WHW Apr 16, Day 6 - Lairigmor to Fort William (10 miles)

Day 6 

Lairigmor to Fort William
10 miles

Scotland in April + a bit of altitude and a shaded glen sets it up nicely for a bloody cold crisp, frosty morning

But, waking up in the Scottish hills is unbeatable

looking back up the Glen towards Kinlochleven, the sun is finally starting to poke over the hills

and things are starting to defrost, the route out is straight down and around the corner, hidden to the right

The walk out of the glen was a bit longer than i realised TBH, i was glad i hadn't stopped in Kinlochleven yesterday as that would have added another 3 or 4 miles onto the final days walking today. 

After leaving the glen, there's quite a bit of up and down bits, the majority through the track meanders through felled forrestry, eventually you leave the landrover track and move onto a very pleasant narrow trail, for the last few miles. 

On cresting a wee rise Ben Nevis appears, this was as good a place as any for my first and only stop of the day, it was very pleasant sitting in the sun with a bottle of water and a snickers bar.

After 20 minutes chilling it was bergan back on for the next mile or two of gradual  decent through mature forrestry .

steeper than they look, it amused me that the handrail is on the "safe" side, the open side has a wee drop down to a burn. This is pretty near the bottom of the wee glen. All that remains is an easy shortish but final climb of the WHW.

After the wee climb the trail joins another forestry/logging track above Glen Nevis, looking across to the Ben you can see the traffic build up on the "tourist path" to the top.

it's downhill all the way from here for the WHW though, I thought it was quite a long drag down to the Nevis centre, (worse coming up i imagine) but I was suffering a wee bit of a dodgy belly and couldn't make up my mind wether to stick or twist, my stomach suddenly decided to twist and a very rapid journey off trail and into the trees ensued.

 On reaching the Glen floor the final few miles are completed on tarmack along side roads that get steadily busier the closer you get to trails end. The end of the WHW was a bit of a disappointment for me, after coming down from the hills, your left with a 2 or 3 mile walk into town, alongside what becomes a very busy road, i passed the old finish, but couldn't be bothered walking to the official/corporate finish at the other end of town and only walked as far as the train/bus station.

Theres a nice cafe above an outdoor shop opposite the bus/train station, i met my lift there, had a huge tasty burger and pint or two of Guinness before heading through to Aviemore for a well deserved night out.

Overall the walk along the WHW was ok, the last 2 1/2 days were really enjoyable, great scenery and mostly away from roads/civilisation. I wouldn't want to do the Glasgow to Loch Lomond to Tyndrum bits again, mind you the way it's going with the loch Lomond park authorities I expect walkers to be banned soon if they don't buy a #LLTNPA 'r' Ace T shirt and camp where they're told (at a premium price of course).

Back to Day 5