We left Kinlochleven early in the morning because we knew we had a long day of hiking ahead of us. As expected, the weather had turned, and we ended up putting on rain coats and rain pants at many different times during the day.
Once we took off and crossed the river, we started our climb up on the other side of the river.
At this point, we really started encountering the dreaded Scottish midges (nasty little biting insects). Here is a photo of us batting the midges away from our eyes, nose and throat - and this was after we had totally sprayed ourselves with a "midge repellent."
Once we took off and crossed the river, we started our climb up on the other side of the river.
At this point, we really started encountering the dreaded Scottish midges (nasty little biting insects). Here is a photo of us batting the midges away from our eyes, nose and throat - and this was after we had totally sprayed ourselves with a "midge repellent."
This hiker had the right piece of equipment.
Luckily for us, once we got higher up, the midges weren't as bad.
The scenery, even with the gray drizzly skies, was beautiful.
It's hard to capture the colors in a photo, but the colors of the meadows were various shades of greens, purples and rust.
The last stage of the West Highland Trail is 15 miles, so we had to keep ourselves on pace if we wanted to reach Fort William by dinner time.
At several points in the hike, the rain came down steadily. At other points, we would once again shed our rain gear until the next shower moved through.
By the end of the afternoon, we had to just keep pushing ourselves. Finally, we descended into Fort William and reached the "end of our hike" at about 5:30 pm.
We then had to walk another mile to our evening accommodation. When it was all said and done, we put in a lot of steps for the day!
The next morning, we enjoyed a final breakfast together at the B&B before taking the train back to Glasgow where we parted ways for some separate travel plans back to Minneapolis.
At our breakfast, we wished Greg a Happy 70th Birthday! Our time in Scotland, concluding with completing part of the West Highland Way, was a great capstone to his 60s!
In fact, we got a kick out of this particular sign we saw several times in Scotland and just had to take a photo under it :-)
We've had a wonderful time learning a lot in Scotland as well as exploring the beautiful meadows, lochs, and glens. We are thankful for our friends and look forward to more adventures in the upcoming decade!
No comments:
Post a Comment