RyanneKelso wrote: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.
