Captain's Log

Glen Nevis

I’d effectively finished the West Highland Way when I completed my walk from Kinlochleven to Glen Nevis a couple of days ago. I’d made the diversion to the Glen Nevis campsite so that it gave me a base to climb Ben Nevis (see Ben Nevis Tourist Route). Today I would be officially completing the West Highland Way by making my way to Gordon Square in Fort William where the statue of the weary walker is massaging his foot. It was just over 2.5 miles and so wouldn’t take long. I would then resupply my provisions before commencing the Great Glen Way which starts at the location of the old fort in Fort William. 

By some miracle, my departure from the Glen Nevis campsite coincided with the opening of the campsite snack bar. This happened yesterday too as I set off to conquer Ben Nevis. I’d purchased an egg bap that upon investigation proved to be yokeless. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again and so I ordered a vegetarian sausage bap this time. It was an extra £1, but I figured there would be less things that could be wrong with it. Fuelled up, I exited the campsite and started heading along the roadside pavement towards Fort William. 

It wasn’t the most interesting walk alongside the road. There wasn’t that much traffic, but there was enough for it to be annoying. The official finish of the West Highland Way used to be at the roundabout at the end of Glen Nevis, but eventually they gave it the finish it deserved at Gordon Square on the main high street in Fort William. I came to Samuel’s Stone (or Wishing Stone) which was a very large boulder just at the side of the pavement. This is an erratic stone that was deposited during the ice age. By a remarkable coincidence it also marks the spot where Samuel (Sliochd Shomhairie Ruaidh), the chief of the Camerons of Glen Nevis, won a battle with a rival clan. It is said that at certain times of the year, the stone turns three times and anyone who finds it in motion will receive answers to any questions they ask. Believe it or not, it was twirling around when I arrived.
‘Why was my egg bap yokeless at the Glen Nevis campsite?’ I asked.
I nearly jumped out of my skin, when a booming voice replied ‘Because the eggs didn’t have any yolk.’ It begged a follow up question, but it wasn’t twirling anymore. 

Cow Hill

II was getting a little tired of the noise of the traffic and so when I saw a fingerpost pointing to Fort William on a trail that was away from the road, I decided it would be worth giving it a try. It went across a carpark and started following an elevated route above the road on the flanks of Cow Hill. This was much more preferable. At a later date, when reading my Trailblazer West Highland Way guide, I noted that it did describe this pathway as a better route to the finish. Once the path cleared the surrounding trees, it offered an excellent view of Loch Eil. I could also see along the Great Glen too. The path eventually dropped down through the trees and I found myself in the outskirts of Fort William. It wasn’t long before I was trotting along the pedestrianised high street of the town. The end of the West Highland Way was in sight. 

West Highland Way Finish

It was still early and so there weren’t that many people pottering about. The high street was pretty much as I remembered it. Rather bizarrely there is a bronze statue of a Model T Ford halfway along it. This is to commemorate the Jeremey Clarkson of his day (Henry Alexander of Edinburgh) who drove a Model T from here to the top of Ben Nevis, before returning 9 days later. Given that yesterday it took me 4 hours to walk up and 2 to walk down, I think I’d have suggested to the petrolhead a quicker means of getting to the top, if I’d been around at the time. A nearby plaque says that in 2011 77 stalwarts (their word, not mine) carried the components of a 1911 car to the summit, where they assembled it in a snowstorm. Like people who insist on carrying a washing machine on their back during the Great North Run, I don’t really understand why. Maybe I should have returned to the Wishing Stone to ask the question, but I’d guess it would have just obfuscated the answer again. 

I thought I’d walked past the official West Highland Way finish, since the High Street was coming to an end, but then I saw the Weatherspoons that you see on all the West Highland Way YouTubes and so realised that I hadn’t. An old man and a young woman were chatting at the statue of the weary walker. The man sat on the bench next to the statue. He offered to move as I took photos, but I told him that it didn’t matter. I touched the top of his bald head…the statue’s, not the old man’s, officially completing my West Highland Way Venture, 38 years after walking it for the first time. A sobering thought crossed my mind that if I do it again after another 38 years, somebody will have to carry me in a coffin. 

I chatted to the old man and he told me he was waiting to catch the ferry across Loch Linnhe. He was going to have a go at the Cape Wrath path.
‘I don’t know how far I’ll get, but I’m going to give it a go’ he told me enthusiastically. He looked about 70. Fair play to him. He wandered off to get some provisions before his departure. The woman who was waiting at the bench had finished the West Highland Way yesterday. She was Finnish and was going to be flying back home today.
‘What did you think of the trail?’ I asked her.
‘I loved it. I thought it was wonderful,’ she replied. I agreed with her. The scenery along the trail had been stunning and given the number of foreign walkers, it had felt more like an international trek. 

As one Venture finishes, another one commences and my mind turned to the Great Glen Way. My Trailblazer guide indicated that the start was at the old fort at the other end of town although my Plotaroute trail map gave it as the Crannog Seafood Restaurant, just across the road from here on the side of Loch Linnhe. I think the Trailblazer guide had the hint of truth about it, but  decided to cover all bases and I nipped down to the shore side anyway. I didn’t find any marker signifying the start of the Great Glen Way, but I did find some lovely views over the loch. The cruise boat, Hebridean Princess was moored out in the loch. I had a look at its website and it claimed to have a ‘...truly home from home’ experience. To be honest, if I was spending £7,500 on a week-long ‘Secrets of the Highlands & Islands’ cruise, I’d want to experience something a bit different from my home. I wondered if they’d be going along the Caledonian Canal, because that was where I was heading now. I set off on my Great Glen Way Venture. .