West Highland Way Diary days 3-5

Day 3 – Rowardennan to Inverannan

Miles 13

Accomadation Bienglass Lodges **** (Luxury would recommend)

We couldn’t wait to get out of the Hostel and on our way to the next stop at Inverannan, although this was to prove the toughest section of the route.

After about 10 minutes walking we met Julie and Eileen again for the final time on this walk , they where cracking on to Crainlarich which really was a tough section,

Girls if you are reading we would be interested to know how you got on with that leg ?

                                             Julie and Eileen on the move 

We stopped for Lunch at the Inversnaid Hotel (again meeting the Forfar team) trend developing ??

                                        Charlie and John Invershnaid :-)

Inversnaid Hotel ferry

The path round the loch after Inversnaid proved to be a killer part of the walk, really tough and really tricky when wet,  it proved to be a pretty exhausting day one which saw us  nearly lose a man into the loch, however we trudged on and by the time we reached the hills above Ardlui , the sun was out again.

                                     Loch Lomond from hills opposite Ardlui 

                                    

 

                                   Wild Goats on Loch Lomond

Chaz at

Rob Roys cave (allegedly)

Day 4 – Inverannan to Tyndrum

Miles 12

Accomadation : By The Way Hostel *** (clean but v small rooms)

After an excellent breakfast at Bienglas we set off on the walk to Tyndrum.

I felt this was the easiest section of the walk pretty uneventful until you reach the small Strathfillan settlement, here at the Wigwams trading post, we had a coffee and a bacon roll.

The rooms at the Hostel are clean but quite small for adults they have an excellent communal area and great self catering facilities.

Here we met mother and son Colin and Janice for the first time,transpires that they were on a similar schedule to ourselves .

                                        Colin and Janice..

Dinner was at Paddy,s Bar in Tyndrum which was a short walk from the Hostel.

Day 5 – Tyndrum to Kingshouse (Glencoe)

Miles 18

Accommodation: Kings House Hotel Glencoe **** (Best Breakfast all week)

We were met at Tyndrum by Slacker No4 (Bobby) who would join us for the walk to Fort William and after grabbing breakfast at the service station at the Green Welly, we were on our way.

The weather for this part was the worst we experienced all week heavy rain and cold winds made for a difficult section..

                                           Enroute to Bridge of Orchy

We reached Bridge of Orchy Hotel for Lunch around 12:00, the rain having stopped just as we arrived.

After a nice lunch we headed out towards Glencoe via Rannoch Moor although dry it was extremely windy, this slowed us down a bit and also made taking a break more difficult
                                                 
                                        Gates at start of Rannoch Moor
                                  

Black Mount from Rannoch Moor

The boyz at the Buachaille Glencoe

White Corries (Glen Coe Ski Centre) from Kingshouse

                 

We arrived at the Kingshouse around 5pm tired and weather beaten and ready for a few beers in the hotel bar

The Slackers West Highland Way Diary Day 1 and 2

Day 1 – Milngavie to Drymen

Miles: 12

Accommodation : Ashbank B&B

Star Rating **** (would recommend)

As myself and Charlie had only done 3 legs of the WHW last year to John,s 6 legs (end to end)  , we thought we had  better get the whole thing done this year to get rid of “The Slackers tag” that has been associated with us all year.

We started our walk on a lovely Sunday Morning, the initial walk out of Milngavie isn’t to impressive , but it soon opens up to some better looking surroundings, at approx 12:30 we arrived at the Glengoyne Distillery, where we enjoyed a few free samples of the local produce.

                                         Slackers at Milngavie start of the way

Left the the Distillery and walked about ½ mile to the Beech Tree Inn for our first pint of Guinness  not bad we had walked about 6 miles so needed a pint.

After leaving the pub the shone broke through and the afternoon stroll was indeed very pleasant next stop was at Gartness, a pretty little hamlet with a high bridge over Endrick Water, where they had an  honesty shop outside one of the houses.

                                                  Honesty Shop at Gartness

From here the walk into Drymen is pretty straight forward, we reached Drymen in good time and our B&B accommodation was fantastic.

                                                           The Follower

                                        

Whilst sitting at the Pub in Drymen enjoying the evening sun, we met for the first time (but certainly not he last) the team from Forfar aka the Forfar Bridies,this team of ladies (and George) have our utmost respect for getting to the end. Well Done !!!

We would share some fun times with the Forfar Bridies enroute but alas I never got a picture of them on the trail as they were too fast for us, so if you read this send me a pic for the blogJ

Day 2 – Drymen to Rowardennan

Miles 14

Accommadation – Rowardennan Youth Hostel

Star Rating * (Turkish Jail Cell)

Lovely morning for leaving Drymen, although rain was forecast for later in the Day, had a fantastic breakfast at the B&B, over which we met Julie and Eileen (the borders beauties :-) ) two nurses from the Borders , we walked together for the fisrt part of the walk out of Drymen towards Garadhban Forest, here we parted company as the girls were machine like when it came to walking (not Slackers like us).

                                          Julie and Eileen

                                                                                   

We made our way towards Connich Hill a steep wee climb but with some fantastic views of Loch Lomond worth the climb..

                                           Loch lomond from Connich hIll

As we were descending into Balmaha for lunch at the Oaktree Inn, we met John and Christine Gillan,who were out for an afternoon stroll, Christine had worked at Golden Casket in Greenock for many years, was nice to meet you.... btw we made it J

                                          John and Christine on Connich Hill             

    

After Lunch we made our way out of Balmaha past the Marina enroute to Rowardennan.

                                         Balmaha Marina Loch Lomond

Before long we had reach the shoreline path round towards Millorochy Bay on the east side of loch Lomond, where not long after these pictures where taken it started to rain ..heavily

Shore line East side Loch Lomond

Before long we had arrived in the forest path near to our Hostel,

                                                      
                                          Charlie and John on Approach to Rowardennan

The Hostel itself from the outside is magnificent and set in magnificent surroundings too , however inside it wasn’t the best, more like a Turkish jail cell.

The cooked (uncooked) breakfast was the worst we ever had shockingly bad and at £80 for 4 excl Breakfast not good value…so long fairwell never again.

Dinner at the Hotel was good (steak pie and we were starving) and again we met the Forfar team and Juile and Eileen all pretty wiped out after a hard days walking.

We are Back - Job Done - Fait Accomplis

We are back, and without a single blister. ooja

Delighted to have made it and met lots of lovely people on the way.

Given the amount of pictures it will take a day or so to post them all...check back soon for the full report.

In the meantime a small sample

                                The Slackers at the top of the Devils Staircase

10 miles to the Kings House from here Start of Rannoch Moor

                                      The Slackers official trip sponsor :-)

Be Back soon - missing you Already

The Slackers are on the way, please check back for our pictures and wonderous stories of our amazing travels.

We will try and update the Blog en-route however this may not be possible due to technical difficulties i.e. I dont have an iphone4 ...yet.

The Slackers

Sunday 22nd April Milgavie - Saturday 28th April Fort William

Well folks final plans are afoot for our trip departing Milgavie on Sunday 22nd April 2012 at 09:00am  and arriving in Fort William on the Saturday 28th April 2012.

Will update the Blog on our return with lots of pictures and tales of our travels...

check back for full trip report and pictures :-)

The Slackers.

Ben Ime One out of three aint bad..Saturday April 14th

Ben Ime

Ascent 1011m

Time 5.5hrs

This was the final training walk for The Slackers before heading off on the

West Highland Way on the 22^nd April, so we decided to try and make it a good one.

The initial plan was to walk up Ben Narnain, cross over to Ben Ime, and then if time allowed head up The cobbler, however this was always an ambitious plan, one which ultimately did not materialise, we climbed Ben Ime which proved to be a good enough challenge.

                                                                      Starting point

                                                    

The Weather en-route was changeable, initially we had a fine clear morning (though  cold) followed by periods being overcast with a cold cutting wind and some small snow flurries from time to time, we did however get a great view of the cobbler summit on the way up.

                                                        Rocky Mountain High

We decided to stop for lunch half way up Ben Ime as we had been advised by walkers on the way down that it was freezing and blowing a gale  on the Summit, turns out this was not the case as the weather on the summit was superb.

We managed to find a small cavity in the hillside which allowed Charlie to finally fire up his Trangia  gas stove to boil water for his tea and vacuum packed dinner, although in the cold wind it seem to take forever for the water to boil (really is was 10 minutes).

Whilst here we met Michael and David, who where on there way down from their second summit of the day (must have been up early guys)the guys where really impressed with our base camp, though in reality they could not believe Charlie was daft enough to be boiling water on a freezing hillside.

Michael had found an Antler which was quite impressive as its not the kind of thing you find lying around every day, after mercilessly winding Charlie up re: his vacuum packed lunch and gas stove, we said goodbye and the guys made their way home.

                                                                 The Early Birds

Michael,s six point antler (nice one)

After lunch we continued our ascent into the snow covered hill  and we met Duncan.

                                                                        Duncan (the Medic)

Duncan proved walk with us for most of the trip and proved a handy travel companion (being a medic in the Royal Navy, with a bag full of medical supplies) this gave us some renewed vigour when it came to talking the more icy tricky parts of the walk. We were in good hands in the event of a man down situation.

Duncan also has a keen interest in photography and geology and he was able to keep us informed about the different rocks formations and associated minerals, however he forgot his gin for his summit toast (really should be Malt whiskey Duncan), but he did remember the Fig rolls..

The following Panorama View has been sent by Duncan... WOW...

                                                Charlie and Duncan on approach to Summit

BLT and 90Rocks 100m from Summit

We cracked on through some marshy ground until we reached the snow, by now we were getting close to the summit and the snow was getting deeper and slippery in places, eventually after around 3hrs form Arrochar we made the snowy summit, and every step was worth taking.

As we set foot on the summit the sun exploded through the clouds giving us the opportunity for some great views and amazing pictures.

                                      Snowy Summit  Ben Lomond in Distance(spectacular)

Great Views West

BLT and 90Rocks at Cairn

On the summit we met up again with Peter again (he had passed us earlier) he had come over to Arrochar from Dunlop on his first Munro trip of the season.

                                                                    Peter

On the summit we also met Jules (pictured in shorts and straw hat) and his walking buddies from Tillicoultry (a really nice friendly group) , the girls had thought they were going for a nice walk and some lunch but they fell victim to Jules Wanderlust, he was on a mission to claim Ben Ime as munro number 165 and I do believe (after he galloped past us on the way down  the hillside that Ben Narnain may also have become number 166 ..great achievement.

                                                          Jules and the crew

                                                           

After saying good –bye to the folks gathered on the summit we started back to Arrochar , the weather by now was lovely and sunny and made for a pleasurable descent.

                                                    Charlie (narnain Boulders)

We stopped at the Narnain boulders where we met Audrey who was having a rest on her way down from the Cobbler, we would meet her for a second time in Ben Arthurs Bothy were we had a beer and watched the Grand National but no winners.

                                                         Audrey in the Bothy

So alas not a lot we can do now , the boots are well worn in and the kit all tested so it is all systems go for next Sunday and I personally feel our prep has been good.

We have had a magnificent time readying ourselves for this walk, and have met some great folks on the way that we would hope to meet again…

BLT (The Slackers)

Saturday April 14th The Slacker last training walk.

The Slackers final training walk for the West Highland Way 2012 will be on Saturday 14^th April,  and Ben Narnain  will be the venue for our days walking.

The Follower is unavailable this weekend due to a previously arranged engagement in Inveraray , (enjoy the party John) and is leaving BLT and 90Rocks to complete the training schedule, he has assured the team he will put in a few extra walking shifts mid-week to maintain his fitness.

Check back for trip report and pics (I have had some basic training from The Follower on how to photograph landscapes correctly) from this weeks walk

Inverkip - Greenock Cut loop Saturday 7th April

Saturday 7th April saw "The Slackers"  penultimate training walk for the WHW 2012 and to be honest it was more about getting the miles in and debugging what will be our chosen walking kit , more than anything else, and having done this route several times we knew what to expect.

 It had to be a local walk for The Slackers this weekend, as we couldn’t leave until 11:00 am solely to give 90Rocks time to recover from his “Friday nights Smith Tribute Band Swally” but hey its Easter weekend so we cut him some slack..

The Follower  the official tour photographer had forgotten his camera, (he is forgetting stuff on a regular basis now we are getting worried about him.)
So it was down to 90Rocks iPhone4 camera to record the day in picture..Im afraid most are too pish to use (judge for yourself)..still fair play for trying Charlie.

                                             Charlies Iphone pic of BLT and The Follower

Whilst the Greenock cut loop allows for some fantastic views over some of the Scottish Isles (Arran , Bute, Cumbrae )  it pales into insignificance when compared to some of the walks we have done in  the past month,(namely Bute and Glen Loin)

The weather on Saturday was kind to us, (it stayed mainly overcast) it can be a slog from the main street of Inverkip to the Hills above Cornalees Visitor centre if its too warm and just downright miserable when wet.

The access road is closed to traffiic going via Shielhill farm due to subsidence during the winter storms, so we could saunter up the hill without fear of being mown down. 

All in All todays walk was pretty good, with only sporadic light rain,  the highlight of the day was collecting water for our Malt Whisky  from a small well created during the First WW by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

We completed the 12 miles in approx 4hrs 40mins, The Station Bar in Wemyss Bay provided the Apez Walk refreshments