Today we left Tain and headed for Helmsdale (Brora)

Today Barath would start walking with us and Lynn and Mike would join later in the day and Elizabeth was helping with transport logistics.

We drove to Evelix, where we finished walking yesterday, to restart our progress to John O’Groats. It was pretty chilly this morning (I think about 5c) as we left but with the rising sun and the feisty traffic on the A9 we warmed up soon enough.

As we approached The Mound, we passed the 1,300 kilometre mark – definitely not long to goo now. The Mound is a causeway across the mouth of the River Fleet. A passenger ferry once crossed at Littleferry at the opposite end of Loch fleet but, in 1816, this new embankment and road were completed by noted engineer Thomas Telford(1757 – 1834) who constructed a stone-arched bridge over a narrow river channel at the northeastern end of The Mound, and modified this bridge seventeen years later in 1833.

We picked up lunch (and swapped Barath for Lynn) in Golspie and then headed further along the A9 to Brora – this is where our hotel is for the night but with smoothing out the daily distances we still had quite a way to go (17 km).

By now the traffic had eased from heavy to mildly heavy, gaps between batches of traffic but still plenty of HGVs, Camper Vans and Taxi Drivers not paying attention to deal with. The weather was nice and sunny without being too hot as we passed alongside Brora golf course and the beach (which looked very tempting even if the water is probably of arctic temperature).

As we approached Helmsdale, a brief shower provided a good rainbow just off the coast – the closer we got to it the more it moved away! A family of squabbling turkeys got our attention and then we made it into Helmsdale. Rather than stop there, we took in a little bit of the hill (saves doing straight after breakfast tomorrow) and finished the day in East Helmsdale.

Tomorrow we will head just past Lybster.

And as you can see below, we are nearly there – just two more days to go

Today we left Dingwall and headed to Tain

Today we had Barat and Lynn walking from the start (Mike would join later) and Elizabeth (wearing her bunny ears) helping with travel logistics.

We actually started from somewhere close to Ardullie (about 6km outside Dingwall) as that was where we walked to last night – we will overshoot by about 5-6km per day today and tomorrow to reduce the lengthy last two days. The sun was rising above the Cromaty Firth and the sky was also filled with migrating geese – fascinating to watch the patterns they make as various “flights” join together and separate – the noise above us was incredible as well. Then we passed the most adorable little Shetland Pony – their average height is about 102 cm (40 inches; unlike other horses, Shetlands are not measured in hands) with a maximum height of about 117 cm.

As we continued down the road towards Tain, we passed through Evanton with further nice views of Cromaty Firth. In the distance, on top of Cnoc Fyrish (453m) we could just about see a building – this is the Fyrish Monument which was built in 1782 on the orders of Sir Hector Munro 8th of Novar, a native lord of the area who had served in India as a general. As the local population were being cleared off the land they had worked for centuries by the Lords of the Land, survival was a problem and so it was built to keep the locals in labour. It was said that Sir Hector rolled stones from the top of the hill to the bottom, thereby extending the amount of time worked and paying the labourers for additional hours. The monument represents the Gate of Negapatam, a port in Madras, India, which General Munro took for the British in 1781.

As we passed by Invergordon in the distance we could see that the number of oil rigs / platforms being stored in the Firth looked to have increased from last year. At this stage we passed a team who were supporting a guy from Exeter who was skateboarding from John O’Groats to Land’s End – if you thought we were mad well this is another level! We then (finally) passed our 800 mile milestone, meaning less than 100 miles to go – quite a moment.

We passed Tain (our scheduled stop for the night) but due to our plan to overshoot each day we still had another 11 km to cover. We had some spectacular views of Dornoch Firth as we walked down towards, and then crossed, the Dornoch Firth Bridge. Dornoch Firth is designated as a national scenic area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. The remainder of the day was spent on the busy A9 (due to be our companion now for Wednesday and Thursday) as we reached our stopping point for the day. On the way it was good to finally see John O’Groats represented on a mileage sign!

Tomorrow we will head for Helmsdale (about 15km past our hotel in Brora).

It’s strange to think that our adventure is nearly over (again).

Today we left Drumnadrochit and headed to Dingwall

Today we had Mike and Ben (Ken) walking with us and Elizabeth and Lynn providing the logistical support.

It had been raining heavily all night and all the predictions were that this would continue for most of the day. We all arrived downstairs for breakfast at our agreed (by the hotel) time of 8am to discover nobody present – after several phone calls and no progress we left without breakfast as we couldn’t wait any longer. Elizabeth, Lynn and Dal were staying a bit later and I believe suitable reparations were made by the hotel. So after a coffee stop at the first petrol station we headed up a nasty hill in the pouring rain – to say there were rivers flowing down the road would be an understatement. The hill was about 160m climb in about 30 mins – so pretty steep. The rain didn’t abate at the top but at least we were walking on the flat.

We made our way into Beauly by crossing the River Beauly and buying some lunch in a very nice delicatessen opposite the Boer War memorial. While lunch was packed away for later in the afternoon we did avail of coffee and some awesome scones.

After leaving Beauly we spotted a group of Alpacas who, while being very curious, look so funny with their hair styles. There were also a couple of Highland Cows that were doing their best not to be photographed but with a bit of patience the mugshots were taken. Highland Cattle are a Scottish breed of rustic cattle. They originated in the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland and have long horns and a long shaggy coat. They are a hardy breed, bred to withstand the intemperate conditions in the region. The first herd-book dates from 1885 and there are two types – a smaller island type, usually black, and a larger mainland type, usually dun – both were registered as a single breed.

We saw Ben Wyvis in the distance (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Uais, meaning “hill of terror”). The mountain (1046m) stands on the northern edge of historic lands of Clan Munro. By tradition, the Munros held their land from the Crown. The king declared that they held their lands on condition of furnishing a snowball at midsummer if required. This condition they could easily fulfil, as snow was to be found in some of the mountain corries of their property all year round.

We passed some fly fishermen in the River Conon on our way into Dingwall (home of Ross County Football Club) and our accommodation for the night. The rain had stopped shortly after Beauly so we were mostly dried out by the time we finished walking.

Tomorrow we head to Tain.

Today we had Ben (Ken) and Dal walking with us with Mike and Lynn both walking and taking care of transport logistics. Dal decided to up his game today by wearing his wife’s trousers – he looked very fetching in them!

The day started with rain as we watched from the breakfast room. Mercifully it stopped by the time we left and would not reappear for the whole day. We started out by doing a bit of a route march down the A82 for the first couple of miles (rather than climbing up into the hills straight after breakfast). It was early Sunday morning and the (normally very busy) road was very quiet – never the less we made a good pace to get off the road as quickly as possible. We had some nice views of Loch Oich (every autumn the Atlantic Salmon migrate from the sea using Loch Oich, Loch Lochy and Loch Ness as their spawning nests) and turned off the A82 at the Bridge of Oich (last picture).

We then walked along the Caledonian Canal footpath as far as Fort Augustus and its multiple locks. We were treated to sunshine and some beautiful reflections on the very still canal waters and passed our 1,200 kilometre milestone today. The canal itself was very quiet until we reached Fort Augustus where the main lock had 7-8 boats in it all ready to make the journey downstream. Time for a coffee and scone stop and then we were off again.

From Fort Augustus we thought we might try another sneaky walk along the A82 and avoid a bit of a climb, but one look at the coaches that went along the road convinced us otherwise. So up we went and along the Great Glen Way, with some enticing views of Loch Ness through the trees until the inevitable descent down into Invermoriston. We picked up our lunch (for later in the day) from Mike who then walked with us for the next while – and we dropped Lynn off as she had walked from Fort Augustus.

We remembered (and not with any fondness) the descent into Invermoriston from last year and, sure enough, it was still there except that it was now a lung busting 150m plus climb in a relatively short period of time. Once at the top we had a choice of high or low route alongside Loch Ness. As we had done the high route last year the low route became the route of choice. Some absolutely spectacular views of the Loch and some lovely weather hinted towards a smooth passage. Then we hit an almighty climb up a never-ending steep hill – so much for the “low” route. Anyway, once conquered it was time to sit down, recoup for a small bit and have lunch.

We then continued on and, once out of the forest, the landscape changed completely and (after getting a bit off track) we stopped at a cafe (seemed more like someone’s house to be honest) for a tea and coffee before heading down a steep incline and into Drumnadrochit.

Maybe not our hardest day (we’ll reserve Loch Lomond for that) but certainly a tough one.

Tomorrow we head to Dingwall.

Today we left Fort William and headed for Invergarry

Today Ben (Ken) was walking with us and Mike and Lynn were walking and taking care of transport logistics.

As we left Fort William the weather forecast was cloudy, warm and mainly dry for the day. We crossed the River Nevis and then the River Lochy, which flows southwest along the Great Glen from Loch Lochy to Loch Linnhe at Fort William. We then got to the Caledonian Canal at the start of Neptune’s Staircase and followed the footpath right up to the start of Loch Lochy.

As we walked along, Ben Nevis was doing its best to peek out from the clouds (but not really succeeding). The tow path was very quiet, we only had a handful of runners and cyclists coming towards us all morning. A large family of ducks were enjoying the peace and quiet. We are then passed the Moy Bridge (a two part small traffic swing bridge) and then came to the Gairlochy Swing Bridge (last year we had to wait while it was in operation).

We were passed by a troop of commandos out on a training run – one of them managed to gasp that they had to run 6.7 miles (10.72 km) uphill in an hour, wearing boots and carrying a 36 lb (16.3 kg) pack. They all looked completely shot as they passed us!

We met Mike at the Laggan Lochs (between Loch Lochy and Loch Oich) to collect our lunch and then he joined for another spell before heading back to the car to meet us in Invergarry. Our path then took us up into the forests above Loch Oich and keeping us away from the A82. A few surprise hills awaited us in the forest before long descent down to Invergarry.

The rain mostly kept away for the day, every time it started and we put coats on – it stopped! Overall an enjoyable day, the views from the paths high above the lochs are wonderful (more of those tomorrow over Loch Ness).

Tomorrow we head to Drumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness.

Here is this week’s map of how far we have come – only 6 more walking days

Today we left Kinlochleven and headed to Fort William

Today Mike Z, Ben (Ken) were walking with us and Mike P was reprising walking and providing transport logistics

Kinlochleven was formed from two previously separate small communities – Kinlochmore to the north of the River Leven in Inverness-shire and Kinlochbeg to the south of the Leven in Argyll – following the construction of an aluminium smelter and associated housing for its employees. The processing plant was powered by a hydroelectric scheme situated in the mountains above, and made Kinlochleven the first village in the world to have every house connected to electricity, coining the phrase “The Electric Village”

The weather looked promising today as we crossed the River Leven (in full flow from the hydro plant) and then started the climb out of the village. Ascending 240 metres in 30 minutes after breakfast is not for the faint-hearted – we were all puffing a bit at the top as the climb levelled out.

Mike P did his usual trick of walking up the climb with us and then turning round and walking back down to collect the car before heading to Fort William.

Despite the overcast weather the views were simply wonderful and the streams / waterfalls were in full flow from all the recent rain. The noise of very fast water should be heard well in advance of actually crossing it. The path varied in surface texture meaning some easy walking and some hard walking but overall not as bad as Telford’s Road of yesterday.

As we moved along past Stob Ban (999m) with its head in the clouds and a couple of 900m plus peaks the sun attempted a brief appearance on the other side of the valley, even causing a brief rainbow to appear. We also had some quite windy periods where the low lying cloud was thrown at us – probably not actual rain but it sure felt like it.

The scenery changed somewhat as we moved into the Nevis Forest the scenery (obviously!) changed a lot and then we had our first glimpse of the Fort William area in the distance. Halfway down the long descent, and this time is was actually raining, we passed our 700 mile milestone. Arriving in Fort William we had covered 24 km (15 miles) today, so relatively short compared to other days. Considering the effort to get from Inversnaid to Fort William in 3 days this year (102km / 64 miles and 2,321 metres of ascent) it seems insane that we did that in just two days last year!

Tomorrow we head for Invergarry on the Great Glen Way

Today we left Bridge of Orchy and headed to Kinlochleven

Today we had Mike Z walking with us today and Mike P part walking and providing transport logistics.

As we left Bridge of Orchy it was raining and pretty windy. Overnight the wind was strong enough to wake us up and the forecast was for winds in the morning of up to 50 mph. So we were looking forward to another “weather” day. We crossed the River Orchy, one of the finest white water rivers in the UK, and headed towards the Inveronan Hotel (last accommodation on the west highland way until Kingshouse. Moody weather made for great scenery and then we saw a family of red deer wandering across in front of us.

The drove road mentioned in the photo was actually built by Thomas Telford in the early 19th century. Cattle were shod (like horses) for their journey down this road.

As we walked across Rannoch Moor (along Telford’s Road!) we were lucky that the wind mainly dropped and the rain only made sporadic appearances. The path itself was particularly hard to walk on for large stretches, no wonder the cattle were shod!

We made it to the car park of the Kingshouse Hotel in good time where Mike P was waiting with our lunch – which was then safely stored in our backpacks for the top of the Devil’s Staircase.

After Kingshouse the path wound upwards (when does it ever not) and then back down to the start of the Devil’s Staircase. A bit of a slog to get to the top at c557m but we made it in good spirits and found somewhere out of the wind to sit down and have lunch. Having just climbed up, Mike P then went all the way back down to get the car and meet us in Kinlochleven.

The walk down towards Kinlochleven was quite long but a constant descent, getting quite steep in places. We passed our 1,100 kilometre milestone on the way down and walked into town via the operating hydro plant.

A tough day (not as tough as yesterday) but enjoyable and with some spectacular scenery.

Tomorrow we head for Fort William.

Today we left Inversnaid and headed for Bridge of Orchy

Today we had Mike and Graeme walking with us and Karen kindly taking our bags up to Bridge of Orchy.

Overnight there were three things of concern (for me anyway) about today (more about those later).

Rain was promised for the whole day and, by and large, the weather delivered. We started off with quite a hike downhill to the Inversnaid Pier and the turning onto the West Highland Way. Mike left his nice red car all alone in the car park – hope it’s there when he returns in a few days.

We started out on the path with memories of last year – we were already wet and tired, it was dark and we got lost once. So concern number one was that it would be as bad as last year. Happily it was tough but not nearly as much as we through and the forest protected us from much of the downpour.

After the very rocky bit the path evened out somewhat, although there was quite a steep set of “stairs” towards the end and various swearwords could be heard from the back! We then started the next section of the route which runs alongside the River Falloch. Concern number two was that a bridge was “missing” last year and this necessitated a detour through and down a muddy field to the next bridge. Anyway the bridge was still out but the concern was alleviated as we skipped across the river on some conveniently placed rocks and avoided the detour (last picture above).

After the walk by the river, we met Karen and handed Graeme back over as he had only planned to walk half of the day (the hardest part) with us. We then started on the third section of the day. This was concern number 3 – the route is so convoluted and phone signal (for the map) is so random. No need to worry though, the route was well signposted as we climbed high up into the forest and then trudged down the inevitable slope too eventually get to Tyndrum and some hot food in the Green Welly Stop. At this stage we were well and truly soaked, despite the waterproofs, so the food was very much needed.

After Tyndrum we started on the fourth, and final, stretch of the day. With all earlier concerns alleviated all we had to worry about was the rain, wind, soaked feet and tiredness. The volume of water falling from the sky was reflected in the speed of rivers, waterfalls and even a rainbow at one stage. We arrived at our stay for the night very, very tired and very, very wet – bizarrely we all agreed is was also a very enjoyable day.

Tomorrow we head further along the West Highland Way towards Kinlochleven.

Today we left Drymen and headed for Inversnaid

We started today with no-one walking with us but would meet Graeme and Karen halfway through when Graeme would walk the rest of the day us and Karen would drive our bags to Inversnaid.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Drymen was used as a stopover point for Highland cattle drovers as they made their way to and from markets in central Scotland. One mile from Drymen is the ruins of the country house Buchanan Castle, owned by the Duke of Montrose, which was also used as a hospital in World War II, and which housed Nazi senior officer Rudolf Hess. At one time the estate was also home to the seat of Clan Graham.

We left Drymen, unbeknown to us, on the Rob Roy Way – a Scottish long distance footpath that runs from Drymen in Stirling to Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross. As the sun rose and burned off the morning mist the views were lovely, there was no traffic and then shortly before we reached Aberfoyle, we passed our 1000 km mark. We also spotted a couple of red squirrels – they disappeared up the tree so fast that there was no chance of a photograph.

We met Graeme and Karen in Aberfoyle to buy a sandwich for later and Graeme to then walk with us. We also met Lynn (a colleague from work) who had very kindly made us scones, brownies and banana cake and was waiting for us with coffee as well!

Aberfoyle supposedly originates from the Brittonic Celtic, aber poll or aber phuill (Scottish Gaelic, Obar Phuill), meaning (place at the) mouth of the Phuill Burn (the Pow Burn enters the River Forth at Aberfoyle). 

Walking on, we passed many lovely houses, all in an excellent state of repair, and then many lakes and excellent views of Ben Lomond (974m and the most southerly Munro).

We spotted some Alpacas and then enjoyed our walk along the side of the lakes and marvelling at the views as we moved closer to our stop for the night. It also seemed only fair to include a picture of Graeme as he walked with us but wasn’t present for the early morning picture.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable walk, the weather was much better than advertised, the traffic was absent and it was good to arrive at our stop for the night in the daylight (last year we arrived here wet, cold and in the dark!).

Tomorrow we head for Bridge of Orchy along the West Highland Way – a challenge in itself in dry weather – but the heavens are proposing to drop their entire contents on us so I’ll report back tomorrow on how that goes.

Today we left Hamilton and headed for Drymen

Today we had no-one walking with us with Graeme picking up our bags and taking them up to Drymen. The hotel we were in is owned by Hamilton Park Racecourse which racecourse is a flat racing venue, with a season which runs from May to October. Racing has been staged in Hamilton since 1782 and it is now part of Scotland’s great sporting heritage. More than two centuries worth of punters have visited the course wanting to place a bet or simply just enjoy a grand day out at the races.

We started out from Hamilton bright and early – so early it was only about 8c, coldest start of the day so far. It took a while to warm up as we crossed the Clyde (again) and passed through the town of Bothwell.

As we walked into Uddingson, we passed the rather grandiose entrance to Bothwell Castle Golf Club and then the Tunnocks factory and original baker’s shop. Tunnock’s was formed by Thomas Tunnock (b. 1865) as Tunnock’s in 1890, when he purchased a baker’s shop in Lorne Place, Uddingston. The company expanded in the 1950s, and it was at this time that the core products were introduced to the lines, when sugar and fat rationing meant that products with longer shelf-lives than cakes had to be produced. It is the 20th oldest family firm in Scotland.

On the way into Glasgow city centre we passed an impressive avenue of town houses in Tollcross and walked past Celtic Park – with a capacity of 60,411, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also known as Parkhead or Paradise.

We then passed through the centre of Glasgow and reached our 600 mile milestone.

Finally we moved on from urban areas with footpaths / pavements and got ready to spend 3 hours negotiating traffic on the A809. And this is where today’s blog title originates. The vast majority of traffic is considerate, slows down, moves out and the passengers even wave back at us. In the main, most of drivers who have driven at us, cursed us for having the temerity to be walking on a road and driven at very excessive speeds have been Audi drivers.

At this stage, when not looking out for the Ingolsdtat demons, the scenery was evolving into something quite spectacular while threatening rain. A few drops but thankfully nothing materialised. We spotted a new breed of yellow sheep but these are Blackface Sheep and are apparantly either dyed by farmers in advance of showing or it is the after effect of a sheep dip to prevent sheep scab. Finally we crossed Kendrick Water and came to our hotel for the evening.

Tomorrow we leave Drymen and head to Inversnaid on the shores of Loch Lomond.