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AFFIRC KINTAIL WAYJuly 5th - 7th, 2019
July 5th, 2019 - day 1After walking the West Highland Way (
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=91105), climbing Ben Nevis (
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=91347), and finally taking a day off (sort of) in Glencoe Village, I was up at 6 am and packed up my wet tent. I was out of the Fort William campsite by 8 am, heading to town. A quick breakfast at the bus/train station and on to my bus toward Ault a’chruinn – basically an intersection of A87 and a road to Morvich, next to Loch Duich. I wouldn’t have even found out there was a bus stop, if I didn’t go to the tourist information office in Fort Williams to buy my ticket. I was originally thinking about starting in Shiel Bridge, but a lady in the office found a closer bus stop to Morvich. Since it was heavily raining since the morning, I was glad I was able to start closer to the official AKW starting point.
So the bus dropped me off at a junction, the driver pointed the way to Morvich and I was on my own. I found the little town and the start of the AKW easily, noted the new marker I should follow and within few steps I was out of cellphone signal/coverage. At first sheep and cows were my companions. Looking at me from a distance, usually, but at one point four young cows blocked the road, looking at me, measuring me. A quote from the Lord of the Rings jumped to my head: “The way is shut. It was made by the …. I guess Bovinae in this case … and the Bovinae keep it. The way is shut.” I snapped a picture of them and slowly approached, not to spook them. While they seemed curious about me, they were probably more afraid and quickly moved away and the road was clear. The area here is definitely the most remote out of the ones I walked through so far. And also the wildest. Beautiful munroes, countless wild streams (many of which I had to ford) and waterfalls feeding the river on the bottom of the glen. Cold wind and rain without a stop. The beauty of this place in not just the nature, though it is breathtaking. It is also the absolute lack of cellphone reception all the way to the eastern side of Glen Affric.
After about 4 hrs and 45 min I reached the Camban bothy. I had never been so glad to see a man-made structure in wilderness as I was when the bothy came into sight. An inviting dry place for the night. There were 5 people in, but 4 of them were only taking a break and drying off, before continuing to Morvich. The 5th one, Laura from Germany, was staying for the night. We had a lovely chat and started preparing dinner when another fellow hiker, Wenke from Belgium, joined us. We enjoyed nice warm dinner shared tea and had a lovely chat about hiking. Late at night, another hiker from Germany came in, so we had (almost) a full house for the night.
Note: there is a fireplace in the bothy, in both its rooms, but you need to bring your own wood. There is no chance to collect any nearby.
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- Loch Duich, Ault a’chruinn
July 6th, 2019 - day 2The rain stopped, thankfully. Laura, Wenke and I shared a quick breakfast. Laura headed out by 7 am, while Wenke and I took our time and followed her out around 8 am, each following our own path. Here and there a patches of blue sky showed up in the clouds, even a ray of sunshine. I made a good time and soon I was sipping a hot tea in the Althbeithe Youth Hostel. Graeme kept the fire going and let me dry my socks from the day before. They were not quite wet, just damp, but the fire did its job and I was grateful yet again for Scottish hospitality. While I was there, Graeme told me about the history of the place and the surrounding nature – fauna and flora. Oher hikers arrived to take a break, sip tea and they shared their hiking stories. It was quite pleasant and if I weren’t trying to reach Cannich by the end of the day, I might have stayed much longer.
I was off shortly after 10 am. The weather held and the sun made few shy appearances, however brief. The glen started to open up a little. Strawberry Cottage and Athnamulloch Bothy, then small hill and Loch Affric showed up. At that moment, my DSLR camera decided to stop working - error reading the memory card. Grrrrr. But that won’t keep me from enjoying the beautiful scenery of a small beach, small house with grassy roof…. and my phone takes OK pictures, so I guess I’m set. After a while along Loch Affric, the remnants of the original Caledonia pine forest started to show up (as Graeme told me). Trees carved and twisted up with age and wind. Slowly I was entering the forest (new growth) and the trek became a nice walk with occasional views of the Loch. Easy going, but after a while it gets a little bit monotonous. The view of Affric Lodge on the loch broke the monotony of the forest for a while; a very nice place. Forest roads and easy walking took me all the way to Cannich campsite, which I reached around 7 pm. Tired and ready for a good night sleep.
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- Camban Bothy
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- Loch Affric
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- Affric Lodge
July 7th, 2019 - day 3The sun showed up! Unbelievable! The joy of packing a dry tent – truly dry, not just relatively dry!
I enjoyed a slow late morning, as I had only about 20 – 22 km to go today - coffee in the campsite café, charging my phone and writing postcards (yes, I still send postcards to family and friends). I only started around 11:15 am, fully filled on coffee and with charged phone.
The first 5 – 6 km were on a road. Not too busy, but I still had to listen for approaching cars. There was cut grass along the tarmac, but it was harder to walk on it than on the road. But it provided a safer place to let cars pass. After this first stretch, the path changed into forest utility roads. It was a lovely forest walk. In itself lovely, but compared with the beginning, with the rugged wild munroes, it became monotone and kind of boring (as the guy running the Cannich campsite said). The road offered some nice views here and there, especially closer I got to Drumnadrochit. Due to logging the area, part of the AKW was closed and I was diverted via local hiking paths. At least those turned from hash utility roads to forest footpaths, which gave my feet some break. I reached Drumnadrochit around 16:20. Given my DSLR wasn’t working, I decided to take a bus to Inverness and camp there. I had enough time to enjoy a celebratory cake and tea, before the evening bus (5:18 pm) came and took me along Loch Ness to the north. So another trek done, but so many places to still visit and hike.
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- near Milton
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- Loch Ness in the distance
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- Drumnadrochit
My photo video:
