west highland way June 2011

[nzt2011]

Finally...I walked the West Highland Way! After a 25 year wait, rucksack sorted, tent packed for wild camping, boots walked in after a few munros and some hills....only I forgot about the pressure of a fully laden rucksack on the feet! Had a magic 7 days, met some great people, weather was just about as good as it gets and great company!

Hope you enjoy the pictures...really need to get a better camera than my point and shoot, doesn't do it justice!

In the beginning...

Drymen bound

Loch Lomond

View from the tent day 2

Doune Bay

loch lomond

glass loch

view from the tent day 3

To Bridge of Orchy, Bhein Dorain

Inveroran, view from the tent

Rannoch Moor

say no more...

North from Kingshouse

The Buchil

Top of the Devil's Staircase

Late charge to Nevis Forest for the night. Leaving Kinlochleven

stob ban if my map reading's any good?

Fort William in sight

Know how you feel big man

[Paul Webster]

Good pics - 25 years was a long wait though, what happened?

[nzt2011]

Thanks Paul...just the usual shennanigans growing up and only got into walking this year after playing golf and football. So decided to get the rucksack on and do it Will be on the to-do list for next year as well.

[campbellrc]

bet it was worth it after the long wait and the pictures a good to for a point and shoot one

[erin_niamh]

looks good & great photos! doing it myself for the first time next month. cant wait, looking to your photos makes me more excited!

[RyanneKelso]

Hi! I am 17 years old and I live in Hawaii. I am used to walking everywhere I need to go but its never more than a couple miles. I have always loved camping and hiking and I have made it my goal to do this walk in the summer of 2015. What do you recommend I should do to prepare for it?

[MattyAnderson]

Hi! I am 17 years old and I live in Hawaii. I am used to walking everywhere I need to go but its never more than a couple miles. I have always loved camping and hiking and I have made it my goal to do this walk in the summer of 2015. What do you recommend I should do to prepare for it?

I did this with my mate last October when we were 16 - see our report "Milgavnie to Inverness via the Ben". As long as your are reasonably fit and your boots are comfortable and fit well you will be OK. The thing about doing this walk in the summer are the midges which if the weather is right will be intolerable We discovered "smidge" this year which does stop them biting but it wont stop you eating them when you breath or not being able see for clouds of them or having big midge bogys at the end of day You can get "smidge" in tescos (thats where we buy our groceries)

You will also need a good map and navigational skills - most of the walk is on very well trodden paths so you wont get lost on the remote bits but we were constantly geographically challenged when ever we hit a town or village.

I read "The Hills Are Stuffed with Swedish Girls" by Richard Happer which is good if you are young and doing this walk.

When we did it in October we met loads of people (including Leonardo! ) and everybody is so friendly. You can either camp wild or do bunkhouses or stay at hotels and bed and breakfasts and there are so many of them as long as you have done your research on how far to walk each day its easy enough to work out. You can even arrange for somebody to carry your big stuff between bases so you only need walk with a day sack but if you are young and fit and do some practice walking with a full pack carrying your own bag will be no problem.

It is a great walk to do and one I would easily do again...well from Milgavnie to Fort William anyway.

[Checkout]

Nearly 2 years later but these are still great pictures and a real inspiration for me to get off this couch and get out there so I am planning to do "the Way" in May - no, not because it rhymes, because those pesky little bloodsuckers (midges) are hopefully not quite so active. I am not one of those people who do "the Way" in as a test of endurance, not me, I like to enjoy my walking and will probably look to do this over 5 days.

[Venneberg]

Heey,
Great post and very inspiring.
I plan to walk the west highland way in June this year, 2013 and I plan to do wild camping.
As I can see you did that as well I was wondering if you could share some of your experience with that? And how is the rules with wild camping, can you set up your tent where ever you want?