WHW Day 6 Bridge of Orchy to Kinlochleven

Even after waking pretty late, I waited for a lull in the rain before I bothered to take the tent down. By now I had got into a routine of having things in their place, doing things in a certain order. That included the morning ritual of dressing the blisters on my feet! I had more blisters on my toes than on the ball or heel of my foot, so the compeed that I had weren't that much use; too big or too small but didn't fit the size of my blisters. Fortunately I had some micropore tape and a rectangle of melolin dressing; I used the scissors on my tiny Classic SD penknife to it cut to size. It worked pretty well; I didn't feel too much pain from them generally as this gave a bit of padding, and the tape was really old, which meant really sticky. It wasn't going to budge. At least not for a while.

I packed up, trying to shake off the rain from the tent fly. I package my fly and inner in separate dry bags in an attempt to preserve the inner, although the tent pitches outer first. When I came home I weighed the tent (it was still wet) and found I was carrying an extra 730g due to the rain!

Anyway this was going to be the day that I crossed Rannoch Moor. This was something I had been looking forward to, from well before I planned to do the walk a week or two before. Seeing the WHWers crossing Rannoch Moor from the comfort of my car often left me with a sense of yearning to be doing that too. I don't know why that bleak stretch of boggy waste appeals so much to me. Maybe it's the big lump of mountains behind it that sets it off? Sometimes I think of it as the dead marshes in Lord of the Rings, with the undead about to raise up and grab me! I set off through the plantation with some enthusiasm towards Mam Carraigh, which was about a mile and a half away.

From here the path dropped down towards the Western end of Loch Tulla and afforded some lovely views, in the mist.

As usual it got clearer lower down. It was an easy walk and when I came across the cairn the tiny rocks on the top really seemed to punctuate the landscape.

After this the track descended down to the Inveroran Hotel where I saw a pram and a trailer belonging to a couple who were doing the LEJOG. They'd apparently thought that the Rannoch Moor road would be okay for smaller wheels, but it ended up chewing up the prams wheels.

I didn't hang about; it was raining pretty steadily and I wanted to get on. But as soon as I turned around I saw the only deer I saw on the walk, not far ahead of me. I did stop for this!

It's not a great pic, but it does show how thick the weather was!

I thought the area around here was fascinating. I certainly felt a sense of excitement at being near bigger hills and passing a footpath sign near Victoria Bridge, signed for Glen Etive was awsome! It's one of my favourite places and set me thinking about walking routes to the glen from here, and the moutains directly ahead of me with the mass of Meall a Bhuiridh, though I couldn't actually see it...

I didn't take many more photos; I'd borrowed my Mum's camera and it was starting to get wet. I didn't want it to go the way of my phone so I'll take the opportunity now to apologise for the dearth of pics to come! Make the most of the few remaining!

Forest Lodge looked a bit out of place to me. I caught sight of a sign on the gate ahead, ominously directing those in doubt of their capability to stop at the campsite (grass) near to Inveroran Hotel as there was no help for the next 10miles. I hastened on. I was pretty wet through now but fine as long as I kept moving. The motivation to keep moving was great; if you stoped for more than a few seconds then the midges would descend despite the rain. I had picked up some flapjack in Tyndrum so munched on pieces of these instead of stopping for a proper break. And so I began my walk onto Rannoch Moor.

After a couple of miles or so I passed a couple of young French women who again had massive rucksacks and the smaller of the two really looked as if she was struggling. They were only going as far as Kingshouse, which at that point was about 8 miles away and it was still pretty well before lunchtime but they were walking incredibly slowly.

Setting Ba Bridge as a goal I carried on, the paths like streams again. The cloud seemed to descend over the moor, obscuring even close mountains from view. It was pretty oppressive, just as I was hoping for in a way! They say that Rannoch can be pretty inhospitable and I can imagine it could be a whole lot worse, although it would be great to cross it in snow or in sunshine. Either way, I was crossing the area I kept seeing and dreaming about.

I played a game with myself to keep moving; which 'Alt' would actually be Ba? Because there had been so much rain, most of the burns were flooded and you could see long grass submerged deep under the water, again remining me of LOTR. I found the right one though, and took a mini break (not as in the European weekend break) on the bridge. I got a bit cold. But warmed up quickly as I ran for it as the midges closed in for thair snap. I was getting pretty fed up with the persisting rain and midges and not being able to just (easily) stop and have a brew, which usually motivates me and keeps my spirits up. Since my rest day I was also feeling increasingly lonely without much contact with my friends and family. I had used my phone that morning to phone a friend (I didn't win) but the battery on my old phone runs out at a precipitous rate so I tried to preserve it. But I could feel myself getting lower. It got to a point where, when I encountered the group of 20 or so Amercians at the ruin near Beinn Chaorach, they said "Hi, how are you" and I thought, bugger it, I'm going to tell the truth, "Actually I feel incredibly lonely!". I felt as if I could almost cry! They were lovely and offered to be my friend and for me to walk with them, but I felt an amount of relief at just having said it, plus I really don't 'do' big groups of people, so I thanked them and carried on. And pretty soon left them behind.

Getting over the last hump near the curious cairn in memory of Ian Flemming's brother, Peter, the rain let up a bit. And then as it cleared a little more I rounded the hill and caught a glimpse of  Blackrock Cottage. Yes! Even better was the view of the lump of Buachaille Etive Mor in the cloud behind. An awesome sight.

With a little more energy I poled down the path, past the cottage and onwards towards Kingshouse. I saw a couple of backpackers trying to hitch a lift on the main road; more WHWers abandoning the walk? The number of people I met had dwindled remarkably. But it looked like they'd been there ages and weren't having much luck. Nobody seemed to want to stop in the rain.

I crossed the A82 and continued towards Kingshouse. It seemed everyone was headed for there, well the 20-odd Americans plus the French girls. It was only about 2pm though and I just didn't want to pitch up so early, despite a bit of nagging pain from my right hip flexor which seemed to want a fight. But as they say in the Forces, 'Stick your thumb up your 'bum', get your head down and carry on' (or words to that effect). So I carried on, past Kingshouse, munching on Flapjack and thinking with a small amount of sadness about the lager shandy I could have there. I was almost out of readies so wouldn't have been able to indulge that much anyway so the decision was pretty much made for me.

The next couple of miles of pain from Kingshouse to Altnafeadh were alleviated by the stunning though cloudy views towards Glencoe. There was a lot of low level cloud and mist spilling from the mouth of Glen Etive; the cloud seemed to hang slightly higher in Glencoe. It was brilliant to watch the patterns and to try to make sense of how it worked. But it was low enough to obscure my next destination; the top of the Devil's Staircase.

Heading up from Altnafeadh next to where I'd started the Buachaille walk a few weeks before felt a bit weird. As far as the walking went though it didn't seem too bad to me, not much different to going up Conic Hill, apart from I'd already walked about 15 miles. My hip seemed to prefer to go uphill! The initial bit wasn't too bad, just as I got to the start of the switchbacks I started to feel tired. I took it slowly, trying to keep a bit of rhythm and not caring if I needed to take the odd break to catch my breath. There wasn't anyone else around anyway! In fact the bloke delivering oil at Kingshouse was the last person I saw until I got to Kinlochleven.

I got to the top eventually but was surrounded by low cloud so didn't get a view. The heather was very pretty and I saw the odd bee. It didn't seem long before I'd started the descent, a bit boggy after all the rain but the area did feel a bit different now. I was again glad of my poles as I carried on down, past the end of Sron a Choire Odhair-bhig with a couple more switchbacks, over a footbridge without falling over (bonus)! Then the cloud lifted a little and I caught my first sight of the pipes! It wasn't long before I joined the head of them but then the path took me away into birch woods for a bit of a steep descent that my knee didn't like! I rejoined the pipeline for the the last drop of half a mile or so into Kinlochleven. By now I was shattered and my body was moaning at me for a break!

I camped at another proper site, and cheekily asked someone if they would give my phone a blast in their van so I'd be able to talk to someone that night! I just seemed to need some company but was so tired I didn't have the energy to engage in chat with a stranger. It had been an incredibly long and tiring day, though I was glad I hadn't stopped at Kingshouse, and it didn't take me long to fall asleep.