This year a group of eight hardy expeditioners from Aberystwyth headed to Scotland to prepare themselves for their summer trip to Sweden. After a big breakfast in the Upper Limit cafe, we were on the road. After a long day in the bus we arrived in Fort William just after 8pm. After a quick visit to McDonalds, we set out to find a spot to camp.
We pitched the tents alongside a river, where we thought we were out of sight, but as we had pitched in the dark, we didn’t realise how close we were to a road until we saw some cars driving past. Still, we stayed the night, and after a quick trip back to the bus in the morning we set out on the expedition in the pouring rain. We started climbing a very wet slippery bogy slope straight away, which was hard work and not much fun for anyone. It would have been good fun coming back down the other way, mudslides would have been key. Anyway, we carried on up the valley in the wind and rain, and Hugo managed to rip his brand new waterproof jacket, which understandably left him feeling slightly irritated. James was struggling with his knee which was causing him pain, so we stopped for a lunch break in a fairly exposed location. I set the Jetboil up, although I forgot to remove the plastic cover which fits over the bottom of the pan, and so I managed to melt a big hole in the plastic. Unfortunately the strong wind rendered the Jetboil fairly useless, so I had to use lukewarm water in my Travellunch meal, which resulted in my pasta being rather crunchy to say the least.
We carried on in the foul weather and descended to a sharp ridge, before continuing our descent to the West Highland Way. After filling up on water from the river, we took a wrong turn, but still made our way to Kinlochleven where we found a campsite complete with drying room. It was decided unanimously that we’d stay the night there, so after a brief trip to the Co-Op we booked into the campsite and pitched tents.
After filling the drying room with our soaking kit, we set about cooking dinner under the covered cooking area. I had a Wayfarer Chicken Tika Masala meal, which was lovely, although a lot of it ended up on my face rather than in my mouth.
After dinner, we had another look at the maps and decided on a route for the next day which would take us to a mountain bothy where we could hopefully spend the night.
It must have rained all night, but fortunately by the time we got up the next day it had stopped raining. James had decided to leave us due to his bad knee, so after missing the first bus to Fort William he managed to catch another bus. We ended up leaving camp at 11am, and started heading east up the valley. We found a small creature that had been stabbed in the back with a walking pole, meaning Alice was the prime suspect.
As the time approached 1pm, we were confronted with a large river to cross, in which I managed to loose my walking pole. Fergal manned up to the task and waded across, and we managed to rig up our rope between two trees on either side of the river and use it to pull the bags across. Whilst Hugo, Mears and Fergal moved the bags, I tucked into a cold Wayfarer meal for lunch, which as you probably guessed, I didn’t enjoy very much. The rest of us then headed up the hillside in search of a easier point to cross the river. Myself and Hugo managed to cross without getting our feet in the water, the others did a bit of wading. We headed back down the hill to our bags, and whilst some people stopped and tried to dry their boots and feet, others eat lunch. It was now about 3pm, so after spending nearly two hours crossing the river we needed to get going.
Although I had managed to avoid getting my feet in water when crossing the river, my boots were turning out to be completely useless at keeping out the water, and so my feet were soaking, and as a result, quite painful. I just wanted to get to the bothy where I could take my boots off. We came across a broken bridge, which we decided to risk climbing across. Then we finally reached the reservoir at the top of the valley which was incredibly full, which considering the amount of water around wasn’t that surprising.
There had been some doubt as to the existence of the both, since it was marked on one map but not the other, so we were quite relieved when we finally saw it in front of us. It was a lovely bothy, although we were disappointed that there wasn’t much wood around to set a fire. Still, we managed to find just enough to set a fire going and to try and dry some boots and socks.
It was a cold night in the bothy, and we woke the next morning to find that Fergal’s bag had been attacked by a mouse and that the Steripen had gotten wet inside and wasn’t working, and as Fergal hadn’t bought the iodine, we had to purify water by boiling it.
We set off again in the pouring rain, and it wasn’t long before my feet were soaking again. The amount of water was incredible; the ground was just so wet. We stopped for lunch in a more sheltered location, where the Jetboil made an appearance, and I had Wayfarer Spicy Vegetable Rigatoni for lunch.
We spotted a building in the distance and discussed what it could be, and what the orange thing outside could be. We’re not sure what the building was, it looked like a bothy, but it wasn’t on my map. The orange thing however turned out to be the door.
We approached some ruins, and found an interesting arched tree alongside. Hugo said “I want to go to a land where its not raining”, and as he walked through, the rain stopped which was slightly freaky.
We carried on along the river and found a sweet island in the middle of the river where we camped for the night. We positioned our tent badly at first, and that resulted in it being attacked by the strong winds causing it to collapse several times, so we reluctantly got out and repositioned it.
Before we even managed to all get off the island and back on the path the next morning, we nearly lost another walking pole. Alice tried to throw one of hers across the river to me on the island, but she overshot the island and it landed in the river the other side. Myself and Mears jumped in trying to save it, but we weren’t quite fast enough. We all thought it was gone, but Fergal ran down the river a bit and eventually emerged with the pole in hand.
We carried on, and as we got closer to the road, the path got better and better, with proper bridges and beautiful scenery and waterfalls. There were lots of people around heading out into the mountains.
We eventually reached the road and marched the final few kilometres back to the bus, and finally the walking was over.
We headed into Fort William on the bus and hit Morrisons for some lunch, only to find a few minutes later that there was a market on in town with some lovely looking food available. We spent most of the afternoon checking out the shops in Fort William, before heading back to Kinlochleven where we decided to camp at the MacDonald Hotel. We pitched the tents and placed some gear in the very impressive drying room. Then, Hugo was challenged by Fergal to swim to an island in the middle of the Loch, in return for a free dinner. Hugo manned up to the task and completed the swim, and after a warm shower we all hit the hotel for dinner. The food was beautiful, and after consuming a few pints and a shot of Kabamo we headed to bed.
I hit the hotel for breakfast the next morning, which was very nice, just the job, and we managed to hit the road by 9am. We had a brief stop in the Co-Op, and then we were on our way. We stopped at Stirling at about midday, and Fergal and Bex visited the William Wallace memorial, while the rest of us hung out in the bus and stole Fergal’s sweets. The next stop was in Moffat where we paid a visit to the bakery, and I scoffed down a Scotch pie that was beautiful. I was considering buying a haggis, but I didn’t want to take it home on the warm bus, so I decided against it in the end.
A few games of I spy helped pass the time on the M6, and then we pulled into a services where the Jetboil came out for one last time, to cook Wayfarers and TravelLunch.
After a detour into Quensferry to find cheap fuel, we dropped Bex off in Chester, and then we began the final leg of the journey back to Aberystwyth. Fergal managed his first roadkill along the way when a pheasant slammed into the windscreen, which we thought was quite funny.
After hearing Fergal practice his singing on the way back into Aber, we emptied, cleaned and fuelled the bus before returning it and heading to Rummers for pizza and a pint – the perfect end to a week away.
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