WHW Day 2 Garadhban Forest to Inversnaid Part 2

From the Clansman Bar I only made it a few hundred yards, as far as another new Tourist outpost. I'd stopped to look at the OS map on the wall (interesting to see the difference between that and my Harveys) when I was approached by a middle aged Scottish guy, holding a saucepan containing tomato soup (it was also around his mouth and on his chin). I had quite an entertaining chat with him, talking about the upcoming Rob Roy Prison section and whether to take the high road or the low road. In between slurps of tomato soup he proclaimed dire warnings about the low road route along the Loch. I didn't discard his proclamations either; I had followed this route on my last outing here and knew it contained plenty of challenging sections of scrambling up the Lochside rocks, climbing over tree roots and in places where the path had been completely washed away down the bank, having to make a leap for it.
He continued to tell me stories about the changing tenants at both the Rowardennan and Inversnaid Hotels, how he'd dined with millionaires there and how they regarded the walkers. It seemed a little incongruous to me as he reminded me of Jessie from the Fast Show.

The young Polish guy I'd passed a few hours ago walked in at a very opportune moment so I introduced them to eachother and made my exit! I passed the official wild camp area that Steve Horner had photoed a couple of days prior to my passing there. Where his photo had shown a mass of tents, some even being of the multi berth mamoth variety, the site was clear. But it was only mid afternoon and mid week so I could easily see how that spot would become over run. Not for me!
I passed the start of the Ptarmigan route up to Ben Lomond and came to the intersection. Do I take the Road Less Travelled?

Well, I stood for about a minute having an internal debate when three lads in their late teens came down from the high road and they joined in too. One had trekking poles with him so we had a chat about that; one of the others seemed a bit defensive, almost as if he was wondering what a WOMAN was doing walking the Way (did it undermine his sense of achievement I wondered?). I decided on going the easier high road; I really wasn't in the mood for a Lochside version of Total Wipeout.
To be honest I found that next section rather tedious and wondered if I'd made the right decision, save for the sometimes cloud obscured views over to The Cobbler (Ben Arthur). I took a seat on a bench at the top of the hill where a well established camp fire had seen plenty of use. In this case someone had decided to burn their Sorbothane insoles with a tin of Heinz Baked Beans. A curious combination!

A little chaffinch hopped around hopefully so I gave it a piece of a snickers bar, the closest thing to hand, thinking to not give it something too gooey or it could stick it's beak together!
The next section of the walk seemed interminably long although very pretty. I had wanted to reach Inversnaid Hotel and to carry on, potentially to the official camp site. The nature of the terrain changed to more natural woodland and the section near Cailness was quite idyllic. I picked a few wild raspberries which were dense with flavour, surprised that the birds hadn't had them. The bilberries were out in abundance too so very soon my fingers were stained with their juice!
Gradually it got a little more rocky. At a turn, I glimpsed through the wood to see a solid, dark mass that I guessed was Inversnaid. I was right, but since I'd been there last the hotel had had a make over. No longer was it the dark, brooding building that I remembered, instead it had been given a cream coating and actually looked relatively inviting. I have an over riding memory of feeling distinctly unwelcome as a walker, using the rear entrance to the bar in the past and feeling as if I was an annoyance! This time I went in through the Hotel lobby, had a pint of lager shandy and went back outside.
At least three coach loads of older people arrived and a pair of couples soon came along and sat near me. They were looking at me and seemed to be searching for something. I said hello to them and they asked me if I was walking the WHW.
"Are you on your own?", one of the women asked.
"Yes", I said.
"You're very brave", said one of the men.
They started taking photographs and then asked me to take one of them. I asked them to take one of me, too.

I'm not massively keen on pics of me but here I am after about 18 miles of walking!
As the pics were being taken, another walker appeared and then seemed to hovver in the background slightly. I saw he had a Backpackers Club badge sewn on to his hat so greeted him. His name was Tony Whewell and is a gear tester who regularly writes reviews for the quarterly magazine. He was walking the WHW as part of his LEJOG walk.

We took great delight in being very nosey and comparing kit, reeling off the weight of items off the top of our heads. He was using a GoLite Pinnacle and testing a pair of Pacerpoles for the woman who holds the patent and was to write a review of them for the mag.
Midges were starting to swarm around us so I finished my drink and agreed to walk with him from Inversnaid for a while. By then it was about half past 7 but felt as if I had oodles of energy still and wanted to camp well past the 'official' site; I'd seen a group of about 5-6 German people headed up there with large packs on; one of them had commented to me in the ladies loos that she wished her pack was as small as mine!
So we started to walk; I enjoyed the company and we seemed to walk at a similar pace. Tony had completed this years TGO Challenge which is a goal of mine for 2011, so there was a lot of interesting conversation to be had.
We carried on, passing the official spot and encampment, then passed a couple more WHWers. I was more than happy to walk a fair bit further. We passed a lovely area where hazelnuts were laying on the ground ready to be picked up and eaten or roasted. Tony had a woodburning stove (not sure which one now) so I told him how he could use the hot ashes to gently roast them off. Between us we picked a couple of handfuls and he stashed them away. He told me about all the raspberries he'd eaten. My fingers were still tinged blue-black from the bilberries I'd eaten along the way.
The path became rockier and a small amount of scrambling was needed to get over some of the larger boulders that were part of the route. It wasn't difficult at all and added an extra dimension. But by now 8 o'clock had rolled past and we were looking for somewhere to stay. There were plenty of options but I wanted to camp on my own, even if I were to meet Tony again the next day (I rarely walk with people so sometimes am a bit shy!). After a while I spotted a lovely raised but flat grassy promontory that gave way to a little beach. I pointed it out to Tony who said he'd stop there for the night. We parted and I carried on for another four hundred yards or so and found a spot on a small gravel beach that had a small burn flowing into the Loch right next to it. I pitched directly onto the gravel after clearing away some of the larger or pointy rocks, briefly considering my tents groundsheet but, hey, my tent is 17, I'm not going to get that much more life out of it anyway!

I had to use rocks to guy it out in places but it was pretty comfortable under foot. I had something to eat and a short wander along the beach, admiring the incredible sunset that graced my view.

It was a beautiful evening.

It got dark very quickly so after quite a long and tiring, though incredibly rewarding and interesting day, I bade the world goodnight and got my head down to sleep.