of walking along the eastern edge of Loch Lomond. Sounds easy right, walking along the edge of a Loch? Nice and level, not too much elevation? Wrong! The trail was undulating in the same why the South West Coast Path undulates – big time!
We warmed up pretty quickly and with the rain stopped, but threatening, we had to de-layer and risk it. Passing some goats with massive horns required holding your nose as they smelt so bad, like gone off goats cheese. Soon, Loch Lomond was revealed for the first time and we started our journey along its edge. We had heard walkers in the pub last night saying how tough this section had been and before long it got a bit technical, lots of roots and rocks. Personally I loved it, nice single track going up or down most of the time, never flat. At times we were right by the loch, walking past stony beaches, others we were in really nice woods with huge pines and mossy floors.
There was quite a bit of passing others and at one point a mountain biker (carrying the bike at the time – much if this section is quite literally unrideable) decided to squeeze past Katie, rather than wait just a few more moments for her to reach a wider part of the track. His foot was right on the edge of the track which gave way and he went head first, with his bike, sliding down the side of the trail towards the water. He managed to stop after a couple of metres, his mate got down to him and helped pull his bike off which I then lifted on to the trail and the biker scrambled his way back up. We checked he hadn’t dropped anything and his mate joked only his pride was left down there. ? If only he’d been a bit more patient.
We stopped for a nice lunch break by the loch and continued, soon reaching the first holiday park/campsite of the day at Rowardennen. The temptation of a cold fizzy can of pop was too much and I joined the queue in the bar, however the queue was too much, and I couldn’t be arsed so we continued with our thirst unquenched. From there we had about 7km more to reach our goal for the day and now that we were in an area near a road and holiday parks, the trail was easier underfoot, however it still went up and down like a roller coaster!
We arrived at Millarochy Campsite around 1730, where we had booked a tent pitch, and the lovely people here informed us that we could pitch in the backpackers area for less and they would refund the difference on our booking! Lovely stuff. They also had ice creams so Katie had a Cornetto and I had a Magnum. We deserved it.
Tent pitched, we showered and then made use of the backpackers kitchen area to cook and eat, as the midges were out, and after us!
Food Diary
Thought it would be fun to keep a track of the food and calories eaten today, not as much as I thought!
Breakfast
- 2 waffles – 240 cal
- Peanut butter/choc spread combo – 100 cal
- 4 dried figs – 54 cal
Lunch
- Cheese and pickle roll – 300 cal
- 1/2 bag crisps – 375 cal
Dinner
- Packet of Ainsley cous cous – 354 cal
- Packet of noodles – 271 cal
- Mange tout – 50 cal
- 1/2 pack jerky – 80 cal
- Birds Instant Custard – 150 cal
- 1/4 Yorkshire Tea Loaf – 231 cal
Snacks
- Magnum White Chocolate & Cookies – 235 cal
- 2 handfuls of peanuts – 250 cal
- Stroopwafel – 180 cal
- Nakd Bar – 137 cal
- Kind Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt Bar – 214 cal
- 1/2 pack peanut M&Ms – 300 cal
Total: 3521 cal
Day 26: Milarrochy Campsite to Drymen Campsite
? 18.13km
?555m
We hit the trail just after 0700 knowing we had a bit of a lump to climb over and around 15km to a Sunday Roast at the Clachan Inn in Drymen. We continued where we left off yesterday following the edge of the loch, until heading east and starting the climb up Conic Hill. We were now among not only other WHW hikers, but also the day hikers too. There was a lot of huffing and puffing. Not from us though. We made our way slowly up and stopped to take a few pictures looking back over Loch Lomond. The cloud had lifted just about in time and it was a view to savour for a few minutes!
The WHW doesn’t actually take us to the top of Conic Hill and we figured we had seen as good a view already as we would get a few more metres up so we stuck with the main trail and started descending. We walked through forest and farmland for a couple of hours and the sun started to peek out as promised. We had our first ‘your going the wrong way’ comment today after 6 days against the flow on the WHW, Katie quickly piped up “Not if you’re walking to Lands End!” which stopped the fella in his tracks for a moment!? We soon popped out on to the A811 and headed into Drymen for lunch. We were early so we did a quick shop for the next couple of days food at a Spar.
The Clachan Inn didn’t disappoint and did a decent roast. Katie went for ham, I had the beef. This is becoming a bit of a tour of Britain’s Sunday Roast, so we started scoring them. Today’s scored a solid 7 out of 10. Decent meat, great potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Veg was nice but lacked anything green, and no cauliflower cheese. The sticky toffee pudding, our fourth of the trip, scored an excellent 9, equalling that of Garrison West in Fort William. They didn’t even blink when I asked for ice cream AND custard. What’s this ‘or’ malarky all about?
By the time we finished lunch the sun was shining and it was about 23⁰C! We still had 2-3km to do to get to the campsite for the night so off we trotted, back along the road out of Drymen, picking up the WHW again, through some fields and then back on to a road before arriving at the campsite, right on the trail. We pitched up and took advantage of extra time to relax in the sun before showering, doing our normal routines stuff and dinner.
Really enjoying the blog..
Custard & tea loaf desserts seem a fav, presumably tasty, easy peasy & ok to carry. Love the forest shot with blue sky between the trees, not because Tom is in it!