Captain's Log

Forest Walk

My flat wildcamp pitch in the woods above Drumnadrochit hadn’t turned out to be that flat. A couple of times during the night I had to inch my way back up my sleeping bag like a large caterpillar. It was a cold morning and I packed up my gear quickly so that I could get moving and generate some heat into my body. 

Today’s walk would be my last on the Great Glen Way. It would be around 17 miles and take me to the finish line in Inverness. Yesterday’s walk had been less than 4 miles and so I was keen to click some miles again. I’d  already cracked most of the ascent up the hill from Drumnadrochit on yesterday’s walk and so it was a reasonably easy start. I joined a forestry road and after a few minutes this brought me to a viewpoint with a bench. It was a reasonable view down to Loch Ness, but some trees had grown to block the perfect shot. The place wouldn’t have made a bad wildcamping spot if somebody hadn’t built a fire pit on its flattest bit. I sat down on the bench, brewed some tea and ate some muesli. The sun was out, but there was still a nip in the air. 

The High Route

I continued along the forestry road, the trees blocking any opportunity of seeing Loch Ness. I finally came to a junction and an information board told me that there was now a High and a Low Route option. Only the Low Route option was described in myTrailblazer Guide and so I guess the High Route must have been a fairly recent addition. The board said that the Low Route followed forestry roads and the high route used tracks and went over the summit of Carn na Leitire (434m). The High Route had three viewpoint icons on the OS map, whilst the Low Route had none. It seemed a bit of a no-brainer really and so I set off on the High Route. It was a good decision, because for most of the route the path was out of the forest and offered good views of the surrounding landscape. I was soon standing next to the summit cairn of Carn na Leitre admiring the panoramic views. Rather bizarrely, despite the apparent remote location, I could hear some children shouting. 

I dropped down from the summit and entered the forest again. The path levelled out and as I turned a corner in the path a rather odd spectacle greeted me. There was a large wig-wam type structure that was thatched. Not only that, but I seemed to have stumbled across some performance art with a young boy and an older girl as participants. Their play had the theme of Braveheart, Marvel heroes and pantomime about it. Fair play to the actors though, they didn’t break character and continued the performance as I ghosted across their stage. I then came to Jamie & Richard’s Gym where all the equipment was made out of wood. Presumably they wore gloves to prevent them getting splinters. I came across some buildings and a notice said that the facilities were for a charity (www.abriachan.org.uk) that managed the area and provided paths, bike trails…and activities for kids. On the other side of the buildings I met up with the Low Route and I followed a stone road towards Inverness. 

Abrachan Eco-Campsite Cafe

There is a dearth of facilities along the long  stretch from Drumnadrochit to Inverness. The exception is the Abriachan Eco Café. The trailside advertisements for the place looked a little bizarre. My Trailblazer description of the venue seemed to emphasise the quirkiness as a positive feature. I’d seen a couple of YouTubes taken at the cafe that made the place look a bit like Colonel Kurtz’ hideout in Apocalypse Now. During the planning stage, I’d decided to include it on my itinerary until I stumbled across its Tripadvisor rating of 3.5 (out of 5) for 104 reviews. I drilled down to see why it was so low and found that 24 reviews (almost a quarter) had given the place a 1.  I’m one for thinking that you need to view any review with perspective since some people’s expectations may be different to yours. I would have given it a try, but it hadn’t been long since I’d had my breakfast and so I decided to give it a miss. 

Auf Wiedersehen

After a while I joined tarmac and I started to follow the single track road. And I followed it, and followed it, and followed it. It seemed to go on forever. It did pass a few houses and the occasional car drove by to provide some excitement. Even when it cleared the forest and the views opened up, it still felt tedious. I got excited at one point when I saw the bright headlamp of a motorcyclist approaching in the far distance, but the rider stopped, turned around and zoomed off. Nothing much happened along that road. 

Eventually the Great Glen Way branched away from the road onto a grit track. This was better walking than on tarmac, but the straightness of the trail wasn’t very motivating; I didn’t seem to be making much progress. The straight path remained straight as it entered a forest. I came across some wildcamp pitches which were useful to know if I came this way again. I started coming across walkers, joggers and cyclists. I got the feeling that Inverness couldn’t be that far away. I started getting glimpses of the Morary Firth through the trees to my left. I came to a small reservoir and then was surprised to find myself on the top of a hill with a wonderful open view over Inverness. Not only that but Krik and Leah, the German couple who I’d met previously on the trail, were sitting down on the grass nearby, enjoying the sunshine and having lunch.   

I went up to them and accused them both of cheating.
‘How did you get here so quickly? I set off early this morning and you didn’t pass me. Have you cheated?’ I asked. I probably shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. They explained that when I’d seen them yesterday in the woods above Drumnadrochit, they were compleing an out-and-back along the trail to knock off some miles along the trail. They’d taken a taxi from Drumnadrochit this morning to the turnaround point they’d reached and started their day's walk from there.
‘And you; how have you got here so fast?’ asked Leah. ‘Have you got hover boots on?’
I showed them my boots so that they could check them for any mechanical assistance I might have installed.
‘All the miles I’ve done today, I’ve completed with my own blood, sweat and tears’ I insisted. I said that it had been tough today along that long straight road and woodland track. They agreed and reiterated their view that there were too many trees on this trail. They said that they would stay in Inverness tomorrow to do some sightseeing before flying back to Germany the day after. I left them to have their lunch. They had been a lovely couple to chat to on the trail.
'Auf wiedersehen' I called as I set off. 

Inverness

The trail took me downhill and into a housing estate. I thought that route finding might be difficult on this section through Inverness, but I found it to be well signed. As long as I kept a canny eye out for the signs I couldn’t go wrong. The path flattened out and I ended up on the side of the Caledonian Canal. I’d not seen the canal since Fort August, three days ago. It was like seeing an old friend again. I thought back to where I’d joined the canal at Caol around 70 miles away. It seemed a long way away. I crossed the canal on a road swing bridge and entered a park area. There were so many people that it felt claustrophobic. Cars were circling for car parking spaces, cyclists weaved in and out of pedestrians and kids screamed and ran in all directions. Inverness seemed a very popular place. I’d been so long away from civilisation on my West Highland Way and Great Glen Way Ventures that I hadn’t realised that today was VE Day and also a Bank Holiday. The trail followed a pretty path alongside the River Ness, crossing to the other side via the Ness Islands. I headed northwards along the bank to the river centre. The cathedral came into view on the other side of the river. Before reaching the road bridge, the Great Glen Way diverted away from the river and up along the pavement of a minor road. The finish point of the trail should have been around here somewhere but I couldn’t see any sign of the stone monument that signified its end. In frustration, I asked a traffic warden if he knew the whereabouts of the finish.
‘It might be behind that builder’s fence there.’ Some construction work was going on and the builders had blocked off a section of the land with a metal grid fence. I looked through the fence, but couldn’t see anything. How frustrating! As I was pondering what to do next, I glanced over the top of a stone retaining wall running alongside the pavement. Laid down in the grass like a gravestone slab was the Great Glen Way start/finish monument. The contractors had seemingly dumped it to one side as they put up their security fence. I climbed up the stone wall and onto the grass to get a better picture of it. I touched the face of the slab and smiled. I’d officially completed the Great Glen Way. I looked across the road at the crowded beer garden of a pub. Some people were looking across at me as though a madman was stalking the Inverness streets. I climbed down the stone wall and headed off to my hotel.  

It seemed like a long last day on the Great Glen Way. I did get a good view of Loch Ness early in the morning, but then the trail drifted away from it. Once I left the Carn na Leitire summit, the trail became less interesting with long, straight stretches of road walking and forestry trails. The final section into Inverness was much prettier and interesting than I thought it would be. 

I’d really enjoyed the Great Glen Way. It provided such a contrast with the busy West Highland Way. I liked its solitude, remoteness and the opportunity to wildcamp along the route. There were some sections of monotonous forestry trails, towpaths, and also that unending plod along the route of the old railway line along Loch Oich, but these made the exceptional bits seem even better. The view of the straight line of Loch Ness from the High Route between Fort Augustus and Invermoriston must be one of the most incredible views in the British Isles.