Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 4, day 4 - Rowardennan to Bridge of Orchy

West Highland Way - day 2

Distance: 52.89km (total so far 1070.32km)

Total climb: 1347m (total so far 19,122m)

Steps: 56,835 (total so far 1,276,258)

Day 1 of the WHW was by way of a quiet introduction - today and tomorrow the distance and height cranked up. However, the hardest bit of today had nothing to do with height.

We reluctantly left our nice hostel behind, and headed up the shore of Loch Lomond to the top. However, the path was not the nice straightforward path we'd had on day one - this one climbed up and down rocks, round tree roots, all nicely deep in mud after the night's rain.

We'd also  been warned once again that there was no way of getting a minibus onto our route before 22km - and that was an hour and a half's drive from Rowardennan hostel due to the road routes that were available.

It took me more than five hours to do those 22km - just constant climbing and descending. It was like a 5 hour whole-body workout. We past a few walking the route the other way in full packs, for which much credit - and a few who had clearly had enough by about 11am and were pitching their tents already! One assumes that whoever sung the Loch Lomond song had arranged to meet his true love somewhere on the west side rather than where we were, or they'd never have found each other.

The most surreal moment of the morning was the guy coming the other way with a big mountain bike. He must have been lugging it up and down the rocks for for the previous few km - I didn't have the heart to tell him he had a lot more to go. I also didn't try and take a photo - his face suggested that whoever had told him that you could ride the WHW had a lot to answer for!

We finally escaped from Loch Lomond,  and climbed out towards the first feedstation of the day. Technically this was elevenses - as it turned out, it was nearer 1pm after 6 hours going that I got there. I ate my weight in cereal bars, grabbed several more and set out towards lunch.

For the next part of the route, we were following the contours up the valley, slowly climbing up the side of the hill. It made a pleasant change after the morning's climbing.

We eventually climbed up over into the next valley, which would have been beautiful apart from the Forestry Commission, who had decided that this was the next part that needed to be cut down and replanted. I know its only a form of farming, but it does leave rather a post-apocalyptic look to the area.

And so to lunch, at about 3pm! I needed it by then.

There were still 15km to do after lunch - not a huge distance, but the morning had drained a lot out of me, so I was content to walk along and watch the world. We passed Tyndrum, which we'd visited on our way to the Outer Hebrides 18 months ago. We saw some nice wood-carving (chainsaw carving in this case!) on the way out, created just for the pleasure of those going past.

Then it was up again on our second big climb of the day as we headed up the valley towards Bridge of Orchy.

My feet were starting to hurt now after a couple of days of solid pounding in trail shoes, but the path was fairly kind once we were over the main hill, and it was just a question of finishing off the distance to the Bridge of Orchy.

Song of the day: "These boots are made for walking" by Nancy Sinatra. Unfortunately, my trail shoes weren't. Ow.

Last: West Highland Way - day 1

Next: West Highland Way - day 3