Our last two nights on the West Highland Way we spend camping in the wild. Not that it was really wilderness or anything – we even had a pint of beer in a pub which was not even 100 m from our tent. The only problem we had while cooking and setting up the tent were the many midges flying around us. We were tempted to buy midge repellent for the last night, but decided against it. We just had to be quick on everything.

From Kingshouse to Kinlochleven, the second last part, it was only 14 km, so we arrived quite early. Since the last stretch would be the longest and since we didn’t know about camping possibilities along the way, we pitched our tent right past Kinlochleven. And because there was nothing much to do we went to bed at 8 p.m. That way we were still able to get up at 5.30 a.m.the next morning.

Getting up early was really important for the last part, which was 24 km (and 750 m up and down) to get to Fort William. As we walked into town we met the Germans again, who had visited the brewery with us on the first day. However, after a short while we realized that we were not yet done with walking for today – our next hostel was about an hours walk away, in one the suburbs of Fort William… The possibilities of taking a train or a bus didn’t occur to us as we thought it would be closer.

Wednesday was our day to relax. It started really great with a real English breakfast. Then we took the train to Mallaig, a small town on the coast. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as nice as predicted and we couldn’t find the beautiful sandy beach that was promised. We did enjoy some fresh fish and chips though!

We spend as much time as possible at the Drovers Inn to keep out of the rain. Late in the afternoon we had to leave in order to reach our destination for today. On the way we picked up an old newspaper to dry our shoes in the night. Benno was captivated although the news were from last Monday. Somehow we’re not connected to the real world anymore.

Our next campsite was located in a dark forest. It was protected against any storm and light rain. Additionally, the forest floor was nice and soft with all the needles.

Saturday was better weather with only few light showers during the day. We continued our journey with the next stop at Bridge of Orchy. We had booked a bunk bed in a B’n’b, which turned out to be the old railway station building. The two platforms are still in use, but only very few trains pass by every day. One of them is the famous Royal Scotsman!

We left without breakfast since we weren’t allowed to use our camping cooker on the platforms. We didn’t follow the advice of the B’n’b owner (“the track over the mountains is muddy and in disrepair – use the road that goes around the mountain”) and continued on the normal track. It was definitely not close to being as bad as he had predicted, but on the other hand he didn’t look like he was doing a lot of hiking himself. It turned out to be one of the nicest parts of the West Highland Way.

After Benno arrived on Sunday we went shopping for the next few days. And where do the locals go for shopping? Right, to Aldi. 🙂 Back at our AirBnb place we distributed everything – the full cart had been more than 12 kg! And yes, that’s without packaging (but no glass containers and just one little can of tuna). Let’s see how far we can get on this alone!

On Monday we started out quite early. Unfortunately we had to learn that it’s not possible to buy alcohol before 10 a.m. Our plan was to get a little bit of whisky to fill our newly acquired flasks. We boarded the train without any alcohol. 25 mins later we found ourselves in Milngavie (pronounced like “Mulgey”, wherever that comes from). This is where the West Highland Way (WHW) starts.

Our backs were still in place and our feet fresh. We were highly motivated. The WHW starts slowly with a long stretch through the woods. Along the way we found more people who were heading in the same direction as us. As previously in Australia and New Zealand, most of them were Germans. It seems like they’re everywhere! With three of them we went on a tour of the Glengoyne Distillery. However most of their whiskys are out of our price range for this trip (mostly because the taxes on alcohol are much higher over here). We did end up buying 200 ml of single malt whisky. The “single” indicates that it has been produced by only one distillery.

In the evening we set up our tent close to Drymen (say “Drimin”), at a little farm. Once again, most people there were Germans. The three of us were still dry men, compared to the three French guys, who emptied a whole bottle of whisky that evening – they were celebrating the end of their tour, as they were doing the WHW the other way around. They were also quite helpful and gave us some tips for the tour.