On the Way to Stornoway

I didn't have to do this leg at all. The idea of this thing is to be able to say that I have walked every step of the way from my house in Islington to my mum's in Stornoway. It doesn't really have to be in sequence, though that is more satisfying.  And I have already done one small section out of sequence when I plugged the Hathersage to Edale gap. I don't have to do this because I have done it before. More than once in fact. The first time was when my mum walked The West Highland Way and I met up with her in Glencoe to walk with her for the final day. Some years later I was on a winter meet with the London Mountaineering Club and did it again.  And a year or so ago I went from Kinlochleven, up the West Highland way for a spell before branching off to climb up and over the Mamore ridge and then down into Glen Nevis.

As I have not got it together to sort a map out and the last few stages have been recognised bits of the West Highland Way (and because the streetmap page I linked in the comments did not work properly) I thought I would put in a link to the West Highland Way.

I joined the Way in Crianlarich,  walked to Tyndrum,
then from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy.
From Bridge of Orchy I walked to Kingshouse (Glencoe)
and from Kingshouse to Kinlochleven.
Finally I walked from Kinlochleven to Fort William though I have not posted that section at the time of writing this.

Maps of all these sections can be seen here: http://www.walkinginscotland.org/westhighlandwaymaps.html

Hope that helps.

No rush to get up at all today as I am right on my route and it is a short day. Kingshouse has turned out to be comfortable if a bit shabby, but at £30.00 for a double room with a great veiw of the Buchaille and an en suite bath to soak in last night I am not complaining.  The £30 does not include breakfast but I have promised myself I will get a cooked breakfast. But when I go down to the dining room and see the prices my innate meanness kicks in and I sneak back upstairs to breakfast on hot-cross buns and tea, as I watch a deer in the little patch of forestry in front of the hotel.

It is January the fifth and I step off the train to a very different Bridge of Orchy to the one I left two months ago. The sleeper service pulls out as I leave, headed north, the way I have come from.  There is some snow on the ground and much more on the hills but what is coming down is more like sleet drizzle.

Not such a leisurely start today although the leg should be easy and almost as short as yesterday. However, I have a train to catch at around mid-day. My ticket, bought long ago before the shin splints erupted is from Corrour, which at one point I had hoped to get to by now. However that plan has been abandoned and I am pretty much committed to go up the west, rather than the east, of Rannoch moor now. Less exciting but easier to bail if the splints flare up. Anyway, I can catch my scheduled train from Bridge of Orchy. I should have plenty of time, but if I miss it I will be buggered as I will not then be able to get to Glasgow to catch the connecting train I am booked on.

A nice short, easy day today. I am looking forward to it until I look out of the hostel window and see it had been raining. Weather has been a subject for much discussion. The hostellers of Crianlarich are in great contrast to the tourists and BT engineers of Stirling. Apart from me they all seem to be Munro baggers and the forcast is for rain and high winds on the tops. Not that it seems to have put anyone off. There are not even any other West Highland Way walkers which is a bit surprising. But Crianlarich is surrounded by appealing Munros (mountains over 3000 feet) none of which, as it happens, I have climbed.

Up earlier than I would really like because there is only one bus I can get to Callander to link up with the little bus to Kingshouse, or else I will have to wait two hours. The BT engineer has a day off so does not wake me with his teeth brushing, which is a plus, but on the other hand I don't have time to stop for a cappucino in the Burgh Coffee house, having to make do with a paper cup of tea in the bus station cafe.