Captain's Log

Loch Oich

I woke up a couple of times last night and found it to be cold. I wasn’t too surprised to find the tent outer saturated. I shook it like a madman but still had to pack away a fairly wet tent and this made my rucksack feel a bit heavier. It was a grey morning with the threat of a shower in the air. Nobody else had camped at the Leitirfearn wilcamp site. It was a shame about the 70 degree toilet facility though. Today’s walk would see the last of Loch Oich. I’d then follow a stretch of the Caledonian Canal to Fort Augustus where I hoped to resupply. The village is at the southern end of the 22.5 mile long Loch Ness, the final loch I needed to tick off to complete the Great Glen Way. I’d then follow the high level route to Invermoriston, a section that promised exceptional views along Loch Ness. The day would end with a climb up into a forest where I’d wildcamp. It was going to be a long day with quite a bit of ascent and descent too. The Great Glen Way had been surprisingly easy so far and I was way ahead of schedule; maybe today it would get more difficult.

Yesterday’s stretch along the line of the old railway had been a tad tedious. It had been long, straight and the views had been partially blocked by the surrounding trees. Thankfully, I’d completed the majority of the trail along Loch Oich and only had a little over a mile to get to the end. It felt just as tedious as the first stretch, but I got there in the end. The trail took me around the end of the loch where there was a tremendous view back along it. The canal headed off away from the loch and I followed it along its towpath.

Cullochy And Kytra Locks

I walked up to the road swing bridge across the canal. I thought about going across the swing bridge to have a look at the Bridge of Oich on the other side, but there was no pedestrian footpath on the bridge and it looked a bit of a squeeze with oncoming vehicles. It was a shame really since the Bridge of Oich is quite unusual being a taper suspension bridge. Normal suspension bridges have cables stretched across both supporting towers, from which connected vertical cables support the deck. A taper suspension bridge is a combination of a cantilever and suspension bridge. Each tower effectively only supports its side of the bridge. The bridge is also unusual in that Thomas Telford didn’t build it; he seemed to have his finger in most of the civil engineering pies around here. It was designed by James Dredge and was opened in 1854. 

The trail continued to follow the towpath of the Caledonian Canal. I could see the River Oich over to my left. I reached the Cullochy Lock and crossed to the other side of the canal. It was good to lose the trees that had blocked my view when walking along Loch Oich. It wasn’t long before I approached Kytra Lock. This was the location of another Trailblazer wildcamp site. I had planned to use it as my destination camping spot on my third day. Given that this was my third day and it wasn’t even 10:00, gave an indication of how far ahead I was in my schedule. I would have to give some serious thought about how to reschedule the rest of the trail. Some contractors were doing some work around the lock and so I didn’t linger. It seemed like a long stretch along the towpath, although it was quite pretty. A couple of boats made their way up the canal towards Loch Oich. One crew returned my waves and the other didn’t. A couple of joggers came towards me and I figured I must be approaching Fort Augustus. A dog walker strolled by and then I started seeing buildings. I’d found civilisation at last. 

Fort Augustus

I wondered whether I really wanted to find civilisation as I entered the village. After two days of solitary walking it seemed unnatural to be suddenly surrounded by so many tourists. Most were watching two boats progress their way through the locks. I chose Ripples Tearoom as a fuel stop simply because it was the first one I came across as I walked along the canal. I had a coffee and a cheese scone and people watched for a while. The majority were tourists, but I also saw a handful of cyclists. There were no thru-hikers in evidence. It seems odd to me that the Great Glen Way doesn’t seem more popular with walkers.

There was a plethora of cafes and gift shops as I made my way down the towpath. All of the gift shops had some sort of Nessie cuddly toy or trinket displayed in their windows. I reached the A82 and crossed the canal and then the River Oich. A Spar was on the other side of the river and I stocked up on provisions. Fort Augustus seemed far too busy to me and it felt claustrophobic. There was a huge carpark and I dreaded to imagine what the village would be like when that became full. It was pretty enough, but I wasn’t disappointed to head out of the other side and enter the stillness of the forest. 

The High Route

Just after Fort Augustus there was a choice of paths on the Great Glen Way: the High Route and the Low Route. I don’t really see much merit in doing the low route, unless the weather is exceptionally bad, or you want to stay at the Inver Coille campsite. I’ve not walked the route, but the OS map shows that it  follows a forestry road and so views must be restricted. I would certainly recommend the High Level route though. This goes above the forest and so you get unrestricted views along Loch Ness and of the surrounding landscape. It was only about 250m of ascent to get above the trees and it wasn’t particularly difficult. I found a German couple resting at the top. We started chatting and I found out that they were walking the Great Glen Way to Inverness too, although they were staying in hotels and B&Bs. They were a very pleasant couple and our paths would cross a few times on the rest of our journey to Inverness. The man was called Krik (not a spelling mistake - the 'i' does come after the 'r') and the woman Leah. They hadn’t been that impressed by the Great Glen Way so far. Having done the West Highland Way a few years before, they were expecting something similar.
‘There are too many trees and forestry roads’ moaned Krik. I could see his point, but I saw it as a different kind of beauty. As we chatted he was quite intrigued at my pronunciation of Drumnadrochit, my destination for tomorrow. He had a couple of goes at pronouncing it but couldn’t do it. He told me an anecdote of when they were recently touring in Ireland and wanted to take a taxi to a village with a Gaelic unpronounceable name. Before setting out they asked their hotel receptionist how to pronounce it so that there wouldn’t be any confusion with the taxi driver.
‘Oh, just tell him you want to go to Big Banana and he’ll know where you mean’ said the receptionist. That’s what they did and the taxi driver didn’t even question it and took them to their intended destination. I wondered if I could use a similar technique with the pronunciation of Drumnadrochit, but I couldn’t think of anything.   

The High Route was marvellous. The views along the straight line of Loch Ness were incredible. This geological fault seems remarkable when you see it from this elevated position. Looking back, I could see where I’d come from, beyond Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. It looked a very long way. Even though the trail was relatively high, the path was good and I made quick progress. In fact, the High Route seemed to pass too quick really. It would have been wonderful if the Great Glen Way had continued like this to Inverness. Sadly though, Invermoriston was nestled in Glen Moriston, heading northwest from Loch Ness and the trail had to drop down to cross it. It was quite a steep drop too and my legs could tell that they’d not attended to a steep descent for a while. I was soon down though and made my way towards the village. 

Invermoriston

Invermoriston would be quite a pretty place if it wasn’t for the traffic. I crossed the A82 road bridge over the River Moriston. Views of the river and waterfalls on either side of the bridge were excellent. I made a short detour to visit the old bridge. It was built…yes, you guessed it…by Thomas Telford. General Wade had built his military road on the other side of Loch Ness to avoid the many river crossings. Telford chose the west shore to connect the communities. It took 8 years to build, the delay being caused by ‘idle workers’ and a ‘languid and inattentive contractor’. Yes, we’ve all come across them. It was a twin arched bridge and provided a great platform to view the waterfalls.       

I walked to the junction of the A82 with the A887. There was a small shop with a seat outside and I stopped to buy a drink and have a break. There was so much traffic it felt disorientating. I was eager to move on and get away from the noise and so I drank quickly.   

I headed up a steep road out of the village. This turned into a forestry track and the world became quieter again. There was an option to do a High Level or a Low Level route again. Since I’d gained quite a bit of height and the Low Level route descended back down towards the busy A82, I couldn't really see much merit in taking the lower option. I turned left onto the High Route.   

I came across a young girl thru-hiking the other way. This was her second day from Inverness and she was having a problem with one of her knees. She didn’t want to book a hotel in Invermoriston because of the cost. I told her  that I’d not seen any obvious wildcamp spots on the High Route to Fort Augustus. She said that she was thinking about heading to the Inver Coille campsite tonight on the Low Route and then backtrack to get on the High Route tomorrow. I left her to hobble downwards.    

Allt Saigh

The track delivered me to the Viewcatcher sculpture. This was quite an interesting piece that consisted of branches of Caledonian Pine woven into a circle and placed on a stone plinth. The idea is that you look through it and it ‘catches the views’ of the Munros north of Loch Cluanie. It seemed a little unfocussed today though due to the greyness. 

I was high up again now. Trees and a couple of small hills blocked any chance of a view to Loch Ness. I entered the forestry plantation and came across the Allt Saigh and filtered water into my bottles. Just beyond there I found a suitable wildcamp spot and started to pitch my tent. As I was getting organised, Billy and Luke wandered up. I’d not seen them since the start of Loch Lochy. They’d camped at Kytra Lock last night. Somehow, I'd managed to overtake them today. Maybe they’d lingered longer in Fort Augustus. They wanted to get more miles under their belt and would find a wildcamp spot further on. I bid them farewell. I didn’t see them again, but presume they made it all the way to Inverness.    

It had been a long day on the Great Glen Way. Fort Augustus had arrived as a bit of a culture shock, but the high level route between there and Invermoriston was exceptional. That view of the straight line of Loch Ness  will remain in my memory forever. It was nice to give my legs a stretch the with ascent and descent too.